Another 6 Foot Alligator Gar

Another good day on the Trinity river near Crockett Tx. Almost a half dozen gar caught and one just a hair under 6 foot. I only do catch and release and all my gar are released unharmed after a few pictures, i support a sustainable fishery for future generations.
the gear used was
A Fin Nor Offshore 6500 spooled with 100 pound Suffix performance braid on a 6 foot 6 inch Shimano Trevala rated for 50-100 braid. The bait used was cut carp in about half pound chunks on bottom in the bends in the river.

nice!

Solid post! Thanks for sharing.

Good fish. The second time you tried to harness the fish really gave me a jump scare!

Thanks for the video and more and more I am fascinated with these animals. I do have a question you mentioned "clipping his wire" .. does that mean you cut the leader and leave the hook in? Or how do you safely remove the hook on a landed Alligator gar?

thanks,
Ben

Myelf, my son (9) and a buddy were the ones that went out with henry on Sunday. This was a belated birthday present for my son. We had a great time. Henry worked hard to get us some fish and some good runs as well as teaching us a lot about the gar as well as his approach to catching them and even his tackle/rigging system. So not only did we land fish, we left having learned something about how to fish for them ourselves.

I would highly recommend him to anyone interested at targeting this fish. His rates are fair and he will fish for about as long as you want to. And for us taking a kid, using the boat to access remote bank fishing spots was perfect as there is so much wildlife on the river that my son stayed endlessly entertained in between runs.

Thanks Henry!

I have watched your posted now for several years, salt- and freshwater and am interested in a trip with you. What are your charges? There would be from one to three people, myself and my son and grandson if I could hit a weekend they could come.

Also, I always enjoy the posts and videos.

Thanks!!

Ray

Nice post. Thanks for sharing.

GoKart Mozart- i do have to clip the wire on the gar pretty often(i use non stainless hooks and clip it at the teeth), if i can see the hook i will try to get it but its not easy, i have had success getting hooks out through the gill being really careful not to loose a finger or hurt the gar and i have pried their mouths open to get hooks out, but they have allot more bite pressure than most would guess. even a little one can be extremely hard to get its mouth open because of the bite pressure. i have a 18 inch steel de-hooker i use if they are hooked in the mouth and will open up for me.

casey- had a good time man hope we can get on em together some time, yall are the kind of people i enjoy taking out there and spending the day with, maybe next time we can get one over 150 pounds

Harold Ray- Pm Sent

Curious is it detrimental to the fish if the hook is left in? ... Is that why you mentioned using a non stainless hook?

Yes, do not use stainless hooks! Carbon steel hooks will rust away relatively quickly. Stainless can be a wicked situation. When I was with TPWD and we did a study on alligator gar on Lake Sam Rayburn I got a first-hand example of this. We had a large gar that had a strange pouch of tissue in the muscle/meat just about 4 inches rearward of the intestines. I cut through this relatively tough tissue and found a large stainless hook that had been encapsulated in scar tissue. It had evidently cut through the digestive tract and "migrated" through the musculature as the fish swam until it was neutralized by this large amount of scar tissue. That is what I interpreted. Regardless, I don't use stainless.

When I fished for large gar, I didn't hook them at all. I used a rig that included a lariat or loop of piano wire that cinches around the upper bill when you "set the hook." I'll send instructions to anyone interested. Another good thing about the lariat is that you have about one hundred percent "hook ups"