Well, I start the new job tomorrow… HAD to get on the water today regardless of weather.

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In the early morning there was a pretty steady drizzle, but nothing unbearable… I really wanted to try out the bayou I had seen the gar rolling in last week.

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Yesterday I swung by one of the many local bait shops… cool little place along Nueces Bay where boats bring in fresh fish every day. I grabbed one bag of frozen mullet… should have grabbed more. The bag only had 6 in it!

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This morning I headed to the bayou which is only about an hour and 10 minutes East of me on a pretty pleasant rout. The cool thing about the plains of Texas is the wildlife is plentiful, and has nowhere to hide. I passed countless deer, pigs, turkeys, and a couple different kinds of hawks… hawks everywhere!

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When I got to the bayou, there were no nice beaten paths to the water… just tall grass, limbs, mud and clouds of mosquitoes as thick as the air its self! It got to the point where I had to cover my mouth to avoid breathing them in, thank goodness for the Off! Carrying 3 rods, a bait bag, a rig bag, and my net… I had to practically rip and tear my way through brush to get to a decent bank to stand on by the bayou… in the process obviously all my rods got tangled together by the rigs which were pulled free by briars etc.

Because of low hanging branches and big thick mats of hyacinth along the shoreline and floating by in the current… tending to more than 1 or 2 rods would have been too much… I set up one rod for “bigger” alligator gar, and one rod for the little tiny gar I saw popping the surface… I assume they were either spotted gar or really tiny alligator gar.

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I rigged the “big” gar rig with whole mullet on double J-Hooks.

–It wasnt long before I got the first run… gar were surfacing pretty actively earlier in the day when I got there. There was a big variety of sizes out there ranging from REALLY tiny gar only a foot long, to a handful of surfaces which looked to be of a fish in the 80 pound range. I was not equipped for the big gar with my small baits and medium weight rods. Initially I had two mullet hooked onto a J hook each… on my first run I was stripped at the hookset and realised I should probably *use one baitfish at a time… and *let the fish run longer. Simply because I now only had 4 baitfish left, and most likely the smaller gar would get to my baits first.

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After a SECOND run and miss, I got a third run while I was talking to my brother Travis on the phone. I continued a 5 minute conversation while the fish moved around and then lit into a solid gar after I hung up. The fish put up a first rate battle on the medium weight gear… and keeping it away from the snags and weeds at the shoreline was tricky to say the least… The fish scarecely fit into the landing net, but I made it happen… and successfully put my first gator gar of the year on the bank!

The fish was still pretty green when I was trying to get photos… and I was having big problems with the camera washing out the photos to where it looked like an atomic bomb whited everything out.

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No… I am not dancing in the photo, though I kinda felt like dancing after landing the fish!

I had a couple more hits, misses, and drops until I only had one baitfish left later on… I ended up getting a great pickup, and the fish headed downstream hard, to the point where I really contemplated an early hookset for the real chance that it may spool me if I didnt. Alligator Gar will often pick up a bait and make their way down stream before settling in a calm eddie or hole where they take their time working a bait down… generally when they turn and head back upstream you can set the hook and be sure they have taken the bait down enough. This fish did just that, textbook! As the fish made its way back upstream ever closer to me I cranked down on the drag to deliver a stout hookset. The fish felt bigger.. but still no giant by any means.

I am definitely pumped to have found a real nice gator gar spot so close to my apartment, and so full of fish.. I am pretty confident this spot could provide action for the rest of the summer, but not an area to settle on. The real BIG boys are a little farther up in the state, and I will be making some trips in the coming months for the fish exceeding 100lbs! I am stoked either way, Only 2 weeks into the move I have a very reliable carp/buffalo spot, and now a nice little tucked away gar hole! Still getting things with the boat made official.. gotta get it registered, and it really needs a new trailer. Bank fishing is fun and all, but I think I could do some serious damage around here from the trusty boat!

I arrived in Texas on February 29th… and will start a new career on March 12th.   Obviously this is an exciting time in my life, and it is strange to be so secluded and far away from my family and friends.   However… the prospect of setting up shop in Texas and reaping the benefits of its enormous fish is exciting.

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On March 2nd I headed for the water… The target of choice was the MASSIVE black drum that are moving into the shallows for their annual spawn run.  It seemed every bait shop I visited had hundreds of photos posted all over the walls of enormous black drum… and I wanted in on that action.  My Brother Travis and I headed for an area where I had read was great for big black drum.   We set up along the river mouth of the Brazos where it pours into the gulf.  We set up 5 rods baited with shrimp and cut mullet… but the big bites simply never came.   Being a non-local, with  ZERO experience with these fish, I am not sure if it was an error in time, equipment, or if the fish just plain were not there.  I did however find a really neat incidental species on the end of my line during a random bait check.   It felt as though I had snagged the bottom or some kind of inanimate substrate from the bottom… but once closer to the shore I immediately noticed a writhing constricting eel of sorts on the end of my rig.

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The eel… which I have yet to positively identify, was like something from a horror movie.  It had a terrible disposition and a set of jaws to fit.  I believe it is some member of the snake eel group or family of eels commonly referred to as snake eels.   Even though we did not get what we were looking for, this eel was still a pretty awesome catch!

One of the main species I aim to target as a Texan is the Smallmouth Buffalo.   We did not have these fish in South Carolina, and it had been nearly 10 years since the days I fished for these brutes in Arkansas.   I knew of an area where I could catch buffalo and carp… and possibly get a glimpse of some big Alligator Gar rolling.  On March 4th I headed to the tailwaters of the Livingston Dam.  I had fished here twice before on trips for Alligator Gar in 2010 and 2011… and knew these waters had buffalo.   The bait of choice was sized 3/8th Creep Pellets… (cattle and horse feed!),  a little tip I picked up from legendary gar guide Kirk Kirkland, who uses carp and buffalo as bait for Alligator Gar.

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To bind these pellets to the hook I used small rubber bands and bound 2 or 3 pellets together and strung a small J hook through the rubber bands.

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It did not take long after putting baits in the water before the electronic bite alarms I was using started beeping.   The bites came pretty consistently, but rarely in convincing fashion.  The fish were very finicky in their bites.   I was mainly getting into small common carp… but really wanted a nice buffalo.   Eventually,  a finicky bite led to a hookset against something clearly larger than the carp I was catching.   I was very pleased to see a nice smallmouth buffalo at the end of my line at the end of a very nice battle!

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I ended up having to take photos with my cell phone because I forgot the camera!

I start work in a couple days,  still have to get my vehicle registered in Texas… a Texas drivers license, and a new trailer for the boat… but I am eager to start chasing the much BIGGER buffalo… and of course, get after those Alligator Gar!