A man has broken a local fishing record in Georgia, and he’s being recognized by state wildlife authorities.
Fisherman Caleb McClure caught a 27-pound, four-ounce longnose gar from Lake Allatoona on June 24, according to a recent press release issued by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The 27-pound fish reportedly measured nearly 60 inches in length.
On Friday, June 30, McClure’s lake-specific, record-breaking gar was recognized in the weekly "Georgia Fishing Report," where the wildlife agency acknowledged the catch beat the "previous Allatoona lake record by 15 pounds."
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The Georgia DNR believes McClure’s catch could be the "largest longnose gar ever documented" because it eclipses the "24-pounder" the wildlife agency "captured during gillnet sampling in the fall of 2021," according to the Georgia Fishing Report.
Lake Allatoona is a 12,010-acre reservoir located in north Atlanta suburbs, primarily in Bartow County and Cherokee County.
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The overall state fishing record for the largest longnose gar belongs to angler Rachel Harrison, who caught a 31-pound, two-ounce, gar from the Coosa River on March 19, 2022.
Longnose gars are a ray-finned freshwater fish that are present in multiple regions in the United States.
The U.S. Geological Survey considers longnose gar to be a "native transplant" that have a presence in Lake Eerie, Lake Michigan, the Mississippi River basin, the Gulf Coast, the Apalachicola River and the Nueces River.
