Gar, eels, giant carp and other sub-aquatic misfits deserve our attention, Spitzer said, because of what they have to tell us about the state of our waterways and the planet as a whole. He’s written 30 books on the subject.
Your extreme fishing obsession landed you on an early episode of “River Monsters.” How did that happen?

Jeremy Wade [the show host] wrote to me before anyone knew who he was and said he wanted to do a documentary on alligator gar. “Do you want to help?” I said yes. I didn’t hear from him for eight years, then I got an email from Animal Planet that Jeremy was going alligator gar fishing in Texas, and could I come along and bring bait? They asked me what my daily fee was, and I said $100. We went out there and caught all sorts of gar and had a blast.