Gator Gar Fishing on the Brazos.

Hey everyone,

New to Texas here. Came from California and I've been here for about 6 months now and I've been wanting to get back into fishing (California fishing was not all that great). Anyways I've been reading that Brazos River was a good place to go for Gator Gars but where would one go, the Brazos is quite long? I'm in Arlington but would be willing to make the drive just to get a picture with one of these awesome fish. Any advice?

The Brazos is HUGE. If you are in Ft Worth, try hitting the Trinity. Big Gator Gars there

yea that is right i've got an excellent spot to just pm me and i'll show you and we should be able to hang into 2-4 at least in a few hours.

gator gar in ft worth? I mean there a few I am sure...dawson on here seems to have the knack for finding them and landing them may be he will chime in

The Trinity runs through Arlington as well. Finding public access might be a challenge, but the Trinity Fish-in thread from earlier in the year should show some local spots.
Also, there is Joe Pool Reservoir which I'm sure has its share.

If you are trying to find gar spots you need to get on TPWD's website and check fish records. Look for the body of water you plan to fish and use that to determine if they are present. Gator gar will not spawn in areas that do not have access to flooded vegetation at least occasionally, so you can rule out anything that doesn't do that. Next, for some of the smaller rivers, if there is a large lake and dam on the river, check to see if there is a record for said lake. If there is not, then don't bother with that lake or the river above the lake because they won't be there. Instead, look below the dam of the lake. As far as I know, the rivers that dump into the Gulf of Mexico will all have them in them up to the first lake or dam that blocks the water body from flooding. I know for certain they are in the Sabine River above toledo bend all the way to lake tawakoni and lake fork dams, and that they are in the entire length of the Trinity, and most of its feeders, at least until they are blocked by lakes and dams. For the brazos, I have know personal knowledge. I know they are in it somewhere, and they would at least be up to the first lake on the river heading inland from the Gulf. Past that I don't know.

If you do not have a boat things are going to be difficult for you, there are few areas on any of the rivers that provide bank access to the general public at places where trophy size gator gar are present. When I say trophy sized I mean 6' plus. They get hit pretty hard by bowfisherman and meat hunters where there is easy access, so if its easy to get to don't expect to see many big fish.

Now for those of you with boats that can be used on the rivers: Drop it in the river, and go until you find slow deep water. Fish there, whether you see them rolling or not. They do not role much during daylight when the moon is full, even in the middle of summer, so your best bet is to know where they live without having to see them. At this time I have no experience fishing for them in lakes, so you all are on your own there. The only thing I can tell you about that is that they get big in lakes where they occur, and that you better have a lot of gas money.

I'm trying to find a spot locally too. I had no idea that they made it as far north as DFW.

Very very few alligator gar in the metro....

lonestarcarper you have obviously been very very mislead, or you've just never been with someone who fishes it a bit, i get them all the time in my spot and in various sizes, just the last time i was there they were surfacing quite a bit, so please don't speak like you know there are very little in the metro, it's just some places are better than others and also the better places you've just got to work your way in even if it means going off the beaten path.

85% sure your seeing long nose

that maybe but not sure.

BDDD ur brave to call out a mod, zack know his fish, and he knows the the area pretty well. if he says something you can be pretty sure its true.

I would love to be proved wrong.

well where i fish i've hooked several, 4+ feet and these guys had gator gar markings all over them, and i don't think spotted gar regularly get up to 4 feet or longer my brother and i went out a couple of years back and using shad perch, and whatever we could find we got just gator gar 4.5+feet heck we even got a bb gun out and shot some crows and skinned them up and we still got gator gar...and i can assure you they were because i've seen long nose gar before when bass fishing and the biggest i've ever seen caught was just barely 10#, so you know maybe i otta get the shad and go out and get some and take really clear pics so that you guys can decide whether or not they're gator gar or just huge spotted gar....so is that what you want guys, because i don't like being told i'm wrong especially when i can PROVE IT!!! SO I AM GOING TO GO GET A GATOR GAR SO IF I PUT UP, EVERYONE CAN SAY I'M WRONG ALL THEY WANT BUT I'LL HAVE THE PICS TO PROVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PERIOD!

JUST SEE IN A FEW DAYS YOU'LL KNOW "YOU ARE DEAD WRONG SO IT'S GAME TIME I'LL FISH EVERYDAY UNTIL FRIDAY AT DARK, AND THEN AFTER SATURDAY IT'S BACK TO WORK SO IF I HAVEN'T GOT A GAR IN THE NEXT THREE DAYS I'LL STILL BE AT IT UNTIL I PROVE YOU WRONG.

thats cool, I hope you do it. also longnose gar get up to 5' long in the trinity in ft. worth and probably weigh in the 40lb-50lb range...some could be larger.

