As many know the Alligator gar are taking over lake Livingston as well as below the dam. We are allowed one a day that measures under 48 inches. Since TPWD does not have enough sense to see what is happening may I suggest do us all a favor and regardless of what you are fishing for take one pole and bait it for gar. Take it home and feed the dog or whatever, just take it out of commission.
saved
I agree they are taking over, fishing for anything besides a gar the river is impossible because of the gar. Fishing for anything in the lake successfully will soon bring the monster gar around like sharks to attack the school of whatever else you are fishing for and disrupt the school.
The combination of successive floods that result in population booms of gar and protection from TPWD have resulted in an abundance of the apex predators that live a long, long time.
They will soon have to eat each other!
The combination of successive floods that result in population booms of gar and protection from TPWD have resulted in an abundance of the apex predators that live a long, long time.
They will soon have to eat each other!
I didn't know they had a limit. Lol I occasionally catch one around 30-40 " and fry it but I fish the bays as I read the rules and regs it says up until the i-10 bridge in chambers County.....so I'm assuming you can keep one over 48 if you catch it in the bay ?
Y’all are really missing out if you’re feeding them to the puppy. Gar are good!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I caught some very nice blue cats early today, up to six pounds and they seemed to quit about 8:15 so I took a tour around the island looking for white bass. Right now there are MASSIVE schools of large threadfin shad around the island. I could see gar rolling and exploding on schools of shad or white bass just about any direction I looked at any time.
I did notice that the white bass were in schools suspended at 10' pretty consistently in water that was 22' to 25' deep.
But the GAR are everywhere, and when it gets hot nothing gets near the bank of the island without becoming a quick gar meal.
I did notice that the white bass were in schools suspended at 10' pretty consistently in water that was 22' to 25' deep.
But the GAR are everywhere, and when it gets hot nothing gets near the bank of the island without becoming a quick gar meal.
They’ve ALWAYS been below Livingston dam. Would see “folks” cleaning them on banks with machete and hammer. Lots of them. Would see them roll around us as we fished for whites. This was in late 70s / early 80s. 6’ was a easy length to find on cleaning table
Yep they are more prolific now than they have been since the early 70s when I started fishing there. In the past every summer they would get bad when the river was low and the water warm.
Many of the guides and commercial fishermen would catch them for the 18 wheeler refrigerator truck that came every week during the summer to buy the gar and take them to Baton Rouge where there was a big pressure cooking plant that paid a $1.00 a pound for them, the same as catfish back then.
Now they live there in huge numbers all year, I guess by now they are eating each other.
I think they may contribute to just bad stuff all around, stinking gar.
Many of the guides and commercial fishermen would catch them for the 18 wheeler refrigerator truck that came every week during the summer to buy the gar and take them to Baton Rouge where there was a big pressure cooking plant that paid a $1.00 a pound for them, the same as catfish back then.
Now they live there in huge numbers all year, I guess by now they are eating each other.
I think they may contribute to just bad stuff all around, stinking gar.
Oh no yall are mistaken. The alligator gar are fixing to be extinct according to TPWD. Dumbasses. We tried to tell them. Myself and 3 buddies sent a letter signed by over 50 people offering to show them the real world scenario of how the gar are. They blew us off like the always do. The gar are/will ruin sport fishing. They say they don't eat the sport fish but they eat the bait the sport fish rely on. I'm so tired of seeing 5-10 7 foot gar a day and being told they don't exist by TPWD
Lol y’all remember that guy sharkbait? He basically worshipped gar. Prolly tell y’all should convert to gar fishing and to handle them with TLC. I used to fish riverside some. Always saw a lot of gar up there. The trinity is known for that.
