IN THE NEWS

Published on Monday, April 18, 2005 2:14 PM CDT

Fish tale of big catch that didn't get away

MARY RAINWATER/Herald-Press
4-18-05
By MARY RAINWATER
H-P Staff Writer

While the average fisherman is know for telling exaggerated stories of how he caught "the big one," Steve Barclay doesn't need to - the fish he catches really are big.

Local bowfisherman Steve Barclay, second from left, shows off the latest,and one of the largest, alligator gar recently caught by himself and friend Mark McQueen, of Houston, in the Trinity River. The alligator gar, known as the largest freshwater predator fish, weighed an estimated 260 pounds and measured about 8-feet long.


Barclay, a co-manager of the Palestine Wal-Mart Supercenter, has made a hobby of catching one the biggest, meanest predator fish in the Trinity River - the alligator gar.

"The alligator gar is considered the ultimate catch of bow fishermen," Barclay said. "It is considered a delicacy in the Cajun markets."

Barclay enjoys bowfishing so much that he and his brother-in-law, Sam Lovell, formed Gar Guys Bowfishing, where the two catch, dress and sell the fish to interested parties.


"We were bowfishing before we even knew it was a sport," Barclay said. "Now it is a huge industry."

The Gar Guys also recently filmed the first big gar fishing video ever made - set to be released this summer.

"To shoot a gar, you have to watch for them to roll over (or surface) in the water," he explained. "You have less than a second from the time the fish comes up to the time you shoot. That is why making a video is so difficult."

Barclay and his Houston fishing buddy, Mark McQueen, recently made one of their largest catches yet - bringing home an estimated eight foot, 260-pound gar.

"I had scouted a favorite stretch of the Trinity River for a friend of mine (McQueen) who was coming in to fish with me the next day," Barclay said about his big catch. "I spotted the big one and called him in at lunch Thursday.

"He decided to leave work early and arrived here at 6 p.m. so we could go after it."

That evening, Barclay said, the two caught a large gar weighing about 125 pounds and early the next morning caught one weighing about 110 pounds.

"I knew the one I had seen the day before was bigger than that, so we continued to go after it," Barclay said. "We both spotted him, we both shot and we both hit him."

Then the chase began. The fisherman allowed the gar to pull the boat until tiring out.

"When we got him on the boat, we realized he was one of the biggest we had ever taken," Barclay said.

It's not the size of the catch that Barclay loves so much, he said. It is the time he is able to spend with his friends.

"I have always loved to hunt and loved to fish," he said. "But more than that, I enjoy the camaraderie.

"Where deer hunting is a more silent sport, bowfishing is something I can do with my buddies."

Barclay has worked at the Palestine Wal-Mart Supercenter for 11 years. He and his "very understanding" wife, Denise, and 11-year-old daughter, Taylor, live in Ratcliff.

"My wife also likes to fish and hunt," Ratcliff said. "She is totally supportive of my hobby. She carries picture of my catches in her purse all the time."

For more information on Steve Barclay or Gar Guys Bowfishing, visit www.garguys.com.

Mary Rainwater may be contacted via e-mail at mrainwater@palestineherald.com