This was going to be the year that we go gator hunting by our ownselves. Last year we were able to hitch a ride with our friend Scott who taught us MUCH more about gator hunting in one night than we could have learned by ourselves in a season. We had a blast and spent the next year acquiring all the gear we’d need. I got the “little” stuff mostly….crossbow, bang stick, harpoon, bolts, line, snag hooks and other accoutrements needed for harvesting an alligator. Steve got the big stuff: 15 ft jon boat with pods on the back, trailer and mud motor.
So, Friday night was when my permit began and we headed off to hunt. We got to the boat ramp about 6 pm and there was one hellacious storm going on to the north of us. There were also a couple of guys there trying to snatch a gator from the shore. But as far as we could tell, we were the only ones with a boat to be able to travel through the topped out hyrdilla and lily pads. With lightning flashing to the north, a great breeze keeping us cool and bug free, we launched to head off on our first time gator hunting by ourselves. We weren’t skeered of a few volts of lightning. And our spirits were high and excitement bubbling over.
For the first night, Steve drove and I took point on the bow with the crossbow. We had several nights so we were in no hurry to kill a gator and we were looking for 8 foot or better, preferably better. There are some MONSTERS at the boat ramp but they have been messed with a lot as they disappeared into the depths of the hydrilla as soon as we pulled up to the boat ramp. So off we went. We drove around a long while, checking out every red eye we saw (and we saw more than 100 of them). There were several that I thought “mmmmmmmmmmm not bad but we’ve got time”. It’s tough to gauge how big a gator is (at least for me). There were lots of little guys and one place we drove through we called the nursery because of the high number of hatchlings hanging out in there. That was truly cool.
We drove more, and when we got to the back of our area, the skies started opening up on us. It was POURING. So we turned around to slowly make our way back. We’d been out there for hours already and so we weren’t overly upset about turning back. We stopped at a spot where I saw a gator submerge where I thought to myself THAT sucker is a 9 footer. We stopped there, the pouring had eased to a drizzle and we just sat around to see if he’d come back up. There was no surge of hydrilla being moved out of the way so I’m sure he was there. We waited about 30 minutes and he still hadn’t resurfaced where we could see him so we decided to move on, keeping in mind that spot for the next night.
The rain stopped and there were lots of eyes to check out. One set of eyes we chased around for a little while trying to decide if we wanted him or not. But we decided to pass on him. Clearly if we couldn’t decide, we really didn’t want him.
We were making our way back to the boat ramp when we followed another line of eyes (as I said….no shortage of gators in there and sometimes the water was lit up like a landing strip). We went back into a pocket with cattails surrounding it and there was a gator there that I thought, ok. I’m getting tired and he does look like an 8 footer and I’d be very happy to have another 8 footer. Because of the rain, my waterproof laser sight was having issues so it took longer to shoot him than it ought to have, but then he was submerged more than I thought he was so when I finally did shoot, I bounced the bolt off his back. At which point he just sank. I retrieved my bolt by hauling on the line and Steve gave me a lesson on bow fishing and refraction while we sat there just enjoying the breeze and no bugs and to see if he’d come back up. Steve asked how big I thought he was since he couldn’t tell from the back. I said bout 8 feet. So we chilled, chatted and enjoyed a cool drink. We had sat there for about 20 minutes, always searching the water, when I started staring at the spot the gator had been at.
The water looked weird. It’s very clear and there was a weird texture to it. Then I started looking harder and I could see a white spot and blood. That’s when I realized I did actually hit the gator. But to verify that, I asked Steve if he saw what I was seeing. And YUP he did. Which thoroughly energized us, but Steve was very good about coaching me through shooting something under the water. However, unbeknownst to either of us, the sight had gotten adjusted at some point so it was now shooting higher than it was when we had it sighted in at the house. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo I shot over that gator (at least in the same spot) 3 times before it dawned on me to check the sight. The next time I was to shoot, Steve told me where to aim, then to bring it down a couple inches, which I did and when I shot I hit the gator!
And he just lay there. No movement.
I looked at Steve with that what the hell look. We had time to get our gloves out of the gator box and put them on. When Steve started pulling on the line though that’s when the gator EXPLODED. He really didn’t like being hauled on. And thus began our version of a Nantucket sleigh ride. STRAIGHT into the cattails he pulled us. And pulled us. And pulled us some more. I think he quit where he did because at that point he had so much hydrilla and cattail vegetation attached to the line that it became more than he could pull PLUS the boat. But he was still a good 10 feet in front of us. While Steve pulled the line to move us forward as much as he could, I hauled vegetation off the line and out of the way of the boat. However, we got to a point where we couldn’t pull any further with the little bitty line so Steve had me get the harpoon out, take the point off and use it to poke around to see if I could find the gator. Once I had I was instructed to put the tip back on and stick that summbitch. Cuz the harpoon line is a good stout ½” diameter rope for hauling on. I stuck him and both Steve and I tested to make sure it wasn’t going to pull out.
