Now why would you stick em with a bow? Seriously...you don't want to kill those bad boys do you? I've had some reports of GG in denton creek as well, but nothing verified. I still think most peeps first encounters with a large longnose think it's a Gator Gar.

My sister works for the Corp of engineers at the Wallisville, Tx Saltwater Barrier and said Zeb Hogan and his crew went through there this morning looking for gator gar. New Episode of river monsters on the way I guess.....

Page 51 of the TPWD Annual - Trinity River (Consumption Ban) from the 7th St Bridge, downstream to the Texas 34 Bridge in Kaufman and Ellis Counties, SE of Dallas.. Would be most of DFW, not below Roberts to Lewisville and Not at LLEULA. Only the fork that runs though Ft. Worth (heavy metals and PCBs).

Ive seen enough GG and Longnose to know the difference. The one i saw was bout 6 ft, and its bill was about 8 inches across..definetly not a needlenose.

In the Star Telegram a few years ago there were two brothers that fished for Gator Gar around Dallas, they had a couple pictures taken with 2 fish one was about 150lbs and the other about 160lbs.
They shot them with bows and when they got them to the boat they shot them again with a gun. Seems like it was in a stretch between
Arlington and Dallas.

There are gator gar in the Fort Worth area. There isn't alot but there is still some monsters, even in the sections that are dammed

do u know if its legal to bowfish common carp for harvesting and do u think we should start tagging Gar along the DFW section of Trinity for conservation purposes. apparently people are crossing the globe to fish our Trinity for Gar

I feel it's my duty as a native tx. to preserve these awesome fish for future generations. I always catch n release, but if there was an easy way to tag these fish for conservation purposes, what is it?

Yes there are.
There is an Animal planet show called River monsters and they highlight The Trinity River as "MONSTER" fish location.

http://animal.discovery.com/fish/river-monsters/alligator-gar/?campaign=apl-gnrm-1-aplgn001
My stepson saw this series and now wants to go gar fishing in our little POS 8 foot 36 pound kayaks with a spinning reel with 6 pound test line. I am like "yea right" sure let's go tomorrow.

I don't know what fork of the river they were fishing.
I have heard that to bring them in a 12" piece of thick white nylon rope unraveled with tin foil to flash will attract them then when they bite the rope will entangle thier teeth. but what the heck are you going to do with it when you land it?

I imangine fingers going missing when I would try to remove hooks bait rope whatever from this type of beast if I ever caught one.

When I was a kid I saw people catching them at the Lavon Dam and taking axes to kill them and just abandoning them to die.This was back in the mid to late 70s though. I guess they were thought to be just a invasive dangerous fish then.

I would love to catch one, but I most certainly would hire a professional guide.

I don't know much about Gator Gar, but the needle nose gar are very damaging to the crappie, shad and smaller bass. I watched one feeding one time. It would race out to the deeper water, grab a fish, and swim back to the spot it had been with the fish in his mouth. When he got ready to eat the fish, he would roll over and swallow it. I watched him eat about 10 to 12 fish in the matter of maybe 1/2 hour.

It may not be commonplace now, but I grew up with my grandaddy frying gar-balls. We'd always run across them when we went catfishing up in Denton Creek. Haven't been there in forever though, and I just got back to the metroplex. Anybody still fishing out there?

RIVER MONSTERS animal channel. trinity river in fort worth TX

From the 7th St Bridge in downtown Ft. Worth to the Kaufmann County line. No fish, caught in the Trinity, may be retained. Heavy metals (read mercury), PCBs and other nasty stuff on the bottom from old body shops and foundrys that used to be along the River bank. Ugh...

If you catch one with a rope lure, you are pretty much stuck with it. I doubt you'll be able to free it. If you just throw it back into the River, it will starve because it can't eat.

JimRinTX,I have 2 gar in my aquarium and they will eat as much as they can in a short time and then they will lay on the bottom for a day or two.

Dam under the bridge in river oaks live perch