Eighteen-year-old Texas high school senior Jack Pytel was out fishing on the evening of Feb. 1, 2020, when he made an incredible catch: a 7-foot-5-inch 190-pound (approx. 86-kilogram) alligator gar. The young man from Needville, Texas, told KTRK, “I was planning on catching some catfish. I didn’t even bring my stuff for gar that night.”
While fishing on the Brazos River with his girlfriend and a friend from school, Pytel got a big bite that let him know something massive was on the other end. “I called out my buddies to help out by catching the gar,” he told KPRC. “I didn’t realize what it was until after a half-hour later it jumped out of the water.”
