A Maryland angler who was fishing for catfish on Monday ended up landing a state-record longnose gar.
A Maryland angler who was fishing for catfish on Monday ended up landing a state-record longnose gar.
“I didn’t even know what it was at first,” Samson Matthews, 22, said of his bizarre-looking catch on Marshyhope Creek in Dorchester County.
The fish weighed 18.3 pounds, narrowly beating a record set last year. It was announced as the new state Chesapeake Division record Wednesday by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
After the fish was weighed on a certified scale, Matthews released it back into the creek.
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The MDNR describes the longnose gar as “a prehistoric fish distinguished by its long nose and hard scales.”
The fish have been present in North America for about 100 million years. Their tough hides were used by settlers and Native Americans as shield covers.
They’re found in inshore waters and estuaries, and prey largely on small fish, crustaceans, and insects. According to the MDNR, the most common fishing method for longnose gar is with a bow or spear.
Matthews was creek fishing near the Nanticoke River, using chunks of gizzard shad as bait for blue catfish, when he felt a heavy tug.
“Honestly, it didn’t fight much at all until it broke the surface, and that’s when I realized what it was,” Matthews told For The Win Outdoors. “Once it broke the surface it started thrashing around and jumping until we got it in the net.”
Matthews added: “I knew it was big, but I had no clue it was big enough to be a record.”
For the sake of comparison, the International Game Fish Assn. lists as the all-tackle world record a 50-pound longnose gar caught on the Trinity River in Texas in 1954.
–Longnose gar images are via the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (top) and Wikimedia Commons
