April 13th 2010
This was the first fish big of the year, caught while fishing on the Sabine River during the afternoon. This was the first alligator gar for me in April, but they were biting good on this day, in the 4 hours we had to fish I landed one fish at 4�9� which rolled down the bank back into the river before I could get pictures, and I had a massive battle with a fish the size of this one or larger, but unfortunately I gaffed the landing and lost it, huge heartbreaker there. The fish in this picture went 6�7� and weighed in at about 125#�s scoring Richard a new personal best.




July 2010
Some of you may know this fellow. This is Jackie Kennedy who guides for redfish on Lake Fairfield and for trophy blue cats on Cedar Creek Lake, give him a call if you want to catch a big blue. Mr. Kennedy went with me to target big alligator gar, but unfortunately we just couldn�t get the big bite. We ended up with five fish, the biggest being 4� long and around 30 pounds, but that is how it goes some times. This was still a new personal best for Mr. Kennedy, who has on occasion caught small gator gar fishing on Fairfield.


August 2010
This is Lawson Eddy, a new comer to the TFF who has harbored a long term interest in catching an alligator gar. Mr. Eddy got his wish on this trip, together we boated 4 alligator gar, ranging from 4� to 5�6� and 60#�s which is what this fish went. Mr. Eddy really enjoyed our trip, and so did his dog which road on the nose of the boat as I navigated around the many bends in the river.




My pal Richard and I had a banner day for alligator gar fishing on this trip, landing 9 in all ranging from 3�6� all the way up to 6�5�. We also hooked and lost several more fish. Landed my new personal best on this trip, at 6�5� and 115#. On this trip we were fishing an area that is difficult to access and unpressured by bow fishing, you can really see a difference in the populations in these remote areas. Over all a great day to be on the water, we even got a cold shower to cool things down, heat index was over 100. Besides alligator gar we also landed a 20# flathead and a 10# blue on this trip.

September 2010
On a separate trip with Lawson he managed to land two new personal best catfish, a 28# flathead and a 25# blue within 5 minutes of each other, the blue hit while playing the flathead. On that trip we did not land any alligator gar, although we did have two good runs with one of them nearly pulling Lawson from the boat when it broke the 60# mono that Lawson was using. To give you an idea of what it takes to do that, Lawson is 6�3� and 250#s. Big fish don�t just break your line, they break your heart too. I also caught a longnosed gar of around 8#�s on a rope lure, a first for me.



Labor Day weekend a good friend of mine by the name of Jason fished with me. Jason had fished for alligator gar with me on this same weekend of 2009, and although we did get several runs the largest fish was about 25#�s. This year, we fixed that. This fish went 6�7� long and around 120#�s, and is Jason�s new personal best. The fight lasted about 15 minutes, and this fish took the fight into the air three times, yes this fish jumped three times! Jason was actually in the process of getting ready to take pictures with a 4� fish he had just landed when his clicker started going off forcing us to stop and deal with this brute. Notice the old injury to the upper jaw, leaving some of those 3/4� teeth exposed, wicked! Jason also caught a 35# flathead during the course of this trip.

Mr. Kennedy and I went again, this time I hoped to get him on a 6� fish, but again it just didn�t work out. We had around ten runs, and a couple that I know were big fish from the damage to the baits, but none got the hook. Mr. Kennedy did get one small gator gar, but we didn�t take pictures of the greedy little guy, it probably went 8#s and ate a bait the size of its head. I did get a 30 pound blue though, maybe something to do with Mr. Kennedy being along for the trip, by the way he specializes in big blues during the winter on Cedar Creek.


It was a good year for gar fishing, didn�t get to go as much as I would have liked, and the big one got away, but most that went with me got new pb�s and some of their first R&R alligator gar. All fish were released to fight again, including cats. I am sure 2011 will bring bigger fish and more fish, looking forward to going when it warms up again, thanks to everyone that went!

What a year. Those are some very good fish. Good job and thanks for sharing.

wow great story and great fish Ive always wanted to catch gar but not sure where to even start looking any advice for me i would fish the trinity river near riverside

Great report! good job!

good stuff Dawson

Very nice fish. I spent a many a night on the Trinity watching my dad cat gator gar. I was to small to catch them myself. You ever see wild hogs while you are out. That those muddy banks look like hog heaven. Nice job on those monsters. Not many folks get to catch a 100lb+ freshwater fish.


Reggie

Looks like a lot of fun. Great report and great photos. Best of luck to you in 2011!

Yeah we see wild hogs just about every time we go, also see alligators once and a while when we run up on them fast enough and lots of birds. See some birds down on the river that you don't see elsewhere like the ibis.

We saw three coyotes on our last trip. Fishing with Dawson is a lot of fun and he knows where the big gar are. We never got a goodun in but had some on both trips. I'd bet 2011 will be a good year for you.