Where still legal, fishing for alligator gar can offer sportsmen extraordinary opportunities to catch giant fish close to home. Then, it moved back down to the middle part of the Escambia.” One fish tagged in the lower Escambia River moved into the Conecuh system in Alabama. Adults sometimes make long migrations after spawning in the spring. “Some fish we’ve tagged regularly move back and forth between the Yellow and Escambia systems. “Our goal is to return alligator gar to a sustainable fishery in Florida,” Knight explained. Once captured, the gar were outfitted with acoustic and radio telemetry systems to track their movements. Using gillnets with very large mesh openings they captured 17 alligator gar ranging in size from 19- to 132-pounds. Knight and his associates at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute hope to learn more about this ancient, yet little understood creature. Many were killed, but still they survive, albeit, fewer of them. Generally darker and splotchy, they range west of the Ochlockonee River and east of the Apalachicola drainage system.įor decades, many anglers considered gar nothing more than finny vermin destined for eradication. Also on the diminutive end of the scale, spotted gar rarely exceed a few pounds. Patrick McDaniel pulled the state record, a 9.44-pound fish, from Lake Lawne in Orange County. With shorter snouts than other gars, they somewhat resemble juvenile alligator gar, but rarely exceed 30 inches. The state record longnose, landed by Evan Merritt, weighed 41 pounds and came from Lake Panasoffkee.įound from the Ochlockonee River south throughout the peninsula, Florida gar have irregular round, black spots all over their bodies. Longnose gar overlap territory with alligator gar, but its distinctive elongated snout nearly twice as long as its head provides positive identification. The most widespread and abundant gar in Florida-longnose gar-inhabit most waters from Lake Okeechobee north.

Any garfish in Florida over 45 pounds is almost certainly an alligator gar,” added Knight. “The fundamental difference, other than size, is that alligator gar have shorter snouts and two rows of teeth. “Many people mistakenly assume that all garfish are alligator gar,” said John R. While Florida law prohibits the harvest of these amazing creatures and discourages anglers from specifically targeting giant alligator gar, other armored subspecies of gar outfitted with sharp teeth provide exciting sport in the Sunshine State. In poorly oxygenated waters, they can often be seen gulping air and can live several hours completely out of water. Highly adaptable creatures, gar prefer sluggish rivers, bayous and backwaters, but enter brackish estuaries and marine habitats. Zackary Phillips set the Florida record with a 123-pounder he pulled from the Choctawhatchee River.Īlligator Gar have witnessed the creation and extinction of dinosaurs, yet they survived unchanged for millions of years and are believed to have a lifespan greater than 50 years. Among the largest freshwater fish in North America, these river monsters may grow longer than 10 feet and exceed an astonishing 360 pounds! The official rod and reel world record, a fish caught in Texas, weighed 279 pounds.

Native Americans used gar hides as shields and the diamond-shaped scales were used to make saws, arrowheads and jewelry. Blunt snouts resembling alligator heads contain hundreds of needle-like teeth that can inflict serious damage to flesh, although larger fish act more like scavengers than predators. Living up to its name, an alligator gar looks like a legless alligator encased in interlocking armor. They may have been in the Apalachicola River, but we currently have no record of alligator gar in the Apalachicola,” added Knight.

“Historically, they were distributed through the Perdido, Escambia, Blackwater, Yellow and Choctawhatchee River systems. Knight, a fisheries biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. “Alligator garfish are native to northern Florida, but the population is small,” said John R. This battle did not take place over a vast ocean trench, but on the shoreline of a bayou barely five feet deep. The fish casually rolled before disappearing into the stained water it has called home for decades. Finally, I pulled the heavily armored beast to the surface for a good look before its massive jaws lined with razor-sharp teeth sliced through the line. After an exhausting 30-minute battle punctuated by an amazing aerial display, the toothy creature made one final determined leap, thoroughly drenching me as it impacted the water once again.

River monster