Big fish hunter Art Weston was back in Texas a few weeks back. Not surprisingly, he was up to his old tricks again.
Weston is an adrenaline junkie and world record chaser from Union, KY. His motto: Go big or don’t go at all.
He’s been pretty successful at closing the deal, too.
Since 2017, Weston has set 78 IGFA angling records linked to 14 freshwater species and six different countries. Most are line class world records.
IGFA is short for International Game Fish Association. Based in Florida, the IGFA is the official records keeper of fresh and saltwater angling records around the globe.
Weston has achieved plenty of success reeling in true heavyweights using specialty tackle better suited for much smaller fish. Many of his IGFA records have come from Texas waters. Sam Rayburn, Choke Canyon, Walter E. Long, LBJ and the Trinity River are among them.
Weston has broken several of his own records multiple times. One that probably won’t be cracked again any time soon is the IGFA Men’s 6-pound line class world record for alligator gar he caught and released in Sept. 2023. The fish weighed a whopping 283 pounds.
Well-known fishing guide Capt. Kirk Kirkland steered Weston to the giant gar at the upper reaches of Sam Rayburn near Lufkin. The monster gar ate a thick slab of fresh carp Weston was soaking on bottom in about 15 feet of water near the State Highway 103 bridge.
Weston tangled with the fish for nearly three hours using a 5 1/2 foot GOOFISH rod matched with a Daiwa 19 Emcast freespool spinning reel, while Kirkland kept him close using the outboard engine. Per IGFA rules, the angler tethered a length of steel leader between the 8/0 J hook and thin main line to help prevent the fish from breaking off. Kirkland finally managed to close the deal by subduing the fish with a lasso.
Measuring over eight feet long with a girth of four feet, the remarkable fish also shattered the former All-Tackle world record of 279 pounds that had been in place for nearly 72 years. Word of the incredible catch drew so much fanfare that IGFA dubbed it “The Catch Heard ‘Round The World.”
Back in Texas
Shift to late September 2024. Weston made a return trip to Texas hoping to set a few more IFGA line class records straight. Amazingly, he went home roughly two weeks later with more than a dozen new marks marks to his name.
His first stop was Choke Canyon, a 25,000acre impoundment on the Frio River near Three Rivers. The South Texas reservoir is bustling with big ‘gator gar.
Weston wrangled six more IGFA line class records in four days fishing onboard Kirkland’s aluminum boat, fittingly called the “Garship Enterprise.” All of the records were still pending approval by IGFA as of Oct. 23.
September 19 was an especially busy day as he topped three of his previous records with triple digit giants. The largest was a 92 inch, 212 pounder he caught on 16-pound test Momoi monofilament.
Weston also boated a 201 pounder on 20-pound line and 176 pounder on 50-pound line that was topped two days later with a 182 pounder. He capped the seven-day trip with a 190 pounder on 30-pound line and 164 pounder on 8-pound line.
It takes a wealth of skill, patience and healthy dash of luck to land a bunch of heavyweights like those in such short order, especially on light tackle. It also demands a salty boat captain who knows how the toothy denizens behave and what to do when things get dicey.
Weston and Kirkland work extremely well together as a team. And it shows.
“Kirk and I have record gar hunting down to a science, and it has really paid off,” Weston said.
The angler said the 212 pounder fought more aggressively than any he or Kirkland has ever seen.
“You think about alligator gar as these big lumbering fish, but this one just grabbed the bait and took off like a rocket,” Weston recalled. “We were anchored down when it ate the bait, so it took some time to raise the Power Poles and get the engine cranked. The fish was smoking the drag the whole time. Initially, I thought it was going to spool me before we got going. It was pretty nerve-racking.”
Weston said Kirkland chased the fish at 1/3 throttle for about 100 yards before catching up to it, then for another 5 minutes before it finally settled down. The ensuing fight lasted another 90 minutes before the guide was able to get a lasso on the fish.
A Clean Sweep
Weston finds himself in pretty tall cotton following the epic trip to Choke Canyon. If all the pending records are approved, he will own every IGFA line class record there is for alligator gar using conventional tackle, plus the All-Tackle record. He may be the first angler in IGFA history to accomplish a clean sweep of all records for a particular species, according to Zack Bellapigna, IFGA’s Angler Recognition Manager.
“To my knowledge no other angler has done that,” Bellapigna said. “He’s a heck of an angler. If anybody could do it, he would be the one. But it’s just as much Kirk Kirkland as it is him, though. They fish as a team when they go after these big fish.”
On to Decker
Weston’s second stop was Walter B. Long (also called Decker Lake), a 1,269-acre reservoir just east of Austin. There, he spent seven days fishing with Austin Anderson, an expert smallmouth buffalo/ carp angler who specializes in putting clients on the big ones on several Austin-area reservoirs and rivers.
Fittingly, Anderson calls his business CarpPro Texas Guide Service. He’s caught and released some giants himself.
Anderson’s personal best smallmouth buffalo is 71 pound, 10 ounce beauty he landed at Lake LBJ in July. The fish was recently approved as the LBJ lake record and the Texas catch and release state record by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Angler Recognition Program.
Weston didn’t top Anderson’s state record on his recent trip, but he got darned close.
On October 2, he landed a 68 pounder at Walter B. Long that is a pending IGFA 80-pound line class world record. He said the fish ate a ProLine boilie fished on hair rig in about 20 feet of water.
Boilies are flavored/ scented baits about the size of a large gum ball. Weston said the baits are manufactured from natural ingredients buffalo and other bottom dwellers like to munch.
The hair rig is designed so a small J-hook rides just outside the bait. The rig originated in Europe, where carp fishing extremely popular and shy biting fish gets lots of pressure.
Weston’s week with Anderson produced seven other pending IGFA line class world records for smallmouth buffalo, several of which he broke multiple times on the same trip. Among them were a 45 pounder caught on 2-pound line, a 52.2 pounder caught on 4-pound line and a 52.8 pounder caught on 6 pound line. He broke the 4-pound record three different times. Weston has fished with plenty of fishing guides over the years. He called Anderson “one of the best in the world” at steering clients to trophy class buffalo.
“He is a great guide, very organized, with all the latest equipment and techniques,” Weston said. “Austin has clients from all over the world to come fish with him. He represents this style of fishing really well.”