What do you mean by gator gar markings? both long nose and gator gar have the spots on them.

Wow!...............you ought to get out of dfw and try the Red River. A few catfish guides regularly catch Alligator gar, and yes they are Alligator Gar. In all honesty longnose can get 4' without a problem, I'm not doubting
you, but they probably are Longnose.

here is a 21.5lb long nose that was 42" long I think. its my PB fly rod Longnose

well i've seen a guy recently where i fish catch a gator gar that was exceding 9' easily and would have broken the state record him and his buddy tried to lift it out and one had a chain on the snout and the other a rope around the tail and these guys looked like body builders without taking steroids and tried to lift it out and the thing kicked its tail broke the rope and jerked the chain off its snout and that was bad for them and i talked to them after the chain slipped off and rope broke and they were estimating it at 250+ and if i wasn't there to see it happen i wouldn't believe it.

you know, you say this and that but yet you NEVER HAVE ANY PICS. its ethier i forgot this or forgot that or didnt have this or that. when you do finally get a gar PLEASE post a pic. ok im done, off to get my 30.

yeah red river has a healthy population they don't seem to be as large as the ones down south.

well if it was a 9' gator gar it would exceed 300 easily as the state record for all tackle methods was caught in the trinity while bow fishing and it was 8' aka 96inches and was a certified weight of 290.00 while a 93" and 94" gator gar caught on r&r one in the brazos and one in the trinity both went 190.00 and the trinity river in the dfw area has a few gator gar but not many and if they had any size to them in the dfw area more people would see them and their would be more rogue type reports of gator gar attacking people and little kids like their used to be

+1 on some pics stevie, you come off in different threads like an old pro and have all the answers then a couple days later you are full of nube questions, posts some pics already.

and so what?

have you seen river monsters ever?

the guy went out in the dfw area and caught a seven footer, just saying...and brando i thought you told me that time you and i fished you had a giant either on bank or in your boat around here that when you were drifting with either shad or bluegill that one bit your line and started litterally towing you around in your boat, or am i mistaken?
i specifically remember something along those lines so tell me am i not remebering clearly????

actully he was notin the dfw. he was on the trinity about 100 miles out side the dfw with a gator gar guide. big difference there.

yes i did catch one last summer that was approx 8ft and that was south of dfw by several hours in a very secluded spot that is almost impossible to get to and on river monsters he only landed one that was over 100lbs and they left out of dfw but did not fish in the area they fished further south if you want trophy gator gar water you need to be south of dfw by atleast an hour or below bardwell dam imho

yeah down South of Palistine is the start of big gar country...

well i'll stick to my spot for now if all of still say they're long nose then i geuss you guys will have proved me wrong.

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.

Im sorry, I didn't mean to sound as sarcastic as I came off with that. I think gut hooking is a viable method, and as long as you don't use stainless hooks they will rust out quickly. However, I do my best not to gut hook, and I build my rigs accordingly.

I would go on further to say that there are opportunities at world class long nose gar fishing in the Trinity and Sabine rivers as well. What I find interesting about your fish there is that it doesn't even appear to be fat, which makes me believe it has still got a lot of growing to do.

Yep, I agree.

They all have the potential to get larger when CPRd.

I'm liking this thread!

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't realize there was this much into gar fishing. I have to say this is a wealth of information. Thank you all and keep the information coming.

TPWD Records
Alligator Gat

East Fork Of The Trinity Record 140 Lbs (I believe the East Fork/Trinity extends from above Lake Lavon in McKinney to about Cedar Creek lake) So this WOULD be the DFW Metromess.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/action/waterecords.php?WB_code=1187

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Trinity River- I know this is vague as the "Trinity River" covers buku miles.. 290 Lbs

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/action/alltackle.php?WB_code=1592

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No Alligator Gar records for the Elm Fork or Clear Fork of the Trinity.. The West Fork does not appear on TPWD's website.

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Richland Chambers- Not exactly the Metromess but not that far: 116 Lbs

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/action/alltackle.php?WB_code=0615

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Cedar Creek Reservoir- 166 Lbs

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/action/alltackle.php?WB_code=0152

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What does it all mean? I dunno. I bank fish Lavon & RayHub alot and have never caught one.. I don't know Gar all that well so I always look for the double upper set of teeth when I catch a Gar, but have yet to get an Aliigator. Doesn't mean they're not there though...