Art Weston is no stranger to having his name in the world record fishing books. Weston who has caught more than 50 world records, most of which are line class records, may have bested them all with his catch earlier this month when he caught a 283 pound Alligator Gar fishing with guide Kirk Kirkland on Sam Rayburn in Texas. And if you can believe this, he caught the fish on 6-pound line. An absolutely insane long fight ensued before Kirkland was able to rope the fish into the boat.
All the documentation has been submitted to the IGFA for certification for both the 6-pound line class record but also the all tackle record that has stood for 72 years. This new record fish firmly surplants the old record of 279 pounds.
Guide Kirk Kirkland posted this on his Facebook page:
“Well …
Here it is the culmination of my guiding career…
I have guided my client Art Weston to a anglers dream fish.We weighed measured and released the largest alligator gar ever caught with rod and reel and did it on 6 lb line, quite the accomplishment for both angler and guide , as it takes both to do everything right with lots of shifting forward and reverse, spinning the boat around, the angler putting just the right amount of drag ,not letting the line touch the boat and 2 hrs and 45 long minutes later I was able to get a rope on a very tired alligator gar . This old girl has seen a lot of carp come and go but the Malakoff carp did it for her . I had a very tired angler (Art ) he was shaking and visibly fatigued. He commented “Kirk” it looks bigger than the 251 lb alligator gar we caught in April. I had really not looked that close until we took her the short boat ride to the beach to do the weight and measuring required to certify a IGFA WORLD RECORD.
WHEN I put the tape on her she was a amazing 100 inches long with a impressive 48 inch girth. We quickly set up our tripod system to get the weight of our catch. We both had a look of shock when the scale just kept going higher and higher…… when I got her tail off the ground we both said OMG this is a new all tackle world record…..
283 lbs this record has stood since 1951 for prospective that fish was 93 ” long…
I won’t lie we both jumped up and down as Art shouted we just beat a 72 yr old record…
We have digitally submitted the application at the end of the fishing trip Art will send the line and rest of the documents needed to be officially declared by the IGFA the new ALL TACKLE WORLD RECORD.”
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