What started out as a routine bass fishing junket for Monroe’s Blake Shelby last week turned into something that resembled an aquatic rodeo.
“After work last Tuesday afternoon, I slipped my 14 foot jon boat into Bayou Desiard behind my house in Monroe with the idea of giving the bass a try. Since I also enjoy bowfishing, and there are some big carp and lots of gar in the area, I always take along my bowfishing rig, just in case,” Shelby explained.
“I had caught a couple of bass by the time I’d fished my way up to an area where I have previously shot carp and gar. I noticed a big fin waving underneath a grass mat in an area where I’ve shot some big carp and a few gar in the past. I put down my fishing rod and picked up my bow and fired off an arrow.
“I couldn’t tell the size of the fish when I shot. It didn’t take long to realize I had hold of something big because it swam off, pulling my boat down the bayou about 20 mph,” Shelby continued.
After a 200 yard sprint down the bayou, the fish surfaced and Shelby couldn’t believe what he was looking at.
“It was a huge alligator gar and it looked like some prehistoric monster rising up out of the water. I was able to get some of my line back, tie it off to the seat of my boat, cut the line and retie it to another arrow and put a second arrow into the fish,” Shelby added. “The fish pulled me another 200 yards or so until I was able to tie off again, attach another arrow which allowed me to launch a third arrow. My job was to hang on and keep it in open water away from trees until it expired or until I could get some help.”
Shelby called a friend, Kenneth Haley, who lives nearby. Haley launched his boat and came to assist.
“By the time Kenneth got there, we knew we had a challenge because neither of us had a gaff or anything to help handle the fish. The fish had died before Kenneth arrived and sank to the bottom but we were able to lift it by the attached lines and get a rope around it. We started at the head and were able to slowly roll it into the boat without sinking or capsizing it,” he added.
Shelby called an enforcement agent who agreed to meet him at the LDWF headquarters the following morning. There were no scales at the Monroe district LDWF headquarters able to weigh a fish this large but the U.S. Postal service came to the rescue.
“The Post Office has certified bulk mail scales and they allowed us to weigh the fish and we were able to certify the weight. The scales read 210 pounds after the gar had been out of the water all night and having been spawned out. The gar was 8 ? feet long. I contacted the American Bowfishing Association and found out that their records show the largest alligator gar taken by bowfishing in Louisiana weighed 165 pounds, while the world record is 225 pounds. I’m in the process of getting my fish in the bowfishing record book,” Shelby stated.
The monster gar was shot with Shelby’s Browning Barracuda bowfishing bow made by PSE (PSE owns Browning Archery). It's a 40 pound draw with a standard PSE bowfishing arrow and an AMS bowfishing reel with a heavy braided line.
Arrowing and landing a fish of this magnitude with the equipment he used puts a feather in Shelby’s cap where he works; he’s Marketing Director for PSE Archery.
Ruston, La. —
