be glad to when you post a pic of your catch.

Brando, if they were BF'd then they weren't _caught_, they were _shot_. MHO. Can't catch and release with a bow.

No more BFing mentions, please. Read the notice at the top of the thread.

yeah i know i was just stating that the all tackle record was 8ft and 290 is all i ment by it

Actually Brando, all tackle record is 302 on a trotline.

Nah, you don't have to go that far south. Last pic I posted was WAY north of Palestine. If you can get to the trinity more than a few miles south of dallas there will be big fish. All you have to do to find them is get away from the easy access. Pretty much IMO easy access= small fish.

If you do not know for sure let me clear it up for you:

Do they make a popping sound when they surface? If they do they are not gator gar. Gator gar make a flushing noise when they surface, you can tell them apart by sound alone and this applies at all sizes.

Once again that is : Pop=spotted or longnose
flush=gator gar

oh ok dawson didnt realize that and yeah i agree on the easy access spots being your smaller fish thats why i said just an hour or so from the dfw area

Townsend Miller was like the foremost gar angler back in the day he caught some unverified lumps...also just an all around fascinating dude...

here is a brief write up on him from TPWD...

Townsend Miller's 1954 longnose gar record still stands today.

By W. P. Meyer
Townsend Miller was certainly ahead of his time. He was a sportsman who supported gar fishing at a time when many considered gar a trash fish and gar anglers of disreputable heritage. He taught people to respect the fish that most thought was beneath contempt.

And yet he was a throwback, akin to Aristotle in his wide-ranging talents. Miller's passion was gar fishing, but he was clearly far from single-minded. He also was a writer, stockbroker, poet, critic, journalist, musician and Texan. His is a story worthy of a full-length biography.

Townsend Miller was born in 1919 in Gainesville, Texas. His passion for fishing, hunting, baseball and country music started early and continued throughout his life. He earned a journalism degree from North Texas State University. After graduating, he joined the Army Air Corps, serving as a navigator with the 487th Bomb Group of the 8th Army Air Force Division in western Europe during World War II.

The multi-talented Miller was best known as a columnist for the Austin American-Statesman. From 1972 to 1984, while also working as a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch, he produced two columns per week highlighting the city's unique brand of music. Though a traditional country music lover since his younger days spent listening to the Light Crust Doughboys, he was a tireless promoter of the growing progressive country scene. Many of the brightest lights of country music, including Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Marcia Ball and Doug Sahm, lauded Miller for his always-positive, always-active support.

Today, Townsend Miller is a name still connected with Texas country music. After his untimely death at age 69 in April of 1989, Miller was inducted into the Western Swing Hall of Fame. The Townsend Miller Collection of 8,000 recordings, files and photographs of country music artists is a "significant holding" of the University of Texas library. The Townsend Miller Memorial Fund, through the Kerrville Music Foundation, provides scholarships and awards to talented performers. Likewise, the Austin Community College Commercial Music Management Program offers a Townsend Miller scholarship.

However, when he set the longnose gar world record in July of 1954, Miller was serving as the editor of Texas Game and Fish, a precursor to Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. By then known as a master gar angler, he was even featured in the second issue of Sports Illustrated, dated August 23, 1954.

Townsend Miller was first prodded into gar fishing by a gar itself. As a small boy he was fishing one day, standing in water waist-deep, when a gar took his bait. He hauled back and backed up, too slowly it turns out, and the gar flew into Miller's belly. Big mistake for the gar, who is now akin to the bison that turned William Cody into Buffalo Bill. From that time on, Miller was captivated by gar fishing and landed hundreds of longnose and alligator gar. He called them "inland tarpon," as both gar and tarpon are bony-mouthed, armor-plated missiles prone to go airborne during a fight. Both are tough to hook; Miller only expected about half of those that bite to be hooked and a third of those hooked to be landed.

