Back in the 1960's my brother and I were floating the Pearl River below the Barnett Reservoir in Jackson, Mississippi on an afternoon fishing trip. I was chugging a Burke Flex plug on a retrieve and my line just stopped. I kept the pressure up, pulling for all I was worth and as I watched a monster of a gar simply and quietly sounded from the deep with my plug in his mouth and his eye on us in that boat. We were in a 12' john boat and neither of us could believe what we had just witnessed. He released the plug and sank back into the dark water. He was at least 10' long, possibly longer and we still talk about that.