Anyone know of or have an encounter with giant catfish or gar anywhere in Texas?

Not sure what you are calling Giant. I know my son's friend that fishes all the time have caught several around 40lbs ect and got them out of the Trinity and Lake Worth...

Giant meaning 60ibs plus haha. I'm looking to break my own record of 54ibs on catfish

Brazos has both and they are the size you are looking for.

My dad and I have caught hundreds over fifty pounds. Many, many, over 60 pounds, quite a few over 75 pounds, and maybe some significantly over that but didn't bother to weigh them.

The Trinity River is the best place to fish. The biggest fish are probably, to my experience, caught near Livingston.

Oh, and we caught a lot of alligator gar that would scare most people... usually in a trammel net.

I've fished Livingston. Not impressed with it. The water gets rough as hell with the smallest breeze. And we didn't catch that many fish. I'm used fishing choke canyon and tawakani. Biggest yellow cat we caught was in choke canyon at like 60ibs. But I'm after one as big or bigger on a rod and reel haha. I missed an out a 6 or 7 foot gar in lake Somerville last year

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, but I think I can help this fellow out. You got a boat? If so, and I'm not kidding, fish Lake Waco. Find the dam (it's not hard to find, launch at Speegleville Park and just head west) back off the dam about 100 yards and use your depth finder. You'll find a "trough" where the bottom drops from 45-50 feet to 97-110 feet. It's only about 30-40 yards wide and parallels the dam. That's an old dynamited road bed from when they dammed the river to build the reservoir. There are some HUGE catfish down at the bottom of that old road bed. They're tough to get up, though, due to the depth and the amount of structure that's fallen into the trough over the years. Good luck!

Sounds like my kinda challenge haha. Thanks man. Nice buck btw

i've seen them at around 150+ pounds before, caught at lake ray hubbard near dallas, and heard stories of 600 pounders living by the damns at lake lavon and LRH...

i've seen gars around 6-8 foot here in Houston a couple of times, but i won't mess with them, they are to mean...

i've caught a few 40 pounders out of a few stock tanks near dallas before...

the damns are where some divers say they saw some cats bigger than they were at lake ray hubbard...

try this: put some rocks and dog food in a 5 gallon bucket with some small holes punched in the lid, drop it in a lake where you want to fish... come back the next day, and you will fill the bed of your truck with catfish... works every time...

and the fat off of steaks works very good as bait...