As a kid living in the Rio Grand Valley, the most fun I had with my friends fishing in fresh water was in the Resacas around the town of Brownsville,Texas. These man made channels were and a few are still used to irrigate the vegetable or orange fields in the area. The first time I was invited by my friends parents to go along with them, proved to be an exciting experience.
My best friend Alonzo and his father invited me to tag along for a day of fishing, and told me to bring the strongest pole and tackle I had. I was looking forward to this new kind of fishing, I mean, what was an alligator gar? I know the word alligator caught my attention, but wasn’t sure what it meant. I walked over to my friends house early in the morning, ready for this new challenge. We drove for about 30 minuets and arrived to this cool fishing spot along the bank of this large resaca and we set up camp there for the day. I helped collect firewood and started rigging my best pole.
My friend had a casting net and caught some shinners and perch for bait. I noticed that they were tiing on steel leaders with fairly large hooks, I didn’t have any of those but they did let me use some of their gear. Wow! We must be going after some big fish from all the heavy duty poles I saw, I had a short thick ugly stick that i used mostly at the coast and seemed to be appropriate here. 30 pound line and a heavy action bait casting reel and I was ready, but I didn’t know what I was in for.
Using a large float with a steel leader with about 2 feet of drop on the bait we casted out our lines to the center of the man made channel, I noticed these large fish that would come up to the surface and do a belly roll now and then, they said, “Gar”. They were being very quiet this whole time, it was a set up, and I was the sucker.
It wasn’t long before one of our crew hooked one of these things and the battle began! Seeing the pole he had bend so much and the fight he was giving the fish caught me by surprise,”What is this thing?” I didn’t know there was anything this big in Texas fresh water. My friend looked at me and smiled, and I kept looking at my float and the man battle this monster. My friends father reached into his tackle box and pulled out a revolver, a .22 caliber, now I know why, I was the first time I saw a gar, it was huge! This one turned out to be about 50 to 55 pounds of pure hell. They managed to get it close enough to the bank and as soon as it was still long enough, I heard the shot.
They pulled this huge fish up on shore and shook the hand of the man who caught it, I went over to see this and was amazed at the size. The long snout and those sharp teeth scared me at first, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, half alligator, half fish. They told me they had to shoot it before they could bring it ashore, or else it was fight and try to bite someone, apparently they can be dangerous.
On the open fire we had they cooked the gar, with a little garlic, salt, and corn tortilla, it was rather good. I did manage to catch one that day but it was a baby compared to what I saw that day, mine was around 12 pounds. I had a kodak pocket camera that day and took a few pictures, but during then and now I lost them somewhere in the shuffle of growing up, what a shame.
I went back to that place many of times since until I moved away, it is located almost right on the intersection or highway 83 between Harlingen and Brownsville Texas. It’s where one turns left on Texas farm road 100 to go towards South Padre Island. I wonder if it’s still there?
There is another good addition to the list of Texas Fishing Holes for Gar, and that is on the Trinity River about 25 miles north of Huntsville, Texas. Now talk about some monsters, they have them there as well, so if your interested in some real fresh water action, this is one spot you have to try, bring heavy tackle and live bait works best, the local bait shops have what you need, just ask them, but you may have to bring your own .22
Enjoy