Texas fishermen catch rare black gar

Texas – Two fishermen recently caught a rare black gar in a Southeast Texas marsh.

Justin Jordan, owner of Lotus Guide Service, and Terrell Maguire were out fishing on May 14 when Jordan said he spotted the beast in the water.

”Me and Terrell were fly fishing for redfish on my boat when we saw it lurking,” Jordan told KSAT 12. “He threw a little crab fly at it and the thing chomped it.”

Jordan immediately began snapping photos after the melanistic gar was hooked.

“Once we got it to the boat I realized it was a melanistic gar,” Jordan quipped.

According to a blog post from OutriggerOutdoors, the “rare coloration is described as a ‘melanistic’ condition where the gar have excess amounts of the pigment melanin. The black pigment melanin is formed in melanoblast cells through the oxidation of certain amino acids.”

“I see gar every day just not black ones,” Jordan said.

He told KSAT the gar, which he estimated to be about five feet long, was released back into the water.

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