Texas Man Catches Gargantuan 8-Foot, 300-Pound Fish

A Texas man caught a gargantuan alligator gar in a Houston bayou over the weekend.

Payton Moore, a fisherman and wildlife conservationist from Sugar Land, caught the 8-foot, 300-pound alligator said he knew the fish was big the second it started moving. "It felt like somebody's car had just started up and was rolling out of the driveway, and I'm hanging on to the end of it," Moore told the Houston Chronicle.

To get the fish tired, making it easier to catch, Moore made it swim in circles to confuse it. The fisherman then saw a window of opportunity and used a lasso to wrangle it in and secure it around the pectoral fins.

Moore released the fish back into the bayou.

Is this fish a record-breaking one? Unfortunately, it's not. Although the fish likely weighs more than the state record set in 1953 of 302 pounds, to qualify for a state record, the catch must be weighed on a state-certified scale, according to the Houston Chronicle, citing an expert from Nicholls State University. The world record for the largest alligator gar stands at 8 feet, 5 inches and 327 pounds.

While this alligator gar might not be a record-breaking fish, it sure is an old one. Moore estimated the fish is between 50 to 100 years old. "The fish literally could have been swimming around in Texas waters when Truman was president," Moore said.

You can watch Payton Moore's YouTube video below: