Angler From My Hometown Makes It Big

It's not very often that anyone from my little hometown of Oswego, KS, population roughly 2,000 when I lived there, makes national headlines, but fisherman Danny Smith II (right) pulled it off with the recent catch of a 4-and-a-half-foot, 39.5-pound alligator gar that he pulled from the Neosho River.

His story now has been told in the pages of USA Today and Newsweek, as well as on ABC News, to name only a few of the major media outlets that have interviewed Smith. The news peg here is that this fish is not even native to Kansas, nor has it ever been documented there before.

Smith knew he had caught something unusual as soon as he got his first glimpse of the fish's head. He immediately ruled out a "pretty decent flathead," because the shape of the head was all wrong. His fishin' buddy is the one who identified the species.

Getting the fish to the boat was only half the battle for Smith.

"The fish went to flopping and flipping around until he destroyed one of my oars," he said. "There was one little 10- to 15-pound flathead in the boat that was acting like he wanted out of the boat as bad as I did," the result of taking just one look at those double rows of razor-sharp teeth.

While in prehistoric times, this fish's predecessors may have lived in Iowa or Kansas, modern alligator gars today are found in the lower Mississippi River Valley, from Arkansas and Oklahoma to Florida, Texas, and parts of Mexico. Not harmful to humans, alligator gars eat other fish, crabs, turtles, birds, and small mammals.

Meanwhile, Kansas is home to three native types of gar, the most common being the longnose gar, which can measure 5 feet long, along with shortnose and spotted gar. Alligator gar have snouts that resemble American alligators and can grow beyond 10 feet long and weigh up to 350 pounds.

How did this particular fish get in the Neosho River? Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks biologists reportedly are looking at several unique options. However, they've already ruled out the possibility of the fish being a hatchery-produced fish, which always are tagged.

"Because most populations of this species can be distinguished from one another with a sample of the fish's fins, another option we're considering is genetic identification," wrote KDWP Assistant Director of Fisheries Research Jeff Koch. "This will tell us if the fish came from an existing population in another state."

If this option doesn't work out, microchemistry is another technique that can be used. With this method, the elemental proportion of a bone on the fish is measured and compared to the elemental concentration of surrounding water, which could help determine how long the fish had been in the Neosho River.

"It's not unlikely this fish once was somebody's pet or perhaps purchased from a pet store and simply released into the Neosho once it became too large," said KDWP Director Doug Nygren. "These techniques should allow us to determine which mode of introduction occurred."

While trying to find out how Smith was able to catch this alligator gar in the Neosho River, KDWP wants to remind people that "transporting and releasing fish or other species in public waters, whether native or non-native, is illegal in Kansas."

I should point out that Kansas also boasts its fair share of record catfish. The current blue cat record is 102.8 lbs., a channel cat at 36.5 lbs., a flathead cat at 123 lbs., and a bullhead cat at 7.33 lbs.

With thanks to my wife for the tip that led to this post.