Certainly, you wouldn’t want to see this gnarly mug staring at you whether on deck or below water. Native Costa Rican Mauricio Solis Salas was plying a stretch of his country’s Rio Frio with local guide Francisco Naranjo, when he cast a tried and true Mepps Spinner into the murky waters.
The Mepps subsequently got throttled by this fearsome 19-pound tropical gar. The standing all-tackle record tropical gar sits at 11 pounds 6 ounces, so Salas’ gar has a good shot at claiming the IGFA All Tackle World Record should it hold up.
This fish is quite a bit smaller than our huge alligator gar, but an impressive catch nonetheless.