Gar Wars: Proposed alligator gar regulations more restrictive on bow fishermen than others

Published 6:06 pm Saturday, March 2, 2019

Alligator gar fishing presents a conundrum for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Like chasing giant catfish in the worst winter weather, alligator gar attracts a younger age group of fishermen the department covets for future license sales.

On the other hand, there has become nationwide concern about the future of the fish whose ancestry can be traced back to the dinosaur era.

The latter has led TPWD’s Inland Fisheries to propose stricter regulations on the fish that were until recently considered a trash fish. The proposal will be taken to Parks and Wildlife commissioners March 20 and honestly it is not going to be popular with bow fishermen who will be the most restricted by the new rules.

The proposal starts with a size limit on alligator gar in the Trinity River from Interstate 30 in Dallas downstream to the Interstate 10 bridge in Chambers County. The limit on the Trinity would be a 4-foot maximum to go along with a one fish daily statewide limit.

A second part of the proposal would create a drawing for an as yet unknown number of trophy permits on the river in which winning fishermen would be permitted to take a fish over the 4-foot limit by any legal means.

The third part is bound to be the most controversial. It would create a statewide ban on bow fishing at night for alligator gar. It would prohibit bow fishing for alligator gar from 30 minutes before sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise on all waters.

Finally, anyone who takes an alligator gar by any means would be required to notify the department by using a mobile app similar to what eastern wild turkey hunters in the state use.

Exempt from all of this would be fishermen on Falcon Lake where alligator gar have become a political hot potato between the department and bass fishermen.

TPWD has been monitoring alligator gar, one of four gar species in the state, for more than a decade. It usually describes the statewide population as being good, with some areas like East and South Texas having better numbers than others. At the same time, the department has said the low harvest rate is estimated to be well below what it believes a sustainable level

Like fisheries and biologists around the country, the department is concerned about alligator gar, but the concern comes more from the lack of river flooding impacting spawning more than fisherman harvest.

To spawn, the fish need water temperatures between 68 and 82 degrees and flood-like conditions in a river basin or rising conditions in or above a reservoir.

TPWD already has a regulation that would close a portion of the Trinity to any type of alligator gar fishing if spawning conditions were optimum. The regulation has only been used once.

Besides being finicky about spawning conditions, alligator gar usually don’t spawn until they are about 8 years old and may only spawn once or twice a decade. They can live to be 70 or older.

Along with the Trinity, other good river populations exist in the Sabine, Brazos and Lower Guadalupe rivers. The best reservoir population is Choke Canyon, with lakes Sam Rayburn, Falcon, Livingston and Corpus Christi also having good numbers. Brackish waters in some coastal bays and estuaries also have good populations of alligator gar.

Alligator gar are considered both predator and scavenger feeding primarily on shad, catfish, buffalo and other fish, but at Falcon, where the water level has been down for years, there is also concern about their predation on largemouth bass.

Not surprisingly, bow fishermen are organizing against the regulation.

“To us, alligator gar is the pinnacle of bow fishing. It is the biggest, coolest and most impressive fish we can take. Part of my issue in what they are doing, closing the Trinity from Dallas to I-10, is a huge area. It is all of the river,” said Marshall Bryant, who has found himself a spokesman for the Texas Bowfishing Association.

A bow fishing and rod and reel guide as well as a competitive and recreational fisherman for non-game species, Bryant added a ban on night fishing for alligator gar makes no sense because it is seldom the target for bow fishermen.

According to a TPWD press release the proposed ban on night fishing is because of “rapid evolution of technology and equipment used to target large alligator gar.”

Scientifically, the department has looked at night fishing for alligator gar during a study on Choke Canyon Reservoir. Although it was a small sample, the impact was almost non-existent.

According to a TPWD survey, only about 30 percent of alligator gar fishermen are bow fishermen. There are also commercial fishermen targeting the fish, but their numbers are low.

The lack of restrictions on other anglers also has bow fishermen upset. Bryant, who has personally seen high numbers of fish caught using a treble hook and stainless steel leader, thinks at the least they should be restricted to monofilament or braided line and circle hooks.

Honestly, this smacks of a regulation that has come down from the commission to the staff rather than going from the staff up to the commission as it should. Staff members have admitted the proposal is more restrictive and has moved faster than they would have preferred.

Traditionally, when regulations travel downward it is usually a sign a commissioner feels they have been slighted for some reason or they are doing a favor for a friend, either way it seldom works out well for the public or the resource.

Proposing a regulation that limits opportunity because of improved gear is certainly a slippery slope for commissioners to take. Will commissioners consider banning modern fishing electronics? What about game cameras that immediately upload a photo to a phone or a rifle combination that allows hunters to be accurate up a mile in use today? Probably not, but those make fishermen and hunters more effective than anything available to bow fishermen.

Someone needs to put the brakes on this. Use the reporting system for a year to collect harvest data is OK. At the same time, survey more bow fishermen to get a better handle on the species they are targeting and their success.

The public can comment on the proposed regulation by attending a public meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Hart-Morris Conservation Center at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens or Wednesday at the Polk County Judicial Center, Livingston. Both meetings start at 7 p.m.

Comments may also be made online at https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/public_comment/ or by calling Ken Kurzawski at 512-389-4591 or by email at ken.kurzawski@tpwd.texas.gov. Comments must be made before the March 20 meeting.