Posted on 02/18/2011 10:41:10 AM PST by JoeProBono
VICKSBURG, Miss. -- A Vicksburg man pulled a 327-pound alligator gar from Chotard Lake in Issaquena County, Mississippi wildlife officials said.
Kenny Williams caught the fish on Valentine's Day. Biologists with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks weighed the fish at 327 pounds. It was 8 feet 5 ¼ inches long and 47.95 inches around the body.
Williams said he used nets to catch the fish and then grabbed it by the gills and pulled it into the boat.
"At first I didn't think he was that big. But as I was getting him into the boat, it was like, 'How big is this thing?' It was a lot of effort just to get him into the boat," Williams said. "I don't even know how to describe it. It was just huge and hard to get into the boat."
MDWFP officials said it could be the largest alligator gar caught. In scientific literature, there was a report from 1963 of a 302-pound alligator gar, Dennis Riecke, of MDWFP said. Williams' fish is definitely the largest since that time, and is certainly the largest recorded in Mississippi, Riecke said.
The fish is believed to have been between 50 and 70 years old, wildlife officials said.
Williams donated the huge fish to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in Jackson, where it will be prepared for permanent display in the future, wildlife officials said.
I have. If you have the right homemade device to clean them it is easy and boneless. They have a light flakey flesh. Close to lobster and about as good dipped in melted butter. I love them. Yea we bow fish them.
Lobster! How funny!
That’s the best kind of fun, isn’t it! I’m an old grandma..best times, ever, were living near the water in Kansas. Don’t know what I like better, eating the fish, or listening to crazy fishing stories! Man eating catfish that lurked below the dam....
Lobster! How funny!
That’s the best kind of fun, isn’t it! I’m an old grandma..best times, ever, were living near the water in Kansas. Don’t know what I like better, eating the fish, or listening to crazy fishing stories! Man eating catfish that lurked below the dam....
Steroids? Hormones?
lol
That thing is a beast!
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