52-lb. Gar on Crappie Tackle!

A Cordele man recently caught a longnose gar from the Flint River that would have eclipsed the sportfishing world record, had it been weighed on certified scales. The 5-foot, 7 1/4-inch long fish was caught by Jerry Pheil of Cordele.

Jerry said that on the morning of February 25 he was fishing in the Flint River just below the Lake Blackshear dam. He was trolling for crappie fishing with R.A.G. Fly jigs when all of a sud- den he had a very large hit on an all white R.A.G. Fly jig. At first he thought that he had hooked a large flathead catfish because of the way it was fighting. He told me that he fought this fish for a little over 42 minutes, and when he finally got to see what he had he grabbed for his heavy-duty gloves. He saw that the gar would not fit into his landing net, so he grabbed the fish by its bill with the gloves and pulled it into the boat. When Jerry got home he really didn’t think that he any type of record, so he just weighed it on his scales which are accurate but not certified. The gar weighed 54 pounds.

According to the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) 2004 records book, the world-record, all-tackle longnose gar was caught from Trinity Reservoir in Texas in 1954. It weighed 50- lbs., 4-ozs.

The 6-lb. test IGFA line-class record for longnose gar is 24- lbs., 14-ozs., and was caught from the St. Johns River in Florida in 1999.