Recalling a Record Alligator Gar

I’m usually spearfishing Lake Amistad along the Texas – Mexico Border at this time of year. But considering that the lake is currently sitting at just 24% capacity and as a result the visibility is about as clear as a mudpuddle, I’ve had to make other plans. That doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about the lake I love however. In fact, I’ve been thinking about all the fishing records set there and the one that my friend and Manager of Indianhead Ranch in Del Rio Darren Carr earned in 2018. I spoke with Darren last week about that record.

            It was August when a bass fishing buddy of his called to say he’d seen a cove of giant gar on the northern portion of the lake. Darren was interested and said he would check it out. “My wife, good friend D.W. Senney, and I went out one afternoon, probably an hour or two before dark,” Darren recalled. “And we just kind of went in that general cove and looked around and we saw a few rolling fish and saw a few big ones.” Darren donned a mask and fins and swam through the cove but found the visibility unsuitable for spearfishing. “So, we hopped back in the boat and we did a few drifts with our bows and saw a few fish but couldn't get close, so we just decided we were going to wait until dark.”

            When darkness fell the trio bowfished the cove with the aid of lights. The group saw several fish and D.W. shot a monstrous alligator gar that measured 7’ 4” inches in length and weighed a staggering 192 pounds. The group celebrated D.W.’s catch and called it a night.

            A few days later, Darren and D.W. decided to return to the cove to try to land some of the big fish they’d seen on a rod and reel. “So we did that, and of course it was hotter than blue blazes sitting on the boat. It was hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!” It was so hot that Darren once again donned his mask and fins and grabbed his A.B. Biller speargun and jumped in the water. The clarity was just as bad as it had been a few days earlier with the visibility at four or five feet. “I was swimming over some little weed beds there, and had a carp come zinging up out of the weeds and hitting me between the legs and about scared the crap out of me. I kind of laughed to myself and was like, ‘Oh, you big chicken.” Darren collected himself and swam forward. “I was looking down in the weeds, and I just happened to look up while this gar was right on the surface, and I was literally almost face to face with it.”

            That alligator gar was a true leviathan, a monster for the ages. It was a beast that was both longer and larger than the man staring at it. And although it could have seriously harmed or possibly killed Darren with a sudden movement or turn of its jaws, it instead slowly sank to the bottom of the cove. Darren aimed his gun and fired. “The whole world erupted!” The gar rocketed through the weeds, kicking up a cloud of vegetation and sediment that engulfed Darren. The predator pulled Darren from the cove and into the lake. “I flew past D.W. on the boat. He screamed, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I said, ‘Man, just get all those lines and treble hooks out of the way.”

            The gar dragged Darren past the boat and into the main channel of the lake. The line went slack. Darren scanned the depths to see the fish rocketing toward him. Darren kicked to the side and the fish thrust past him then began circling him. “The only thing that got me really nervous is that I had so much line out and I was fighting to not get tangled up in it. The last thing I wanted was to get a fin or a leg or something hung up in there.” Darren looked about and saw a gravel bar some 300 yards away. “I rolled on my back and started just slow kicking towards that gravel bar.” Darren hit the rise, kicked off his fins, and planted his feet. “I put that line over my shoulder and I ran like a wild Indian up the bank with it and it worked. The fish came up and didn't have much of a reaction.”

            Darren’s fish set many a record, most of which still stand today. At 235 pounds and over 7 1/2 feet in length the fish is one of the largest alligator gar ever taken and most likely the largest ever taken with a speargun.

It’s a record I’d love to tie or even beat but can’t even attempt until Amistad becomes a lake again!

This piece first appeared in the Fredericksburg Standard.

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