New state record alligator gar weighs in at 162 pounds

Alabama is the home of a lot of different fish species, but there aren’t many freshwater fish that get bigger than the alligator gar. On Thanksgiving, Fruitdale fisherman Keith Dees and his son, Huntley, caught an Alabama gar that set a new state record. The seven-foot-long alligator gar weighed in at a state record 162 pounds.

Dees is a veteran fisherman who has spent his life on the water. Dees was fishing for bass in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta on Thanksgiving Day with his son – as is their tradition – when the big fish struck his bait.

“My first thought was I had hooked another big redfish,” he said. “I was cranking as fast as I could to try to get the line tight. The water is salty and cold that time of year, so the clarity was not great. I see a fish go by the front of the boat, a glimpse of a fish. I told my son, ‘I’ve got one of those big redfish.’ We caught one that weighed 32 pounds up there a few years ago. Then it went…