The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) recently recognized a new state record for longnose gar. On December 30, Indiana resident Justin Brown caught the record-setting gar on the Ohio River using a jigging spoon.
The fish weighed 23 pounds, 12.2 ounces, beating the previous record by almost a pound and a half. The previous record fish was caught from the White River in 2008.
All three of Indiana’s gar records have now been broken in the past three years. The shortnose gar record was set in 2025, and the spotted gar record was set in 2024.
Longnose gar are the largest and one of Indiana’s most common gar species. Found throughout the state, longnose gar are typically found in bigger rivers.
Gar are ambush predators that lie still, near the water’s surface, to feed on small fish as they swim past. Gar are difficult to catch using basic hook and line techniques because of their hard, bony mouths.
Many methods have been developed to catch gar, including using a snare with bait in the middle that tightens around the gar’s mouth.
Phil Kacmar, who is the big rivers fisheries biologist for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR), says anglers who use live bait to catch gar should let gar that bite run with the bait to give them time work the fish down in their mouth to have better success landing it.
source: Indiana Department of Natural Resources
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