For years he fished the holes in the Trinity River between Grapeland and Crockett or Elm Fork of the Trinity near Gainesville. But he was not averse to going afield for gar, traveling to the White River in Arkansas to tangle with their 150-pounders. With longtime friend Jeff Krenek of Crockett, Miller mainly targeted monstrous alligator gar. He once caught a 7-foot 6-inch, 165-pound alligator gar.

Miller's world record, however, was an incredible longnose gar. This longnose gar, the biggest he had ever seen, stretched a staggering 6 feet 1/2 inch. Imagine the electricity of being ahold of over 72 inches of razor-wired fury. For many longnose gar anglers, a 50-inch fish is a once-in-a-lifetime trophy. Miller's world record bested that by almost two feet. Miller's catch, a 50-pound 5-ounce longnose, is a record that still stands today.

Taken in late July of 1954, the record longnose gar was caught while Miller was stillfishing in 20 feet of water. Miller typically used a heavy saltwater rod and reel, a 6/0 treble, a 6-foot steel leader, 70-pound test main line, and a heavy swivel. He cruised the river, watching for gar to surface, gulping air. Spying active fish, he anchored, then fished on the bottom with a 1-pound chunk of drum stuck on one barb of the treble, leaving the other two points free. On the free points, he crimped down the barb for better penetration of the gar's bony snout. Even using this rugged gear made for the bigger alligator gar, the record longnose took more than 15 minutes to land.

Gar fishing for the ever-active Miller was not always for sport. In September 1958 he headed a safari of sorts to South Texas to bag and bring back alive an alligator gar for display at the Fort Worth Zoo. Miller fished the Trinity aided by an intrepid team that included his 6-year-old son, Kent, friend Jeff Krenek, and zoo curator Lawrence Curtis. They eventually landed a "small" alligator gar of 148 pounds, stretching just shy of 7 feet long. Curtis, recognizing an audience-pleasing specimen, backed up the tank truck and the hefty gar was loaded in. Unfortunately the gar, stressed by the transport, only survived long enough to arrive at the zoo.

When the funds allow a Gar Anglers' Hall of Fame, Townsend Miller, gar fishing champion and champion of gar fishing, will be its first inductee.

Ive seen that article before, pretty good read. Tells you exactly what to do if you wanna gut hook em too.

i've only seen one long nose that was even respectable in size compared to the record and he went just over 30lbs and was at about 5ft

yeah in the 1950's sustainability of a gar species wasn't real important most of the photos of him have the fish strung up in trees like sharks.

these that are surfacing don't really make much noise at all never heard a single pop, they just come up and looks like they're coming up and just slurping/swallowing water...so DawsonRH does this gator gar like to you?

For a shot at big rod and reel Alligator Gar on the Brazos, you will have to focus on the lower part of the Middle down around Marlin. It's pretty much a straight shot to the salt from there. That being said, I rarely target gar and therefore, never find myself going much farther South than just above Cameron Park in Waco.

Here are a couple of pics of a massive Longer I CPR'd last year after landing it from my kayak. These photos are more than proof the Middle/Upper Brazos River has huge potential as a World Class rod and reel Longnose fishery.

At just over 58" in length, this is the biggest Longnose ever documented from the Brazos River via rod and reel. Dimensionally, it exceeded the existing 56.75" Brazos River Record for this species taken by bow and certified back in Jan. 09.

Killing the fish for Water Body Certification was not an option for me and TP&W does not recognize Longnose Gar as a Catch & Release State Record specie.

This oversize Longer is the closest I have seen a rod and reel angler come to taking down the longstanding 1954 Texas State Record...

Leaderless 20# mono, a 5/0 circle hook accompanied by the stealth of a kayak did this bad girl in.

Excellent longnose!

Just so you guys know, I'm about 60% sure I saw a GG between Fort Worth and Dallas on the Trinity. I would guess it was about 3' but bigger around than a longnose. I would like to go back there and try to catch it to find out for sure.