Apply for a Trophy Alligator Gar Permit 

LITTLE ROCK – Anglers interested in hooking into an epic-sized trophy fish can apply for a 2025 Alligator Gar Trophy tag from now until the end of 2024.

Many Arkansas anglers travel all the way to the Gulf of Mexico each year in search of trophy fish like tarpon and sailfish. Most don’t know they are passing up a similar opportunity right here in The Natural State.

While not truly a dinosaur, the alligator gar was alive during the Cretaceous Period , and individual gar take decades to reach 6 feet long. They are the second largest species of freshwater fish in North America, only topped by the white sturgeon. They frequently grow longer than 7 feet and weigh more than 200 pounds. The largest fish ever caught in Arkansas was an alligator gar in the Red River that weighed 241 pounds, more than 100 pounds heavier than the state’s next largest Arkansas catch, a 116-pound blue catfish that once held a world record.

Alligator gar can take years to reach the 36-inch mark, and females aren’t able to reproduce until they are 14 years old. Their slow maturity rate combined with habitat loss due to dams and channellization of the large rivers in their traditional range and a misconception as a trash fish or predator of other game species have hindered populations to the point where extra caution is required for harvest.

Anyone may fish for alligator gar on a catch-and-release basis with an Alligator Gar Permit (AGP), but a trophy tag (AGT) is required to keep an Alligator Gar longer than 36 inches.

Interested anglers can enter the free online drawing from Dec. 1-31 for one of 200 Alligator Gar Trophy tags for the 2025 season. Applications are available under the “Fishing License” section of the AGFC’s online license system at https://ar-web.s3licensing.com.

The drawing will occur Jan. 2, 2025.  Applicants will be notified of the results by email.

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CUTLINES:

Woman with alligator gar
AGFC Rivers Biologist Chelsea Gilliland working with a 187-lb. alligator gar from the Red River before releasing it back to the wild. AGFC photo.

Gar in net
Alligator gar being tagged before release to help with conservation efforts of this prehistoric species in Arkansas. AGFC photo.