Dinosaurs are prehistoric. And extinct. So, what am I talking about?
Well, a man fishing near Houston caught a fish so large that he’s been quoted as saying it was like having hooked a dinosaur.
Payton Moore was fishing in a stream near Houston and thought his line was hung on a log underwater. Then, it began moving. Fifteen minutes or so later, he landed a mammoth alligator gar, fishing with a rod and reel. But he had to employ a lasso to bring it up on the bank.
This IS Texas, isn’t it!
Moore didn’t hook the ‘gator gar by accident. He was actually fishing for big gars.
“Alligator gars are among my favorite species of fish,” he told me. “I’ve fished for and caught gar in most rivers, bayous, and creeks in the greater Houston area.”
Since he released the huge fish back into the water without weighing it, we’ll never know for sure how much it weighed, but his catching it is not in doubt. He videoed it on a GoPro-type rig that recorded the entire romp. It’s well-worth watching; readers can see it on Moore’s YouTube page at YOUTUBE/PAYTONMOORE/WILD LIFE (two words).
An article from the Houston Chronicle said he realized how big it was when it finally surfaced and was longer than his eight-foot fishing rod.
He is shown on the video measuring it, and the tape read 8-feet, 2-inches. That’s 98-inches. One experienced angler questioned the validity of his measuring procedure, but even if he was a little excited, it looked like he measured it fairly accurately.
The Texas rod and reel record catch weighed 279-pounds and was set by Bill Valverde on January 1, 1951, while fishing on the Rio Grande. It was not measured. The world record is said to be 327-pounds and measured 8-feet, 5-inches. The Texas all-tackle record is reported as 302-pounds and measured 90- inches. It was caught on a trotline. Any way you stretch the tape, Moore’s fish is remarkable. In MY book, he holds the world record for “Videoed, lasso-assisted, measured, alligator gar catches.”
Gar prefer sluggish rivers and reservoirs, according to Russell Tinsley’s book, “Fishing Texas.” Most people consider them as “trash fish,” and not a food source. However, they are on the menu in restaurants in Mexico according to an intriguing TV program we saw one night in Brownsville. They call it “katan,” although it may begin with a “c.”
Moore baited with fish heads. His reel was a Salis X 3000 by Piscifun. He used braided main line with a ten-foot top shot of 100-pound test monofilament, ending with a wire leader and a circle hook.
The lasso wasn’t twirled and tossed, cowboy style, as I first thought. He slipped in over the rod butt, down the rod and line and around the fish’s head and past the gills.
Though called prehistoric, alligator gars are still with us. They’re meat eaters. Dinosaurs, however, mysteriously disappeared eons ago. Do you suppose …?
We’ll never know.
JJ
