I grew up in the Trinity River bottom. My whole life has revolved around hunting and fishing there. I remember when you never even seen a boat on the river for weeks at time and the Alligator Gar were so thick in parts of the river it would seem like you could walk across them on the tops of there backs. Those days we killed every alligator gar we had the chance to kill. It was rumored that they eat all the game fish and we wanted to rid the river of them. One thing led to another. Now we have found a new way to kill them and it was fun and some what sporting. A cross between bow hunting and fishing. The sport took off fast. Wasn’t long everyone was wanting to come shoot one of these monster alligator with a bow. It wasn’t easy. You had to really know what you were doing to get up and close to shoot a big fish. Now the time is about 2007. The internet is growing and people from across the country and world are starting to hear rumors of this giant fresh water half alligator half fish creature that you can go kill in Texas. I now find myself guiding bowfishing trips. Having fun doing what I like to do and make a little pocket change to boot. That’s when we caught the attention of icon films from Europe. They contacted me and wanted to film the alligator gar with some guy named Jeremy Wade. I had never heard of this guy. So be it his show was a hit Success called River Monster , and aired on Animal Planet all over the world. Now we have anglers and bow fishermen alike traveling across the globe to see this prehistoric freak of a fish. Now I am now seeing other anglers, guides , and bow fishermen all over the once remote stretch of river. All trying to get a glimpse of this monster. Fishing holes that once held unbelievable amounts of fish are disappearing. I now find myself working harder to produce big fish for my guest. That’s when I realized and seen first hand the effect my hand played in the role of nature. I put my bow down and went catch and release only. I realized if we didn’t slow down on killing these really big fish that over time it would be to late. My days of running the river and not seeing a boat for weeks are now gone. The Trinity River has now turned into the most popular place in the world to go after alligator gar. I am seeing bowfishing tournaments bringing in people from across the county all set on killing as many of the big fish the law allows. I see numbers declining. Once good fishing spots with no fish there. I am traveling 30 miles of river just to keep my success rate as high as it use to be when I only had to fish 7 miles away from the boat ramp. I am seeing all this because I have seen what it was like before there was all of that. If you didn’t grow up on this stretch of river 40 years ago then you do not know what it used to be like. Now is the time we all need to set our differences aside. come together to protect the alligator gar for all likes of sportsmen. Texas is the best place in the world for trophy alligator gar. If we intend sustain enough big alligator gar for the growing population to enjoy then we must start with some kind of regulations
that benefit us all.

Capt. Bubba Bedre