CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Brothers Mike Sanchez and Prestyn Cirilo had a long day on Choke Canyon Lake fishing for alligator gar.
The two started on Saturday morning and had been fishing all day and night when Mike got a bite on his line around 4:30 a.m. He knew it was going to be a big one.
"Once I felt it, I knew it was something big, but I couldn't have ever imagined it was that big. It was unreal at the moment," Mike Sanchez, a member of the 361 Most Hated Fishing Team, said.
As Mike pulled in the monster fish, his brother Preston lassoed the gar to help bring it to shore. After what must have been an epic battle, the brothers looked at the monstrous alligator gar in disbelief.
"Once I got it in the water and he got it closer, and once I saw how big it was, I was like, 'Man, this thing's huge!'," Preston Cirilo said.
"I knew it was my job to try to get it in closer, make sure we landed it with the lasso and not to mess it up," Cirilo added.
Once on shore, the gar was measured in at 8 feet and 1 inch, a record for Choke Canyon and, once verified, possibly the state of Texas.
The brothers have been fishing all their lives and plan to keep fishing for alligator gar in an attempt to beat their own record.
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