What an awesome week!!!
This past week I finally pieced together a trip and an accomplishment in fishing that I have wanted for almost 10 years. A trip to catch the mighty Alligator Gar, the quentessential rough fish... the KING of North Americas freshwater fish.
Upon arrival in Edmond Oklahoma to visit my brother, we stopped by a number of local carpin' locations that I grew up fishing in my younger years when I lived in Oklahoma and had a great time catching Commons, mirrors, and even a grass carp in a rather urban setting below a bridge along a highway!
The trip was scheduled for June 5th, we wanted to target alligator gar with the guide services of none other than Kirk Kirkland. Kirkland has been featured on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic... he has been featured on in-fisherman, and several other fishing television shows which broadcast nationally. He was an outstanding guide, very knowledgable and experienced. His style was perfect for these fish. He had a rickity old boat dinged up and dented, he wore some saggy stained shorts and a stretched out white undershirt. He had nothing fancy about him... just a grizzled ole Texan who knew where the big boys were. Despite Kirk's common sense of humor and nature, he knows gar.. and knows them VERY well.
We hit the Trinity River in South East Texas with Kirk under the threat of ominous clouds. He traversed through the muddy, primitive looking river which was laced with an ungodly number of snags and fallen timber as though he could put a boat through the tight gaps blind folded. Kirk got us to where they were rolling and set up. He rigged four 12 foot surf style rods with 150lb power pro braid. He used common carp chunks for bait, the heads were his favorite. Each rod was set along the bank in electronic strike indicator rod holders. The groove in the holders would send electronic alarms to a hand held device when line was feeding out of the reel, being taken by a fish. We fished a number of sections of the Trinity through torrential rain and storms...
despite these conditions, Kirk assured us the rain and lightening would not effect the fish... and he was right. It was not long before the Alligator Gar started taking lines
Catching my first alligator gar was probably the most memorable and exciting moment I have ever had in fishing. This had been a dream of mine for a very very long time and I could not thank Kirk Kirkland enough for putting me on this amazing species of fish.
Kirk Kirkland works in the states conservation efforts and studies in their catch, tag, and release programs... tagging and measuring each and every one of his catches to track their seasonal movements etc.
more alligator gar with Kirk
after fishing from 8 am to 3 pm... we put 7 alligator gar in the boat, the biggest being just over 53 inches. I was thrilled to have caught these fish regardless of size, but I have to admit the constant thought of a fish over 100 lbs loomed in my head the entire afternoon... and i think i caught the fever.
My brother and I decided to return to the river with our own gear, though inferior to Kirkland's set ups... we loaded our canoe with stout rods with 50 lb braid, using cut mullet for bait. We paddled a decent way to a large sandy bank at a sharp bend in the river which had carved out a deeper hole and stopped up several submerged trees. We observed numerous fish that would have been in the area of 70-90lbs... but between losing one fish to the snags, having two rigs tossed mid fight, and several dropped baits... luck was low. My brother managed to land one very small alligator gar before we lost daylight... it was still good to have caught at least ONE gator gar without the services of a guide.
Still... we were not satisfied. Essentially tossing a hail Mary, my brother and I decided to head several hours south on the Trinity to the dam at Lake Livingston basically just ASSUMING alligator gar would be there... boy were we right! The alligator gar were there in force, and there were numerous fish surfacing that were obviously over 100 lbs, and I must tell you... it was an intimidating sight to behold these fish surfacing by the canoe.
Again we used cut chunks of mullet... 100 lb steel leaders and moderate sized trebble hooks. You really had to allow these fish to carry the bait for nearly 15 minutes if you hoped to keep them hooked as they would generally go air born in the most violent fashion and toss your rig away. We managed only three gar... but lost several others... one of which leaped at the side of the canoe and tossed the rig and was of frightening proportion, probably in the 6 foot range! I think with a little more experience, and better tackle... we could certainly have given the HUGE fish a run for their money. Even with the gar we DID catch... we could not put one in a canoe, we would follow the slip cork around until deciding it was time to nail the fish... then fight them to the bank and continue the war from land where we would land the fish. This day was a resounding success despite the lost fish. We drove several hours to a dam we were not familiar with... for a fish we rarely understood and managed to capture some very nice fish... including the largest gar of the trip at just over 54 inches!
on a side note... while waiting for the alligator gator gar to bite... massive schools of shad would occasionally come to the surface under seige from equally massive schools of white bass and small stripers.. We had a blast casting small swim baits into the schools when the shad got run up to teh surface and caught 30 some odd white bass on basically every cast. When rigged with up to 3 swim baits on a line at once, it was not rare to pull in three fish on the same line! made waiting for a gar alot funner!
Totals: 12 common/mirror carp, 1 grass carp, countless tiny channel catfish/blue catfish, 11 alligator gar, 30~ white bass, 1 largemouth bass
I have to tell you, booking a trip with Kirk Kirkland would be the best investment you have made in fishing... there is no one who knows these fish better, or catches more of them than Kirk. He is monopolizing a guide service for North America's largest freshwater fish and he is doing so in a dominate fashion. This was my most memorable fishing trip ever
http://www.texasfishingguides.org/kirkland/
Favoured: 0
