Imagine going fishing one day and reeling in the catch of a lifetime, and releasing it back without knowing you had a STATE RECORD on your hands…
Would probably feel worse than a Razor scooter to the ankle.
This is exactly what happened to 10-year-old Emily Myers from Houston, Texas.
Myers and her dad, Paul, were fishing for alligator gar, when she landed her personal best catch in a greater Houston area waterway on Sunday. The eight-foot alligator gar was almost twice as long as the 10-year-old is tall, according to Outdoor Life.
Paul and Emily fish together often, and has caught at least five eight-foot gar in over a decade of fishing the area.
Perhaps the most impressive part is that Emily knew what she was doing the whole time, as she’s been fishing since she was three and as an avid nature lover, it all came second nature to her.
Paul told the outlet:
“She cast-netted her own bait, she got the bait in, she knew what bait to go for in these conditions, she (was aware of) the water level, she knew exactly where to place her bait. I hadn’t even gotten the third rod out when she started screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy!’”
The fight lasted just over 10 minutes before she finally reeled in the big female to the bank.
He continued:
“What took a long time was me getting the lasso around the fish and making sure it didn’t hit the gills. It’s a big fish, and it was thrashing around down there.”
The fish measured 96.5 inches long, with a girth of 47 inches.
You can hear him say in the Facebook video:
“Woah look at that thing. Say something Emmy… come a little closer, I don’t want anybody to even attempt to see where we are.”
But the sickening part is that they released the gar, even though it likely would’ve been the new youth state record.
Its length was larger than the current youth record alligator gar record by a good 3.5 inches, weighing 192-pounds back in 2007.
Paul later mentioned in the video that the gar Emily caught was probably 225-pounds, but the two decided to just cherish the moment, take a couple pics, and release it.
Paul said:
“I let her choose. She didn’t care about a piece of paper. She’s all about the experience, and the fact that she’s been after an 8-footer, at her age, that’s bigger than anything she has ever caught.”