Texas for Alligator Gar
After travelling to Florida, I decided that as I have always wanted to catch an alligator gar, it would be sensible to tack a few days in Texas on to the end to save another trip across the Atlantic. This meant yet another 3am rise to catch a plane from Miami to Houston. Once there we hired a car to drive north to Huntsville where we recommended to stay at the Days Inn. This proved an error. As we opened the door, there was an odour of dirty carpet, and the swimming pool that I had told Sandy about was full of litter. Fortunately there was a newly constructed Holiday Inn within 200 yards so we switched there for an extra $30 a night, but it had a gym, swimming pool and supplied breakfast for the three of us. It was good value. We were also able to have lunch at an “all you can eat” Chinese restaurant for only $6.50 per head.
I was booked to fish the Trinity River on the Monday morning with Byron, father of Kirk who is the recommended expert on the river. Byron used to commercially fish for gar before realising that the average size and quantity of gar was falling so switched with Kirk to sport fishing and are keen to support conservation now, backing a change in the law so that only one fish per day may be taken. However, gar are capable of breathing air as well as water and in poorly oxygenated water come to the surface to gulp air. This makes them vulnerable to bow hunters who shoot them as they break surface. With several bow hunters in the area, it still means a large number of fish can be killed even if they obey the law. In the last few years, the average size of the fish is further reducing which does not bode well, so Byron and Kirk are working with local universities to tag the fish to learn growth rates, movements etc which is essential to understand the species, fundamental when trying to protect a species.
We agreed to meet at Trinity at 6am the next morning so I could have a lie in until 5!!!
This also meant I missed my breakfast, but as we met at MacDonalds, we managed a McMuffin and coffee – better than nothing (just). As we travelled on to the river, a tyre burst on the trailer. It was a double axle trailer so after I bent the mudguard away from the tyre and Lee had tied it with a rope, we carried on using one wheel only. We arrived at the river some 20 or so miles away and launched the boat down a steep mud slipway. Once launched, the outboard wouldn’t start despite Byron’s best attention. We decided that it would be best to cancel the day to give Byron time to attend to the engine, and sort out the tyre and mudguard.
Then we hit the next problem, we couldn’t get the boat out of the river as the battery used to drive the winch was flat and we couldn’t get it on the trailer. Fortunately Kirk’s trailer was there as he was already fishing so we switched battery, dragged the boat in the switched the batteries back. It was one of those days where everything that could go wrong seemed to. Byron took us back to our car, but even then he had another blow out on the way home. This at least gave me chance to catch up on sleep. We also went out for a meal at a local steak and surf restaurant. This was the best meal we had in the States, the steaks were excellent, but you would expect that in Texas, and the price of food was much more reasonable than in the keys.
We made another early start the next morning, but after thunderstorms the previous night, Byron decided to launch upstream on a purpose built ramp. This was done and the outboard started too. Within a short while we were fishing. Byron went upstream in his purpose built boat made from 4.5mm aluminium, necessary because of all the debris of old logs in the river. We set up four rods, each fitted with a Penn reel with baitrunners using pieces of carp about 8oz each ass bait with a single treble hook. A sliding float is also used to show the position and movement of the bait when the fish starts running with it. These are set on rod rests fitted with bite alarms, each one signalling a different colour on the remote receiver. The boat is the moored in the shade nearby, waiting for action.
To pass the time, Lee and I both messed a round legering with light tackle and a small piece of fish to catch other species. We tried in two or three places without success, hampered by turtles picking up baits and dragging them to the banks. Much to my amusement, Lee caught a small turtle on his light tackle. After he had been joking about my hooking a turtle in Florida, this was the perfect opportunity for me to turn the tables on him, especially as his was so small.
As lunch passed, we decided to try the stretch that we had gone to on the previous day as the sun would have dried the mud ramp. We arrived in the early afternoon but were hampered by the boat getting beached in the creek that leads to the main river. Although Byron’s boat is faster and larger than Kirk’s, it also rides slightly lower in the water. Fortunately Kirk was nearby and came to pull us out. The passage to the main river was overgrown with several trees fallen in the river and some trunks from old trees submerged, so this had to be taken at speed to keep the boat riding high in the water. Unnerving when you are not used to it, but you soon become accustomed.
We followed the same process as earlier but we had a couple of runs which stopped after a short distance. On inspection of the bait, the treble hook had been crushed by the fishes jaws. It had obviously felt the hook and dropped the baits. I discussed the possibility of using a single hook. Byron said they used to use large single hooks, but found through research that when the fish swallows the bait, the striking of a single hook used to damage the stomach lining and ultimately kill the fish, so they changed to smaller trebles to prevent this happening. Byron is currently doing research on circle hooks but is having problems with the hook gape not being suitable for the design of the fishes jaws. I wish him well, as I would be much happier catching fish with a circle hook than risk deep hooking them that is really the norm at present. However, I was delighted to hear that the research and conservation is moving in the right direction and Kirk and Byron should be applauded for this pioneering work.
Anyway, as we settled in storm returned, and not the light storms we get in the UK, this was a heavy one which soaked us all the way through. Everything seemed to be against us, and I burst out laughing. Just before we finished for the day we finally got a good run, we returned to the rod, followed the float for a while to make sure the fish took the bait without feeling any resistance, then wound down and set the hook. Sadly, the fish hadn’t fully taken the bait and lifted in the water before the bait pulled out. Thus we had a blank day although we had picked up a few blue catfish on light tackle. We moored the boat and decided to return to the same area in the morning.
This was our last day. There had already been a storm overnight and both boats had to be pumped out before we could launch, but there was more water in the river which made travelling around easier. On our first set up we had a good run, followed it and had exactly the same result as the previous evening, a little fish of barely 20lbs came to the surface and ejected the bait. We then tried several spots with a few runs and dropped takes. Kirk, further upstream had caught a fish every time he set up. Around lunchtime we met to compare notes and checked each set up. There was no difference, and we couldn’t work out why we were struggling. Just then I had another run, but boats gently followed the fish until Kirk said I couldn’t miss; I wound down set the hooks and the bait pulled out again. Kirk and Byron couldn’t believe my bad luck, but we persevered and shortly afterwards, I had another run and finally managed to set the hooks and land a fish of 55 lbs, not big but it was great to hold the fish which I had travelled all the way to see. I had to give Byron ten out of ten for his perseverance when everything seemed to be against us, and be good company when things could have been fraught.
If you fancy this type of fishing, make sure you use Kirk or Byron as your guide. If you use one of the others, it may be a bow hunter, and this practice and its exponents should not be supported. Every year the fish are getting smaller and one feels that time is against the gar, and all efforts that help conservation should be supported.