Texas Man Catches 8 Foot Pre-Historic Looking Fish

A Texas fisherman will never officially hold the record for the largest Alligator Gar ever caught, but after his claims that his scale bottomed out at 300 lbs along with the proof of this picture it seems as though he certainly had a shot.

Brent Crawford of Corpus Christi, Texas has been living on this particular lake for over 20 years and claims that he has never seen anything like the pre-historic looking fish that he speared while bow-fishing recently.

After Crawford noticed the enormous Alligator Gar swimming in a smaller canal along with five other smaller males, he knew that he couldn’t let the opportunity pass him by.

“Oh goodness. That fish right there was worth chasing,” he said.

As opposed to fishing with a rod and reel, bow fisherman usually only have one shot to get the best of their prey, which led Crawford to be very careful when approaching the massive fish.

“I could see her the whole time,” Crawford said. “But it was probably 45 minutes to an hour before I got my chance.”

Once the archer speared his target, this fish took off in a scurry, attempting to pull Crawford in as the line became wrapped around his hand. Luckily for the fisherman, his faithful companion, a dog named Bleaux, grabbed him by the pants and prevented him from being dragged into the lake.

Once Crawford was upright, he spent the next 45-minutes battling the fish before he was able to get it on the lake shore.

With no way to kill the Alligator Gar, the Texas fisherman then straddled the fish and called a close-by friend who then showed up with a pistol to finish the job.

When all was said and the done, the enormous pre-historic fish ended up being 8 feet 2 inches weighing in at an unknown amount because of the inadequacy of the scale.

According to the Corpus Christi Caller Times:

Crawford and Costlow filleted the fish, unaware the Texas state bow fishing record for alligator gar is 290 pounds. The overall state record is 302 pounds, caught in 1953 not far from Crawford’s boyhood home on the Nueces River. It was eight inches shorter than Crawford’s gar.

Do you think Brent Crawford’s 8 foot 2 inch Alligator Gar would’ve ended up being a world record?