Post by account_disabled on Feb 22, 2024 7:36:06 GMT 1
Fishermen recently captured a massive 283-pound (128-kilogram) alligator after a nearly three-hour fight in a Texas reservoir, before releasing it back into the murky waters. Experts say this extraordinary catch could break a pair of world records dating back to 1951. Art Weston caught the giant gar on September 2 at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in East Texas, with the help of local boat captain Kirk Kirkland while aboard Kirkland's boat, the Garship Enterprise. The strong fish measured around 2.5 meters (8.3 ft) long and had a maximum girth of around 1.2 m (4 ft). It took Weston 2 hours and 45 minutes to catch the massive creature, leaving him visibly "shaking" from fatigue, Kirkland wrote in a Facebook post . After weighing and measuring the gar, the couple returned it to the reservoir, which is connected to the Angelina River. Weston and Kirkland have submitted evidence of the catch to the International Game Fishing Association.
His catch is likely to break the 6-pound male IGFA line class record and the IGFA all-tackle record (largest catch for any line class) for the species, IGFA representatives wrote in Facebook . However, the Pakistan Phone Number record has not yet been officially verified. Related: What is the largest freshwater fish in the world? A huge fish on a beach with a tape measure next to it. The fishermen measured and weighed the gigantic fish before returning it to the reservoir. (Image credit: Kirk Kirkland) "I applaud Art Weston and Kirk Kirkland for their gigantic catch," Solomon David , an aquatic ecologist at the University of Minnesota who runs a research lab that studies alligators, told LiveScience in an email. It is "truly the fish of my life," he added.
Alligators measuring more than 8 feet (2.4 m) long are very rare, David said. His research group has only encountered a handful of individuals for so long, he added. However, there are records of even larger gar being caught in recent years. The largest alligator ever recorded was a 327-pound (148 kg) behemoth that was captured in Mississippi in 2011, David said. But that individual was accidentally caught in a fishing net and therefore does not count as an IGFA record, he added. In May 2022, fishermen caught an estimated 300-pound (136 kg) alligator in a swamp near Houston. However, the specimen was never accurately measured because the person who captured it had no interest in breaking IGFA records. Alligators can grow so large because they have an expansive habitat and an abundance of food, David said. They grow very quickly in their early years, reaching up to 2 feet long in their first year and up to he added.
His catch is likely to break the 6-pound male IGFA line class record and the IGFA all-tackle record (largest catch for any line class) for the species, IGFA representatives wrote in Facebook . However, the Pakistan Phone Number record has not yet been officially verified. Related: What is the largest freshwater fish in the world? A huge fish on a beach with a tape measure next to it. The fishermen measured and weighed the gigantic fish before returning it to the reservoir. (Image credit: Kirk Kirkland) "I applaud Art Weston and Kirk Kirkland for their gigantic catch," Solomon David , an aquatic ecologist at the University of Minnesota who runs a research lab that studies alligators, told LiveScience in an email. It is "truly the fish of my life," he added.
Alligators measuring more than 8 feet (2.4 m) long are very rare, David said. His research group has only encountered a handful of individuals for so long, he added. However, there are records of even larger gar being caught in recent years. The largest alligator ever recorded was a 327-pound (148 kg) behemoth that was captured in Mississippi in 2011, David said. But that individual was accidentally caught in a fishing net and therefore does not count as an IGFA record, he added. In May 2022, fishermen caught an estimated 300-pound (136 kg) alligator in a swamp near Houston. However, the specimen was never accurately measured because the person who captured it had no interest in breaking IGFA records. Alligators can grow so large because they have an expansive habitat and an abundance of food, David said. They grow very quickly in their early years, reaching up to 2 feet long in their first year and up to he added.