"that guy sharkbait" is doing pretty good these days https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uKdwg7hdwupgYT0M4koUg
full study here https://seafwa.org/sites/default/files/journal-articles/J8_03_Snow and Porta 15-22_0.pdf
Seasonal Food Habits and Prey Selectivity of Alligator Gar from Texoma Reservoir, Oklahoma
SEAFWA Journal Volume 8, March 2021
Michael J. Porta
Richard A. Snow
Alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) were once viewed negatively by anglers and state agencies, but interest in reintroduction and trophy management of gar has increased in many states across their range, including Oklahoma. Therefore, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is planning to reintroduce alligator gar back into their native range. Thus, biologists decided to implement a food habits study to determine potential impacts of alligator gar to other fish populations in order to address angler concerns about possible reintroduction. The objectives of this study were to describe seasonal food habits and prey selection of alligator gar collected from Texoma Reservoir located on the Texas-Oklahoma border. Fish were mostly collected using gill nets but 36% were also donated by anglers. Diets were pooled into two seasonal groupings (winter-spring and summer-fall). Stomach contents were analyzed from a sample of 138 alligator gar (56 in winter-spring; 82 in summer-fall). Alligator gar were primarily piscivorous, with gizzard shad being the predominant prey item consumed across seasons. Although alligator gar primarily consumed nongame fish, striped bass (Morone saxatilis) occurred in 11% of diets with other sportfish representing a combined occurrence <4%. Prey selectivity was evaluated using a jug-line survey during summer 2017 and 2018. Each jug line was baited with a dead whole fish from one of six prey taxon (three sportfish: catfish [Ictalurus spp.], largemouth bass [Micropterus salmoides], and white crappie [Pomoxis annularis]), and three nongame species: buffalo [Ictiobus spp.], gizzard shad [Dorosoma cepedianum], and river carpsucker [Carpiodes carpio]). Of the 101 alligator gar caught with juglines, buffalo and river carpsucker were the only two prey items with positive selectivity values. Alligator gar selected neutrally for gizzard shad and selected against catfish, largemouth bass, and white crappie. This study provides fisheries managers with important information regarding alligator gar diets and prey selection, which can be valuable when addressing angler concerns about future reintroduction efforts.
Publication date
March 1, 2021
full study here https://seafwa.org/sites/default/files/journal-articles/J8_03_Snow and Porta 15-22_0.pdf
Seasonal Food Habits and Prey Selectivity of Alligator Gar from Texoma Reservoir, Oklahoma
SEAFWA Journal Volume 8, March 2021
Michael J. Porta
Richard A. Snow
Alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) were once viewed negatively by anglers and state agencies, but interest in reintroduction and trophy management of gar has increased in many states across their range, including Oklahoma. Therefore, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is planning to reintroduce alligator gar back into their native range. Thus, biologists decided to implement a food habits study to determine potential impacts of alligator gar to other fish populations in order to address angler concerns about possible reintroduction. The objectives of this study were to describe seasonal food habits and prey selection of alligator gar collected from Texoma Reservoir located on the Texas-Oklahoma border. Fish were mostly collected using gill nets but 36% were also donated by anglers. Diets were pooled into two seasonal groupings (winter-spring and summer-fall). Stomach contents were analyzed from a sample of 138 alligator gar (56 in winter-spring; 82 in summer-fall). Alligator gar were primarily piscivorous, with gizzard shad being the predominant prey item consumed across seasons. Although alligator gar primarily consumed nongame fish, striped bass (Morone saxatilis) occurred in 11% of diets with other sportfish representing a combined occurrence <4%. Prey selectivity was evaluated using a jug-line survey during summer 2017 and 2018. Each jug line was baited with a dead whole fish from one of six prey taxon (three sportfish: catfish [Ictalurus spp.], largemouth bass [Micropterus salmoides], and white crappie [Pomoxis annularis]), and three nongame species: buffalo [Ictiobus spp.], gizzard shad [Dorosoma cepedianum], and river carpsucker [Carpiodes carpio]). Of the 101 alligator gar caught with juglines, buffalo and river carpsucker were the only two prey items with positive selectivity values. Alligator gar selected neutrally for gizzard shad and selected against catfish, largemouth bass, and white crappie. This study provides fisheries managers with important information regarding alligator gar diets and prey selection, which can be valuable when addressing angler concerns about future reintroduction efforts.
Publication date
March 1, 2021
AbuGarcia, if they prefer carpsucker and buffalo why do they attack schools of white bass and will actually attack a white bass you are reeling in here on Lake Livingston which is chock full of gizzard shad and buffalo?
The Trinity River below the dam it is even more of a problem with them attacking game fish being reeled in.
Maybe after protection and several years of population explosion due to flooding there are too many and other food sources than the ones found to be preferred in studies are more readily eaten?
Or the inside Texas border gar have fancier pallets.
Whatever the reason there are way too many in the lake and river.
The Trinity River below the dam it is even more of a problem with them attacking game fish being reeled in.
Maybe after protection and several years of population explosion due to flooding there are too many and other food sources than the ones found to be preferred in studies are more readily eaten?
Or the inside Texas border gar have fancier pallets.
Whatever the reason there are way too many in the lake and river.
Found this
Houston Chronicle - Trinity River flooding a boon to alligator gar spawn
Anglers fishing for trophy-size alligator gar in the Trinity River in 2040 and beyond may well look back on 2015 with particular appreciation for what this year gave them.
