In the morning we could see that the water in Zapata had been down for quite some time. As we crossed the bridges, there were rivers of grass. No water to be seen. We continued on to Falcon State Park, where we were able to meet up with our guide, Alex Gutierrez. He reserved a cabin for us to stay in at the park. It was made of concrete blocks with small square block windows, two bunk beds of plywood and most importantly, air conditioning. It was clean, secure and cool. We were ready to go fishing, but not before we checked over our equipment.

We were all armed with our AMS slotted retriever reels and floats. The slotted reel allows you to tie the end of the line to a float rather than it being attached to your reel. When you hit a big fish, it will pull all the line from the retriever and pull the float from the stabilizer mount along with it. You follow the float to get the fish. We had spare reels along as well. If we hit a fish, we could quickly remove the empty retriever from the dovetail mount kit and replace it with another reel and float for the second shot.

Our slotted retrievers were loaded with 400# test fast flight line. 400# line is essential when going after these fish. They are big fish, but most importantly, their scales are bone-like and very abrasive. The 400# line is quite difficult to cut, even with gator gar scales. We had about a dozen arrows along, all with Muzzy points and the AMS Safety Slide System installed. The safety slide system was designed to prevent arrow snap-back by keeping all of the line in front of all obstacles on the bow, such as the rest, the cabling and most importantly, the bowstring.

Alex gave us a quick park tour and then to the boat landing we went. The water was very, very low. It was at least 40" or more below normal. The boat landings were high and dry. We drove down to a point near the water's edge and launched the boat. This was very big water. We could see across to Mexico and between it and us were 100" tall concrete pillars to mark the boundary between Mexico and the US.

Gator gar fishing is not at all like fishing for carp or small gar in Wisconsin. You never see them swimming along slowly enough to take aim. It was all instinctive shooting. They come up from the depths of the water and surface like a porpoise and just as quickly go down, usually with a large splash of their tails. If you see their head, consider yourself lucky. A quick glimpse of their armored olive green backs and a splash from their tails is usually all you'd see. If you were quick enough to get a shot off, you had to lead them and shoot where you thought they were going.

We were each after our own trophy gator gar. Alex had just shot a 243# gator gar from these waters, and we were all hoping to at least see one of that quality while we were here. We started fishing out in the open near one of those pillars. The sky was clear but it was fairly windy that day and the waves were beating up on us a bit. We were having trouble standing on the platform and not many gator gar were surfacing, so Alex decided to take us up further to a bay he called El Tigre.

El Tigre was a fairly large bay protected some from the waves and wind. We could comfortably stand now and the breeze kept some of the heat down. Fish were surfacing all around, but they seemed to keep their distance from us in the boat. There were long nose gar as well as gator gar all around us, just not within shooting range for me. The guys would take the longer shots, hoping to connect with a fish, but still no one really had a good close opportunity to shoot, at least not until I blew my one and only real chance at a nice fish.

I was up on the platform looking around and watching a particular spot on the water. For some reason I was focusing there. I'd look around and then come back to that spot. I thought I was completely ready for one of these fish. As I looked away, all of a sudden a huge gator gar came up from beneath the spot I had just turned from. He was very close and heading right for me. I heard him open his mouth as he gulped the air. I saw his teeth, his eyes, his gills, his tremendous green back and his tail, and then I drew my bow. Needless to say, I was too late with the shot.

This type of fishing was completely new to me. The guys were much quicker to react than I, but I did get a few shots off. None of us connected, not even Alex. It seemed like the fish were watching us. We would be watching intensely, but any fish we'd see would be out of range. Then they would resurface just after we left the area. Alex even climbed a tree just above the spot where one kept coming up. He sat there for a while but that fish didn't come back either.

We fished Falcon for only two full, hot, windy days. The weather was not going to cooperate as high winds were expected again with some rain. We decided to pack up and head north to try for more gator gar in the northern rivers of Texas. (Continued on Bow fishing the Trinity for Gator Gar)