Lake Pontchartrain used to have alligator gar that big some years ago; my granddad had a fishing camp there at the northeast tip of New Orleans. Those monsters would come into the shallows to feed in the evening, I used to watch them from the pier. All the fishing camps in that area are gone now, but I'll bet the gar are still there.
One summer, someone caught a huge one and then dumped its carcass in the drainage canal that ran behind my parents house. They figured the regular rain would carry it further out, away from the houses. Unfortunately, we had a dry spell that allowed the huge fish to just sit there and stink up the entire subdivision. Nasty... but every boy with an air rifle did his best to shoot that thing to pieces.
I know dats right!
Gaspergoo too.
That one in the picture doesn’t look like it could have weighed 300+ pounds......