by: Keith Riehn -
OUTDOOR GUIDE MAGAZINE, October-November 2005 issue.
As we drove to Texas for our annual bowfishing trip visions of fat buffalo, and unusually large gar were racing through my mind. “When you see one of those giant alligator gar in the water you may be too mesmerized to shoot!” That was what my good friend and now business partner, Robin Parks, told me 3 years ago on my first trip to Texas. Since then I have dreamed about the chance to put my nerves to the test.
My first two trips to Texas were anything but disappointing. We shot buffalo that many bowfishermen only hear about. Longnose gar were abundant, and nothing is more enjoyable to me than testing my archery skills trying to hit one of these beautiful creatures as they roll and taunt you with a big splash. And to top it off I watched Robin arrow a huge 165 lb. Alligator gar.
To say the least, I have become addicted to the sport of bowfishing. Having a mentor such as Robin has given me opportunities that other bowfishermen envy. I was so excited about bowfishing that I convinced Robin that we needed to share these experiences with others so we started up Aim Low Productions LLC. Our first video “Aim’n Low Volume I” was released in January of 2005. The bowfishing world welcomed this video with tons of praise and encouragement. We were able to video giant fish of just about every species and bring them to the living room of outdoorsmen. However, something was missing. We knew what we needed to make Aim’n Low Volume II an even bigger success than the first video, “a giant alligator gar”. The king of all fish in the bowfishing world!
The first few days of the trip were once again, nothing shy of unbelievable. Not only did we find humungous buffalo, but also we managed to arrow the pending Texas state record. What else could be better? How about 5 or 6 longnose gar that all weighed over 30 lbs, with the largest of the group topping the benchmark 60” trophy status?
Could it possibly get any better than this? We found the answer to that question on the second to last day of the trip. We had all the buffalo and longnose footage that we could squeeze into a trip and a video. We decided to spend the rest of our time concentrating on that gator gar we had only wished about up to that point. We knew where to find one, but getting a shot at one is another story. Anyone who has put their sole efforts into a gator gar will tell you there are way more trips back to shore with a boat filled with frustration rather than fish.
We had spent from daylight until afternoon slowly trolling back and forth and seeing an occasional rolling gator gar and several longnose that we had almost became oblivious to by that point. We had decided that it was time to try another spot as our heads were just about baked from the Texas sun and we were seeing less and less gar as the day went on. “Let’s make one more pass through this hole before we head out” Robin said. Little did we know that one more pass would be the ticket to something unbelievable.
We were both looking out ahead as we trolled a little faster than normal, not really expecting anything other than another disappointing lap before we headed out. Something caught our eyes to the left front of the boat. Almost like we had planned it 100 times before, we both came to full draw saying “Oh my God!” and released our arrows at the most incredible creature we had ever seen. This wasn’t a fish; it far more resembled some kind of prehistoric monster. Both of us in shock, we still managed to hold on for dear life to our bows and get our wits enough to figure out how to get this beast to the boat. Luckily it surfaced one last time in an attempt to get air and allowed us to get one more arrow past its armor like skin. After 20 or so minutes and two sore backs we were able to sit in awe and just stare at this creature. To have our cameraman, Larry there to film this whole event made it even that much sweeter. To the best of our knowledge, this alligator gar is the pending Sam Rayburn Lake record, and possibly the second biggest ever taken with a bow and arrow. The gar weighed in at 244.5 lbs. and measured 8 ft. 2 inches. Maybe the most impressive measurement is the girth, which is 44.75 inches. To say we are still on cloud nine is an understatement. The only problem now is “How will we top that trip?”
