Bass pro Jake Ormond set a state record for the largest longnose gar which he caught on Bayou Bartholomew while giving a bass fishing lesson. The Sterlington native was giving his young student a lesson on crankbaiting when he spotted the big gar on the surface of the water. After switching rods and spotting him on the bottom, it took Ormond three casts to hook the monster and start to tire it out.
“Seemed like it was longer than it probably was, it was probably like 5-10 minutes. Water temperature was about 95 degrees. He gave up pretty quick as far as he didn’t fight for too long.”
Ormond said he didn’t know it was a state record, just the biggest longnose gar he’d ever seen. The gar wouldn’t fit in the net, and Ormond was only a couple hundred yards from the boat ramp at his house. He trolled the fish back, pulled it up on the ramp, and tied it up. A quick google search told him the state record was a 30.88 pound gar, and Ormond thought he was close.
“Just guessing in my head around 28-30 pounds, and I had a little set of handheld scales on the boat and when I put him on that he hit 31.”
Ormond began making calls to local stores trying to find a set of certified scales, but the scales either didn’t go above thirty pounds or the store wouldn’t let him bring the fish in the store. He found the biggest cooler he could and put his catch on ice before finally finding K&M Coffee and Camo in Farmerville.
“They allowed me to bring the fish up there and weigh it. They had a set of certified scales, and he weighed 31.43 so he beat the old record by half a pound. The fish was 65 1/2 inches long.”
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