DFW gator gar

Where is the nearest place to DFW to have a decent shot to catch a gator gar? I wanna he my first finally. I know some decent flathead spots but I usually only encounter long nose, if anybody can help me out and would want to go tomorrow give me a hollar!!

I too would be interested in seeing where the nearest to dfw spots are or well the nearest bank spots. I don't have a boat. All the videos I've seen on youtube are of people on boats or in kayaks. Way close to the coast. Or hispanic dudes on the bank fishing but they're way down south tx like almost to mexico. Then I saw a youtube video of guy fishing off a dock in New Orleans but that looks sketchy, he said when he got there he scared off some small gators (not gars) that were on the dock.

I saw that same vid, looked like he was fishin a spillway or like a huge drainage thing

Mountain Creek Lake has a record for Alligator Gar
Gar, Alligator 19.79 39.75 Jun 2, 1994 Richard Collins
Seems odd, the small size I think would indicate it was from a spawn from sometime after the Dam at Joe Pool cut off the river not far upstream. I would assume the fish or a picture of the fish for the record would have been identified by a fisheries biologist. With the fish and the water there so contaminated with PCBs dumped by the military base, closed to retaining fish, shady people around the lake making it unsafe to park a vehicle, and the lake said to be silted in, I doubt many people have fished it for several years, I guess it could be believable there could be a small surviving population of Alligator Gar there. Might be worth a shot to check Mountain Creek Lake upstream to Joe Pool.

decent size ones ive seen in grapevine and eagle mtn. Caught a small one at EM couple weeks ago ~ 5 lbs

On mountain creek lake area would I fish the north area where the trinity feeds in to or the south where the smaller creeks are? Also on the white rock creek is the bank high off the water? I read a post on the forum that a guy was catching big ones on a spot in Dallas (he didn't say what part of the trinity) but the bank was high above the water so he was asking where to put a boat in at.

I'd change your species to Longnose Gar instead of Alligator Gar, you would have a much better chance of actually catching one, in the DFW area.

Its just wishful thinking, I've been researching dfw alligator gar for awhile now and everything says there are gar here but not high enough population to actually catch them if your trying for them. If there are any spots with high population id imagine they're a guarded secret. I'll try for long nose out in the trinity in ft worth. When my dad and I are fishing under a bridge off university there's always homeless guys telling us about the long gar they see from a bridge when they're crossing the Trinity. Its the same location but different homeless dudes so we think the spot is legit

Trinity is the best place i know for gator gar. Some spots are a lot of smaller ones that are GATOR gar just on the small side up to 3-4ft and other spots they are huge up to 8ft that i have seen and had 3 hooked a cpl years ago fishing there but was spooled all three times plus has a lot of trees and such in the water so better have a shark rod to get them in lol. All this by bank but have to wade thru all the spotted gar and maybe or not get a run by the gator gar

Keep in mind, there is a real possibility (in my opinion) that there is an active hybrid gar population possible in the DFW area. This could be what people are seeing and reporting as alligator gar. Places that wouldn't surprise me if they had hybrids or alligator gar:

Lake Worth, Eagle Mountain, Grapevine Lake, Granbury Lake, Lake Whitney

No Munsie the hybrids look like a longnose with a slightly wider bill maybe 2 times as wide as a true longnose but just as long
Most people think a small spotted gar is a alligator gar

What would be the closest to dfw part of the trinity with a decent population, so far the closest I've seen is a video on YouTube where they're fishing with some European sounding guy near Palestine which looks like its half way between dfw and Houston. do any of the guides or guys with boats offer just running you down the river and dropping you off on the bank for the day and pick you up at the end of the day?? Or is that a liability issue, its like "see you later, don't die now"

Went last night to the trinity in Arlington had MULTIPLE gar runs with no successful hookups, weren't really targeting gar so that's why we missed them all, ended up hookin up with a pretty big turtle, not sure what kind, it looked like a big soft shell turtle but had a hard shell, using cut shad and perch

Almost all reports of alligator gar in DFW are going to be other species incorrectly identified. But there are records where fish have been collected for surveys or testing that would be positively identified. And the fish records as well would have been identified by a biologist, but still on the honor of the fisherman as to where the fish was caught. Here is another record of a DFW alligator gar from TDH testing.

Description of the Trinity River 2000-2001 Sample Set
In 2000, the Seafood Safety Division (SSD) collected thirty samples along the Trinity River in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. These sites were: (1) Clear Fork Trinity River downstream of Benbrook Lake; (2) Beach Street on the West Fork Trinity River; (3) upstream of the confluence of Elm Fork with West Fork Trinity River; (4) Trinity River downstream of Elm Fork; and (5) near the Dowdy Ferry Road Bridge. In 2001, the SSD collected nine fish from a rural area of the Trinity River near Seven Points, TX. Three of the sampling sites (Beach Street; upstream and downstream of the confluence of Elm Fork Trinity River) were within the AL-2 closure area. Three sample sites were outside the closure area. One site was upstream of the closure area: Clear Fork Trinity River in Fort Worth. Two sampling sites were downstream of the closure area: (1) Dowdy Ferry Road Bridge 5.9 km downstream of Interstate Highway 20 (I-20) in Dallas County; and (2) on the border of Navarro and Henderson Counties near the town of Seven Points, about 140 km downstream of I-20. In 2000, the SSD collected fifteen smallmouth buffalo, six common carp, two flathead catfish, one channel catfish, three longnose gar, one alligator gar and two spotted gar from Clear Fork, West Fork, and the Trinity River. In 2001, the SSD collected six blue catfish, two longnose gar, and one alligator gar from the Seven Points site.

Here's something from the lower Trinity but I bet if you get down around Kaufman you'd find some like this.........

You have not seen an alligator gar in grapevine Lake. .... they aren't in grapevine Lake

I'd say they are there in the Trinity, but exceptionally rare. Two of the places mentioned in that report are where I have seen smaller alligator gar, but only on a handful of occasions.

I know several old timers that swear up and down that Lake Grapevine used to be full of them and held some giant fish. One attributes their disappearance to bow fishing and the other to their popularity as table fare in certain communities. Too bad they are all gone.

Lake Lewisville at the mouth of the Trinity.

Years....ago...when I was a gar research nut, I talked to several old timers who said the same thing. And yes...these boys knew the difference between longnose and gator gars. I had the same experience with old timers fishing/talking 'bout the fw trinity.