Wife wanted to catch hybrids Sunday morning so we rigged up with 1oz jig heads with a 4" chartruse fluke to try and discourage all the sand bass over by the dam. We were having a great time catching hybrids when my wife hooked up with what she said felt like a nice one. She fought this fish like a pro for over 20 minutes and I was sure she had hooked onto a large blue catfish. After another 10 minutes she decided she had had enough so I took over thinking she was just not be aggressive enough although she is a very good fisher woman. Boy was I wrong I could not stop this fish when it decided to run although it only took maybe 20 yards at a time. I finally got this fish between the bank and our boat which we were only about 15 yds from the bank in maybe 8ft of water. I finally got the fish under the boat and was able to raise him to the surface. We stared in astonishment as we were looking at probably a 6 to 7ft aligator gar which I swear I could have stepped out of the boat and stood on. I have no idea what this fish weighed but I would say somewhere in the 100 pound range. He took one long look at us and shook his head twice and he was gone. We feel very fortunate to have been able to fight this fish and the overall experience. It surely will be something we will remember as our fish of a lifetime and I am glad it is still roaming the waters of Richland Chambers. Overall all we had another exceptional day on RC as we caught and released 13 hybrids and a bunch of sandier as they were surfacing all morning. Wind picked up on us so we never got to the cat fishing. Thank you to all the boaters that gave us room as we were fighting that fish as we all know how crowded it gets by that portion of the lake.

Pat & Debbie

Haha good story! We were there saturday morning and had several gator gar roll around us. One was so close it splashed my boys in the boat!

Great story and they are a blast to fight I agree