Angler lands a monster in the bayou

Somewhere between the Gus Wortham Golf Course and Forest Park Lawndale Funeral Home along Buffalo Bayou, Alex Sosa was struggling to land one of the biggest catches of his life.

The water was murky and brown, so the 27-year-old couldn’t see just how big this fish was, but he knew it had to be substantial since it took his entire buffalo head fish bait.

For half an hour, Sosa reeled in an alligator gar that he says must have been nearly 6 feet long and weighed around 130 pounds, well beyond his 100-pound fish scale.

By the time he finally managed to wrestle the fish into his boat and to the shore, the onlookers reminded him why he loved to fish on the bayou.

“Being able to share that moment with everyone who stopped to ask questions and take pictures is what reminded me why I love fishing,” Sosa said.

Sosa’s catch was not a recordsetting alligator gar — the largest in Texas caught with a rod and reel was 7 feet, 9 inches at 289 pounds from the Rio Grande in 1951. In 2021, two Memorial High School students caught an alligator gar that was nearly 7 feet in Buffalo Bayou.

But for Sosa, the catch reinforced his desire to teach about thediversity of Houston’s bayous.

“Here in Houston, most people don’t realize it but we are very fortunate to have our waterways the way they are,” Sosa said. “We tend to have a warmer water temperature so we tend to have giant fish swimming around all year.”

To learn how to fish, Sosa watched the YouTube channel Wild Life, by Houston fisherman Payton Moore, who has more than 70,000 subscribers.

Sosa turned his hobby into a side business called Buffalo Bayou Fishing Champs. He takes passengers along for an entire day.

“I think if it wasn’t for the people that join me that I have on board and being able to teach them things they’ve never had any idea about before, that’s what keeps me hooked,” Sosa said.