Got the opportunity to work with TPWD doing some alligator gar fishing. Had my good friend Jason along as well as his friend John as well as my wife. Fish were not rolling much at all for the day we had but we got 3 anyway. Big girls just didn't want to eat from the buffet I put out, guess they were dieting? Anyway we had a good time relaxing in the shade in lawn chairs waiting on runs. Got a 4' fish a 4.5' and a 5'. What a trip with the 5'er, definitely the hardest I have ever worked for a single fish.

Within 20 minutes of getting set up on our first spot we got John his first alligator gar, a nice little 4'. Not a monster but a good way to get broke in, and not a bad way to break the ice for the day either. Fast forward some time, and we get a run for Jason. Jason sets the hook on his fish and for some reason the line breaks at the rod. There goes $10 worth of line in the river. Don't forget this broke line. About 45 minutes to an hour passes and we get a few more runs that end up dropping after getting around obstacles. The broken line has been about 150 yards down from our spot for about the last hour now, and I notice out of the corner of my eye that the float on it is moving slowly up the side of the river towards us, about 20 yards off the bank. We decide to go try and catch the loose line and tie off too it with a rod to see what is going on with this line. After circling around in behind this line and catching up to it I start looking for the end, only to find several problems: 1. It is longer than I thought 2. It is in the big motor 3. It is in the Trolling motor 4. It is tangled in another rod 5. It has a fish on it!
Panic quickly in issues as I try to figure out which of the tangled strands on my motor to cut and which to keep up with. After solving this problem it is on to the lines in the trolling motor, where the fish pops one of those. After cursing loudly I realize the fish is still on, this was one of the tangled lines. I finally calm down enough to cut the line not in use and untangle the line with a fish on it from the motor, all the while this is on film. Finally I successfully got the line with the fish on it singled out from the rest and with the trolling motor now untangled I follow the fish up the bank while tying this loose line to a rod and reel. This seems to take ages, but finally I get it done and hand the rod off to John for him to get gar #2 for him. After a short but scrappy fight I finally snare this fish and get it in the boat, what a relief. Without further delay here are some pics.

Thanks to all of you for looking. I will have more information later on about when the segment will be airing, appreciate everyone's kind words over the last couple years as I have progressed. Hope to take some more of you guys out, I have open dates including the 4th of July if anyone is interested.

Dawson

Hey Dawson,

Was the camera man from TPWD named Alan Fisher? It sorta looks like him in the pics you posted. He's an old college buddy of mine.

Yes it was Alan, really nice guy.

I thought so. Thanks!