It was an uncommonly warm late December day on the Indiana side of the Ohio River when Justin Brown launched his Phoenix bass boat a half mile below McAlpin Dam. On board fishing that day with Justin were his 14-year-old son John, his friend Blaine Summers and Justin’s girlfriend Sarah Thomas.
“We were jigging spoons near the bottom at the mouth of Silver Creek trying for hybrid striped bass,” Justin tells Wired2fish. “We caught a few hybrids up to about five pounds and some small gar. Then I dropped a half-ounce silver War Eagle jigging spoon to the bottom in 12 feet of water. I jigged it once and wham, something big hit it.”
Justin says the fish came up to the surface and made a half jump, then it dove and gave him a heck of a fight for a couple minutes.
“He pinned my rod to the boat, and why it didn’t break off I don’t know,” said the 45-year-old elevator mechanic from Georgetown, Indiana. “There are lots of rocks and debris in the river, and gar have teeth and sharp gill plates. They’re like a prehistoric creature.”
The longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) is an ancient freshwater fish with a natural history that traces back millions of years, reflecting its status as a “living fossil.” Native to rivers, lakes, and slow-moving waters across eastern and central North America, the longnose gar is easily recognized by its elongated, narrow snout lined with sharp teeth, which it uses to ambush prey such as fish and crustaceans.
They typically inhabit weedy or woody areas where it can lie nearly motionless, relying on stealth rather than speed. Longnose gar have ganoid scales—hard, armor-like plates—that provide protection from predators, and they possess a vascularized swim bladder that functions like a lung, allowing them to gulp air and survive in warm, low-oxygen waters. Spawning occurs in shallow areas during spring, where adhesive eggs are scattered over vegetation and left unattended, completing a life cycle well adapted to variable and often challenging freshwater environments.
Justin finally drew the big gar close to the boat with baitcast tackle and 20-pound line. His son John put on heavy gloves, knelt down in the boat and grabbed the long and frisky fish by its snout.
“He put it on the deck because I don’t think it would have fit in my boat livewell,” Justin said. “I had some friends nearby in other boats and Zachary Rossbottom said the gar was a giant and looked up the state record using his phone.”
Justin said he would have released the gar on the spot until he learned it was a potential state record. Then they tied the fish to their boat with a stout cord and put it back in the Ohio River to keep it alive as they motored cautiously back to the boat ramp. There they put the oversize fish in a large plastic tote full of river water to keep it alive.
They knew the gar had to be weighed on certified scales for it to be a record catch. But it was Sunday and no businesses were open where the fish could be properly weighed. They then went home and waited until the next day to have the gar weighed.
On Monday they got in touch with Indiana’s DNR fisheries division. Phil Kacmar, Indiana DNR fisheries biologist, drove to meet Justin and weigh the fish on certified scales.
Justin’s longnose gar officially measured 54-inches long with an 18.25-inch girth. It weighed 23.12 pounds, topping the previous state record of 22 pounds, 5.1 ounces caught in 2008 from the White River by angler Mark Brittain.
Justin will have his new state record gar mounted and it’ll hang in his home – perhaps in his son John’s room since he was the one who manhandled the fish with gloves into the boat that day.
“The whole thing has been pretty incredible,” says Justin. “My girlfriend Sarah kids me that I only caught the record gar because she wanted me to move our boat to a spot where she’d caught a hybrid. I did, and that’s where I caught my big gar.”
Justin also was congratulated by Mark Brittain, who previously had the Indiana gar record caught in 2008.
“This has really become kind of a big deal, with some TV coverage, lots of people calling and contacting me,” Justin said happily. “It’s all been pretty cool.”