Chances are good many of the 150- to 200-pound or heavier alligator gar those anglers catch from the Trinity 25 to 40 years or more from now will have been hatched in 2015, a year that saw what may be the most productive spawning season the slow-growing, armor-plated fish have enjoyed in decades.
"The flooding we've seen in Texas this year has been a tragedy for so many people, and you can't understate or diminish that human impact; it was horrible," said Craig Bonds, director of inland fisheries for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. "But if you're looking for something positive from all that water, it did provide benefits to fisheries. Some of those benefits will be around for years to come."
Alligator gar in the Trinity River are one of those positives, Bonds said.
Record-setting rains and weeks-long flooding in much of Texas this year caused considerable human misery and economic losses. But that flooding, coming after almost a decade of pernicious, persistent drought, proved a super-charger for inland fisheries by filling reservoirs, pumping nutrients into fisheries, flooding shoreline vegetation that provided cover for just-hatched fish and resulted in outstanding survival of the year's annual crop of largemouth bass, crappie and other game fish.
While the high water proved a benefit to almost all freshwater fish, it was particularly advantageous for alligator gar. For alligator gar in the Trinity and other Texas rivers, the floods produced the rare combination of conditions necessary for them to successfully reproduce at all.
Alligator gar spawn only in areas holding flooded terrestrial vegetation. Female gar, which take a decade or more to grow to 60 inches or so and reach sexual maturity, move into grassy, weedy flooded shallows where they are followed by packs of smaller males.
The female releases her eggs and the attending males fertilize them. The sticky eggs attach to stalks and leaves of the submerged terrestrial vegetation where they hatch after several days. The larval gar hang in the flooded areas, growing amazingly quickly.
"You can almost watch them grow," Bonds said. "They'll get to 4-5 inches really fast."
As the flooding recedes, the young gar end up in oxbows or sloughs or the main river channel where they can live for decades, feeding almost exclusively on shad, buffalo, carp, freshwater drum and other "rough" fish. And they can get huge. Alligator gar can grow to more than 300 pounds and live almost a century. A 327-pounder caught in Mississippi was 95 years old, its age calculated by counting the annual "growth rings" in its otolith, or ear bone.
Texas, and particularly the Trinity River, holds the nation's premier "trophy" alligator gar fishery, regularly producing fish weighing more than 150 pounds and often more than 200 pounds. The state rod-and-reel record is 279 pounds, with a 302-pounder caught on a trotline and a 290-pounder taken with a bow.
The Trinity's alligator gar fishery has become world famous, drawing anglers, many from other counties, who want the experience of hooking and landing one of these huge, fierce-fighting, strikingly atavistic fish.But the Trinity's gar fishery is a relatively fragile thing. Their specialized spawning requirements mean they successfully reproduce only in years when rivers or reservoirs flood and the high-water holds long enough for the fish to spawn, the eggs to hatch and the young fish to grow big enough to survive. And in Texas, such conditions have become increasingly rare.
Drought combined with human manipulation of river hydrology has made these conditions increasingly rare. TPWD research indicates alligator gar along the middle reaches of the Trinity River failed to produce any young in 17 of the past 47 years, with only limited young gar produced in some of those "successful" years.
This year was different.
Texas this year saw the wettest May statewide in the 120 years such records have been kept. The Trinity River was out of its banks from late spring through much of the summer, overlapping alligator gar spawning season.
"You couldn't have dreamed up better spawning conditions than what the Trinity saw this year," Bonds said. "The river was so high for so long. It hit just perfect, and the fish took advantage of it."
TPWD staff documented alligator gar spawning throughout the summer. Staff of TPWD's Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area found swarms of huge alligator gar spawning in flooded areas of the WMA and shot some of the most amazing video of the event, including underwater shots of alligator gar eggs and larval gar. (The video can be found on YouTube.)
The Trinity's alligator gar have not had a successful spawn since 2007, Bonds said. And for the past several years agency researchers have had a devil of a time finding young alligator gar for ongoing studies. That was not a problem this summer.
"They were everywhere," Bonds said of young gar.
This off-the-charts spawn bodes well for the future of the river's alligator gar fishery. The fish born this year will be important components of the Trinity's fishery for decades to come.
"Thirty, 40 and even 50 years from now, anglers will still be catching alligator gar from the 2015 year class of fish," Bonds said.
