The alligator gar snagged by Art Weston and Captain Kirk Kirkland in Lake Livingston is the heaviest freshwater fish ever caught on a two-pound line.
Art WestonArt Weston posing for a photo with his seven-foot-long, 153-pound alligator gar.
Setting world records is nothing new to Art Weston, but his most recent catch — a 153-pound alligator gar — might be one of his most impressive. The seasoned angler holds 80 world records with the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), and that number will soon jump up to 81 once this latest catch is approved.
Weston set out with fishing guide Captain Kirk Kirkland on April 8, 2025, to see if he could reel in an alligator gar weighing more than 110 pounds on a two-pound test line. After a four-hour struggle, the men pulled a gar from the water that outweighed the previous record by more than 40 pounds, making it the heaviest freshwater fish ever caught on a two-pound line anywhere in the world.
Art Weston And Kirk Kirkland, World Record-Chasing Anglers
Art Weston’s previous accomplishments speak for themselves. He is the only angler in IGFA history to accomplish a clean sweep of a single species, and he’s already netted every line-class record and the all-tackle world record for alligator gar.
Last year, Weston set the all-tackle world record for an alligator gar that weighed in at 283 pounds — but he used a six-pound test line for that catch. With this new challenge, Weston’s goal was to use a two-pound line, with which he needed to catch a fish weighing at least 111 pounds to break the current record (his own).
Art WestonCaptain Kirk Kirkland measuring the gar’s length: seven feet and three inches.
“That was kind of our goal — to get into a fish that was above 110 pounds, but not too big,” Weston told Outdoor Life. “[Kirkland] didn’t want to fight anything bigger than we had to. The two-pound record that I had previously, we caught it on Choke Canyon, and that was a brutal fight. It was well over two and a half hours, and both of us remember not liking it.”
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Weston and Kirkland did hook a bigger fish — but that only meant an even more brutal fight to reel it in. In a Facebook post, Weston called it the “most challenging catch of my life.”
But it was worth it.
A Four-Hour Battle To Reel In The 153-Pound Alligator Gar
Around 1 p.m. on April 8, Weston got a bite. However, he and Kirkland wouldn’t pull their record-breaking catch onto the boat for another four hours.
Because the line was so light, Weston and Kirkland couldn’t simply reel the fish in or it would snap. Instead, they had to follow the gar around the lake in Kirkland’s boat, the Garship Enterprise, as it tired itself out, hoping it would rise to the surface to gulp air so they could throw a rope around it.
Gulping air is common for alligator gar, but this fish seemed determined not to get caught. Eventually, however, it started to tire and popped up for air more frequently. That’s when Kirkland was able to gain some control with a steel leader.
Even then, it wasn’t a sure thing.
“We should have lost her,” Weston told Outdoor Life. “Because the second time, when Kirk was able to grab the leader, I had dipped my rod tip down, and the line twisted all the way around the tip in multiple coils. And he’s like, ‘I can’t hold her!’ and so I had to drop the rod between my legs, and I just barely got the last coil off the tip at the last millisecond.”
Art WestonCaptain Kirk Kirkland weighing the record-breaking catch before releasing it.
By that point, they’d been trying for three and a half hours to snag the fish. About 20 minutes later, and with a few more leader grabs, they were finally able to get a rope around the gar’s tail. When they brought it back to shore, they set up a weighing sling and scale, took measurements and photos, and released the alligator gar alive back into Lake Livingston.
The fish measured seven feet and three inches in length and weighed a whopping 153 pounds. The IGFA confirmed that once the record is official, the gar will be the heaviest freshwater fish in the world caught on a two-pound test line, and the sixth largest if saltwater species are included.
“This was probably the most difficult catch, in terms of fight, of my career, even including the 283-pounder,” Weston said. “It was just so perilous and it really felt like we were going to lose her… [S]he was just a little too big for that light of line.”
As for what comes next, it’s unlikely that Weston or Kirkland are content to rest on their laurels. Even if no one else is out there beating their records, they’re determined to keep besting themselves.
After reading about this record-setting alligator gar caught in Texas, discover 11 of the weirdest animals on Earth. Or, go inside the story of José Alvarenga, the Salvadoran fisherman who managed to survive alone at sea for over a year.
