Record Set For Longnose Gar On Etowah River

Here’s the new Etowah River longnose gar record, which weighed 19-lbs., 4.64-ozs. and was caught by Kyle Williams. The full story is www.gon.com/fishing/record-set-for-longnose-gar-on-etowah-river.

Kyle Williams, of Adairsville, isn’t a huge fan of gar when he’s fishing the Etowah River, but he recently caught a longnose gar that made the record books.

“They’re predators. They’ll run the fish we’re trying to catch out of a hole, and it takes a while for the fish to settle back down and start biting,” Kyle said.

The huge longnose gar that Kyle boated while night-fishing on the Etowah River at 1 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 8 set a new Etowah River record with a certified weight of 19.29 pounds, which converts to 19-lbs., 4.64-ozs.

The current Georgia state record longnose gar weighed 30-lbs., 13-ozs. and was caught at Lake Lanier in 2013 by Gerald Kennedy.

The length of Kyle’s gar was 60 1/2 inches, which is longer than the 48-lb. world-record longnose gar. That Mississippi gar was 60 inches long. Kyle’s Etowah gar was also longer than the South Carolina record, a 25-lb. fish that was 53 1/2 inches long.

Kyle said they were fishing for whatever would bite, but typically they catch catfish and striped bass. His record gar hit a live gizzard shad. Kyle said the bait was a very large shad that weighed about a pound.

All of Georgia’s Lake & River Records are now online.