Houston Chronicle - Trinity River flooding a boon to alligator gar spawn
Anglers fishing for trophy-size alligator gar in the Trinity River in 2040 and beyond may well look back on 2015 with particular appreciation for what this year gave them.
Chances are good many of the 150- to 200-pound or heavier alligator gar those anglers catch from the Trinity 25 to 40 years or more from now will have been hatched in 2015, a year that saw what may be the most productive spawning season the slow-growing, armor-plated fish have enjoyed in decades.
"The flooding we've seen in Texas this year has been a tragedy for so many people, and you can't understate or diminish that human impact; it was horrible," said Craig Bonds, director of inland fisheries for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. "But if you're looking for something positive from all that water, it did provide benefits to fisheries. Some of those benefits will be around for years to come."
Alligator gar in the Trinity River are one of those positives, Bonds said.
Record-setting rains and weeks-long flooding in much of Texas this year caused considerable human misery and economic losses. But that flooding, coming after almost a decade of pernicious, persistent drought, proved a super-charger for inland fisheries by filling reservoirs, pumping nutrients into fisheries, flooding shoreline vegetation that provided cover for just-hatched fish and resulted in outstanding survival of the year's annual crop of largemouth bass, crappie and other game fish.
While the high water proved a benefit to almost all freshwater fish, it was particularly advantageous for alligator gar. For alligator gar in the Trinity and other Texas rivers, the floods produced the rare combination of conditions necessary for them to successfully reproduce at all.
Alligator gar spawn only in areas holding flooded terrestrial vegetation. Female gar, which take a decade or more to grow to 60 inches or so and reach sexual maturity, move into grassy, weedy flooded shallows where they are followed by packs of smaller males.
The female releases her eggs and the attending males fertilize them. The sticky eggs attach to stalks and leaves of the submerged terrestrial vegetation where they hatch after several days. The larval gar hang in the flooded areas, growing amazingly quickly.
"You can almost watch them grow," Bonds said. "They'll get to 4-5 inches really fast."
As the flooding recedes, the young gar end up in oxbows or sloughs or the main river channel where they can live for decades, feeding almost exclusively on shad, buffalo, carp, freshwater drum and other "rough" fish. And they can get huge. Alligator gar can grow to more than 300 pounds and live almost a century. A 327-pounder caught in Mississippi was 95 years old, its age calculated by counting the annual "growth rings" in its otolith, or ear bone.
Texas, and particularly the Trinity River, holds the nation's premier "trophy" alligator gar fishery, regularly producing fish weighing more than 150 pounds and often more than 200 pounds. The state rod-and-reel record is 279 pounds, with a 302-pounder caught on a trotline and a 290-pounder taken with a bow.
The Trinity's alligator gar fishery has become world famous, drawing anglers, many from other counties, who want the experience of hooking and landing one of these huge, fierce-fighting, strikingly atavistic fish.But the Trinity's gar fishery is a relatively fragile thing. Their specialized spawning requirements mean they successfully reproduce only in years when rivers or reservoirs flood and the high-water holds long enough for the fish to spawn, the eggs to hatch and the young fish to grow big enough to survive. And in Texas, such conditions have become increasingly rare.
Drought combined with human manipulation of river hydrology has made these conditions increasingly rare. TPWD research indicates alligator gar along the middle reaches of the Trinity River failed to produce any young in 17 of the past 47 years, with only limited young gar produced in some of those "successful" years.
This year was different.
Texas this year saw the wettest May statewide in the 120 years such records have been kept. The Trinity River was out of its banks from late spring through much of the summer, overlapping alligator gar spawning season.
"You couldn't have dreamed up better spawning conditions than what the Trinity saw this year," Bonds said. "The river was so high for so long. It hit just perfect, and the fish took advantage of it."
TPWD staff documented alligator gar spawning throughout the summer. Staff of TPWD's Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area found swarms of huge alligator gar spawning in flooded areas of the WMA and shot some of the most amazing video of the event, including underwater shots of alligator gar eggs and larval gar. (The video can be found on YouTube.)
The Trinity's alligator gar have not had a successful spawn since 2007, Bonds said. And for the past several years agency researchers have had a devil of a time finding young alligator gar for ongoing studies. That was not a problem this summer.
"They were everywhere," Bonds said of young gar.
This off-the-charts spawn bodes well for the future of the river's alligator gar fishery. The fish born this year will be important components of the Trinity's fishery for decades to come.
"Thirty, 40 and even 50 years from now, anglers will still be catching alligator gar from the 2015 year class of fish," Bonds said.
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