A Texas fisherman who snagged a humongous alligator gar only realized just how big it was when he saw the picture of him laying beside it.
Paul Hefner, 23, used a jug line (a line suspended from a floating jug) to catch the whopping gar on April 13, before releasing it safely back in the water straight after weighing. Mr. Hefner and his father lassoed the gar behind its gill plates in order to drag it to the bank.
Although the fish was already tired after several hours of tugging on the line, it still presented a big challenge.
“A fish that big can really displace way more water than you think with its tail when it wants to swim,” Mr. Hefner told The Epoch Times. “There isn’t really anything else you can do except let it swim. Good luck controlling something that big!
“We didn’t really realize how big it was until we actually got it fully on the bank and measured it. We had caught one other gar that was 6 feet 9 inches [approx. 2.05 meters] and I didn’t think it was all that much bigger until I saw the picture of me side by side with it. When I saw that picture, I knew it was a potential record.”
The father-son duo knew before they set out that they’d want to release any large catch, so they prepared a harness in advance to allow them to weigh a big fish without causing harm.
“Me and my dad both had to lift while my mom looked at the scale,” Mr. Hefner said, adding that their scale is certified through Texas Parks, making it good enough to capture the record.
Born and raised outside Austin, Mr. Hefner studied aerospace engineering before moving to Utah, where he works as a systems engineer. He’s been fishing since his childhood, starting in the Central Texas area, where he and his dad mostly sought out catfish.
Since relocating, the young fishing enthusiast tries to make it to Texas as often as possible to pursue his sport, clearly taking after his father, who has also broken records for the largest catfish. The pair had their latest trip, which took place from mid-March to mid-April, planned for over a year.
Lake Corpus Christi is abundant in several varieties of fish; the alligator gar being one of the largest native freshwater fishes of them all.
With gar season soon to be over in Texas, what does Hefner have planned next?
“I’m just starting to get into shark fishing from the surf as well, so my other goal is to catch a shark above 8 feet [2.4 meters],” he said.
