A year ago, 15-year-old Baylor Allen from Morgan City burst onto the state fishing scene with an incredible 7-foot-3 alligator gar that weighed 152 pounds. Baylor broke a 29-year-old record that put him at No. 2 in the Louisiana record book.
The plan
Fast forward to May 2026 and Baylor invited his two buddies, Trevor LeBlanc of Thibodaux and Nathan Boquet of Schreiver, on a fishing trip. The three 16 year olds are high school juniors. Trevor and Nathan are relatively new to fishing.
“I wanted to bring my friends to the Atchafalaya Delta WMA because the fishing is usually good there,” Baylor said.
The fishing was slow. They caught a few hardhead and freshwater catfish. Trevor did catch a 20-pound black drum. In the late afternoon, a huge gar surfaced in front of the boat.
“That’s a 7-footer!” Baylor said.
The boys cast their lines to the left side of the boat in front of the gar hoping he would find their cut mullet bait.
The fight begins
Within a few minutes, Nathan started getting a slow tap on his line. At the hook set, the fish exploded out of the water. It was a massive alligator gar. The same one that had just surfaced. The fight was furious. It came out of the water, thrashing back and forth. Baylor quickly pulled up the anchor and headed for the bank.
“We have lost so many big gar right at the boat,” Baylor said. “They either jump and throw the bait or snap the line. Our best chance was to get it up on the bank.”
The gar made another big run, snagging the 80-pound braid line tightly over the prop. This was about to turn into a lost fish story. Thankfully, the gar paused, giving Nathan a moment to free the line.
“It was so close to breaking the line, I couldn’t breathe!” Nathan said.
Baylor and Nathan hurried out of the boat. Gaff in hand, Baylor instructed Nathan to ease the head up out of the water. Baylor immediately gaffed the fish and pulled it onto the bank.
“I was so excited,” Nathan said. “I couldn’t believe how big it was!”
Top 10 catch
With the gar safely out of the water, the celebration began.
“You broke the record!” Baylor said.
Back in Morgan City, they hoisted the 7-foot-9 beast up with a tractor to weigh it. The scale read 178 pounds. Only one pound from the record of 179 pounds set by Jimmy Thompson in 1997. With all weigh stations closed, the boys iced the fish down, hoping it would not lose too much weight overnight.
To qualify for the state record book, the fish must be weighed on a certified scale and inspected by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The next day at their Bourg office the gar was certified. The official weight was 175 pounds. Not good enough for first place, but it put Nathan at No. 2, bumping his buddy Baylor to No. 3.
“Now I want to get to No. 1 and I won’t stop trying until I do,” Nathan said.
Baylor feels the same way. The teenagers now own two of the Top 3 spots in the record book. It seems likely that the record is going to be broken in the not-too-distant future. The question is when and by whom?
