10-Year-Old Catches Massive 8-Foot Alligator Gar, Releases It Without Knowing It Was A State Record

Alligator gar

OOF, this one hurts just to hear.

Imagine going fishing one day and reeling in the catch of a lifetime, and releasing it back without knowing you had a STATE RECORD on your hands…

Would probably feel worse than a Razor scooter to the ankle.

This is exactly what happened to 10-year-old Emily Myers from Houston, Texas.

Myers and her dad, Paul, were fishing for alligator gar, when she landed her personal best catch in a greater Houston area waterway on Sunday. The eight-foot alligator gar was almost twice as long as the 10-year-old is tall, according to Outdoor Life.

Paul and Emily fish together often, and has caught at least five eight-foot gar in over a decade of fishing the area.

Perhaps the most impressive part is that Emily knew what she was doing the whole time, as she’s been fishing since she was three and as an avid nature lover, it all came second nature to her.

Paul told the outlet:

“She cast-netted her own bait, she got the bait in, she knew what bait to go for in these conditions, she (was aware of) the water level, she knew exactly where to place her bait. I hadn’t even gotten the third rod out when she started screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy!’”

The fight lasted just over 10 minutes before she finally reeled in the big female to the bank.

He continued:

“What took a long time was me getting the lasso around the fish and making sure it didn’t hit the gills. It’s a big fish, and it was thrashing around down there.”

The fish measured 96.5 inches long, with a girth of 47 inches.

You can hear him say in the Facebook video:

“Woah look at that thing. Say something Emmy… come a little closer, I don’t want anybody to even attempt to see where we are.”

But the sickening part is that they released the gar, even though it likely would’ve been the new youth state record.

Its length was larger than the current youth record alligator gar record by a good 3.5 inches, weighing 192-pounds back in 2007.

Paul later mentioned in the video that the gar Emily caught was probably 225-pounds, but the two decided to just cherish the moment, take a couple pics, and release it.

Paul said:

“I let her choose. She didn’t care about a piece of paper. She’s all about the experience, and the fact that she’s been after an 8-footer, at her age, that’s bigger than anything she has ever caught.”

You gotta respect it. Fishing for the love of it, rather than the fame.

They also said that only a couple minutes later, they caught a 6.5 foot gar. Talk about a lucky day.

Emily told the Houston Chronicle that the probable state record gar was “really heavy,” and that her next goal was an 80-pound flathead, a 100-pound blue cat, and an 80-pound hammerhead.

Nebraska Man Sets Bowfishing World Record For Largest Shortnose Gar

Talk about a catch of a lifetime.

Rich Porter traveled down from his home in Nebraska, to the Lake of the Ozarks to go fishing with a friend a couple times a year, according to the Kansas City Star.

On May 16th, the Omaha resident made his trip down to the Ozarks for a bowfishing trip, and his buddy was “playing guide.”

At their last stop, Porter shot a sweet gar…

Except this wasn’t your basic gar. It was a 14-pound, six-ounce gar, more than three times the average size of the fish.

Porter weighed in:

“Shortnose gar usually only (weigh) three-to-four pounds. So, to catch one that big, we thought it was a longnose.”

The Missouri Department of Conservation says that shortnose gars are one of the smaller types of gars, with the largest in Missouri typically ranging from six to 11 pounds.

Not only was the shot a state record, but a world record as well.

Porter immediately contacted wildlife officials, making sure that it was actually a shortnose gar, and not a hybrid longnose gar.

Needless to say, the fish qualified, and Porter now holds the Missouri state record for alternative methods for shortnose gar and the shortnose gar bowfishing world record.

Porter expressed his excitement:

“I’m a long-standing member of the Bowfishing Association of America so to catch a gar of this size is very exciting– it’s something else.”

The previous record was set at 13-pounds, one-ounce.

A man holding a fish

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