State tag holders angle for gar

The application period to catch and keep a trophy-size Arkansas alligator gar opened Nov. 1 and closes Dec. 31. Only 200 tags will be awarded for the 2022 calendar year. This tag is required to harvest an alligator gar larger than 36 inches.

While not truly a dinosaur, the alligator gar was alive during the Cretaceous Period. Individual gar take decades to reach 6 feet long. They are the second largest species of freshwater fish in North America, only topped by the white sturgeon.

They frequently grow longer than 7 feet and weigh more than 200 pounds. The largest fish ever caught in Arkansas was an alligator gar in the Red River that weighed 241 pounds, over 100 pounds more than the next largest Arkansas catch, a 118-pound paddlefish.

Keeping one of these trophies requires anglers to have one of 200 alligator gar tags issued this year. Eric Brinkman, Game and Fish assistant chief of fisheries, said the tags were increased this year from 100 to 200 to help more anglers pursue the species and gather data on alligator gar locations throughout the state.

Brinkman has led the charge for research of this prehistoric fish species since 2005 when he studied them in graduate school.

“Alligator gar can take years to reach this 36-inch mark. Females aren’t able to reproduce until they are 14 years old,” Brinkman said. “With many of their traditional spawning areas lost to channelization and damming of rivers, alligator gar may only have the right conditions to spawn once every few years, so protecting these mature fish is very important to their survival as a species.”

Biologists work every year to identify remaining spawning areas in the state’s large rivers and evaluate remaining populations of the fish.

Anyone may fish for alligator gar on a catch-and-release basis, but anglers interested in keeping a trophy gar in 2022 must enter a free online drawing by Dec. 31. Applications are available under the fishing license section of the Game and Fish online license system at https://ar-web. s3licensing. com.

Applicants will be notified of the results by email. They will then need to return to the licensing site to claim their tag. Each tag allows the holder to harvest one alligator gar longer than 36 inches from snout to tail during the open fishing season. It is closed May 1-July 15.