# 145-pound alligator gar caught



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

145-pound alligator gar caught

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/other/2939193

POTTSBORO - A fisherman from Aubrey caught an alligator gar at Lake Texoma that he says measures 7 feet long and weighs 145 pounds.

"It's going to make me think twice about water skiing on Lake Texoma," Phil Marks told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Marks, 28 was fishing Sunday afternoon with two buddies when he hooked the gar in the lake on the Texas-Oklahoma border.

Parks & Wildlife biologist Bruce Hysmith at the Lake Texoma Fisheries Station says the area where the three men were fishing was in Texas waters, south of the Red River channel.

The fish was taken to a taxidermist and frozen, according to Marks. It will be thawed in order to certify the weight and length as a possible record.

"I daresay it may weigh even more than 145 pounds," Hysmith said.

The Parks & Wildlife Web site says the current Lake Texoma record, in Texas, for alligator gar is a 77 1/2 pound, 73-inch fish caught in 1995.

A 121 1/2 pound catfish caught at Lake Texoma in January is still alive and at a Parks and Wildlife facility in Athens, Hysmith said.

"Alligator gar are so unique in their habitat, we just don't see them," Hysmith said. "I've been stationed here for 27 years and I've only seen four."

Marks and the other two men, who helped him land the fish, had their photo taken with the fish.

The alligator gar, while hanging, towered over all three men and its tail dragged on the ground.


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