Fifteen-year-old Baylor Allen was confident he would one day catch an alligator gar that would rank in the top 10 in Louisiana. Where did this confidence come from?
“I caught a 5-foot, 10-inch, 66-pound gar a couple of years ago,” said the Covenant Christian Academy sophomore. “It was so much fun catching that big fish. I looked up the top 10 gars in the state record book and found out that my fish was only a few pounds from the 10th place gar. Right then, I knew that it would be possible for me to catch a gar that would qualify.”
Baylor researched and studied various techniques to figure out not only the best way to catch large gar, but more importantly how to subdue them and get them into the boat without injury to the angler. When fishing, he did not specifically target gar, but he knew that at any time the chance might arise where he could land a gar big enough for the record book.
Over time he learned exactly what the bite of a big gar felt like on his line. The bite would usually be slight. Just a little tap, tap. Nothing aggressive. The taps would continue for a while. Eventually, the line would begin to move away slowly. Baylor would then open the bail on his spin-cast reel and let the fish take as much line as it wanted. When he decided the time was right, he would click the bail and set the hook as though his life depended on it. After the hook set, just to be certain, he would set it a few more times.
“Hooking a huge gar is not easy,” Baylor said. “Their mouths are so bony that it is very hard for the hook to set.”
Fighting the big fish
On April 22, Baylor was fishing with his grandfather south of his hometown in Morgan City. He was using cut mullet that he had caught in his cast net. They caught lots of big catfish, a few reds and had one nice gar that surfaced and threw the bait. With their ice chest almost full of fish, they decided to call it a day. Right then, Baylor noticed the slow tap, tap that he was hoping for. He went through his procedure and when the time came, he set the hook hard and then again several times.
“From the first pull, I knew this was a huge gar,” Baylor said. “I told my Pop, ‘this is a monster!’”
When the gar finally surfaced, it removed all doubt.
“It was the biggest fish I had ever seen,” Baylor said. “My first thought was I can’t lose this fish. I was using 80-pound braid, but I did not know if that was going to be enough to hold it.”
The fight raged on and the anglers determined there was no way they could safely gaff the fish and get it into the boat. Eventually, they eased the boat and fish near the bank and Baylor slid it out of the water. Only then were they able to wrestle it into the boat and secure it.
“Immediately, I knew that the gar must be at least 100 pounds,” Baylor said. “That weight would put me into the record book. I could not stop shaking, I was so excited!”
Getting an official weight
They hurried back to the boat landing to have the fish measured and weighed. The employees at Mr. Johnny’s Seafood, near the boat landing, had a certified scale and graciously hoisted the huge gar out of the boat with a forklift to weigh it. The fished weighed an incredible 152 pounds and measured a whopping 7 feet, 3 inches long.
Two state biologists from Lafayette came out to inspect the fish. They certified Baylor’s fish as the new No. 2 alligator gar in the state record book. It surpassed the 134-pound gar caught by James Strickland at the Red River in 1997 by 18 pounds.
After a bit of time for all of this to soak in, Baylor was ready for another challenge.
“My new goal is to catch the biggest alligator gar in the history of Louisiana,” he said.
Louisiana’s No. 1 record gar was caught in the Red River by Jimmy L. Thompson in 1997. It weighed 179 pounds.