We started pulling on both lines and the gator really really really didn’t like that but when he wasn’t rolling (and wrapping cattails and hyrdilla up with him), it did cause him to raise his head, at which point I was able to get the bang stick on him. The first shot did a good job of stunning the beast. Which allowed us to let go of the crossbow line and haul up on the harpoon line, to find out that I’d stuck him in the back leg, which since it’s all we had a hold of, we tied to the boat using the bow line so he couldn’t go anywhere.
Then Steve started hauling on the crossbow line again to get the gator that was starting to wake back up turned around so I could hit him again with the bang stick. The second shot was placed a little far back, but the third shot was a very well placed shot and the gator went sorta kinda limp. At least I gave him a bad headache. Then Steve had me pull the gaff out so we could get that bad mannered gators bill turned our way so we could tape him up. Once he was gaffed through the lower jaw, I released his back leg and then we began the process of trying to move the whole freaking marsh and the gator to the bow of the boat and get him up enough that we could get his bill up there. He gets all taped up and then I slice the back of his head, though I’m not able to get all the way through the spine with the knife I was using (the next day Steve bought a good stout chisel just for cutting through gator spines), and then a wire is used to scramble his brains.
Now he’s no danger to us, other than how the hell are we going to get this gator that is obviously NOT an 8 footer into the boat without killing our backs. We each grab a front leg and lift and pull. That’s when we realize just how wrapped up in the marsh he is and so we start on the next job of cutting lines and cattail and hydrilla. Eventually we use the bow rope to wrap under his arms so Steve can pull while I lift and pull on his arms. But it seemed like the harder we pulled, the stucker he got. We were making no headway. We turned around to start moving ourselves and the boat out of the cattails to try to just drag him out and that’s when we realized that gator drug the boat, motor, us, all our gear 25 feet into the cattails!!!!!! But we pushed and pulled our way out of the cattails about half way but the gator was just getting too caught up so we had to get more of him into the boat
Then the light bulb came on. His gut was catching on the corner of Steve’s pointy bowed boat. So that required rolling him over and pulling, then when he’d fall back on his stomach, roll him over and pull. That went on several times before his back leg got caught up under the bow of the boat. The bow line got removed from his arms and then wrapped around his waist. Once we pulled up and pulled his leg out getting that monster in was disgustingly easy. We got out of the cattails, back into the breeze where there were no longer bugs to inhale and just sat there and looked at the obviously not 8 footer we’d just managed to subdue.
It only took two hours from the time I stuck him with the crossbow bolt to the time he was in the boat and we were sitting back grinning from ear to ear. Occasionally I’d let out a rooster crow….afterall that beast was something great to crow about!
Steve and I were both pooped from that one so we decided to call it a night and head to Scotts to drop the gator off in the cooler. It was 430 in the morning when we finally got home,.
The next night it was my turn to drive. First time I’d spent more than a couple minutes driving a mud motor. I tell ya, I find it mighty inconsiderate for mudbuddy to make handles that are so monstrous that little handed people like me have a hard time working the throttle and buttons. But I digress. I was awfully proud of myself, I only managed to dump Steve off his seat on the bow once. And I didn’t kill him or me. Plus I managed to figure out a way to drive without screwing things up too badly.
That night was warmer, little breeze, more bugs but not horrible, and again no one on the water with us. We cruised and cruised and cruised and cruised. It was really interesting the difference in gators that we saw that night, most everything we saw was on the much smaller side. Where’d the 7-8 footers go? I know we’d seen several the night before. We did find a good one….I figure about 9 feet or so but Steve managed to do what I did and bounced the bolt off his back as the gator was diving. We sat and waited but this fella did not come up in the 45 minutes we sat. He’dve been a good one for bait I’m sure.
So we moved on. The night was wearing on and we were running out of water to check that we hadn’t already been over that night. As we were heading back, I saw a gator swimming for the cattails and the closer I got the faster he went (our limited experience has shown that the bigger gators tended to either disappear under the water pretty quick or make a run for the cattails). I sped up to try to cut him off and Steve got one look at the gator and without hesitation shot it while we were both moving at a pretty quick pace. I was pretty impressed with the shot. It wasn’t a monster like the night before, since Steve didn’t need me getting in the way to help him out. All I did was load the bang stick for him and he had his nice 8’ 2” gator in the boat in no time. And what a pretty gator it was too. Make a very pretty set of boots I’m sure for someone. Off we headed, victorious once again, to put Steve’s gator in Scott’s cooler and head home. The next day was going to be spent cleaning.
Luckily for us, Scott was willing to help us “shuck” our gators. Steve’s gator took 2 hours to totally process, with three people working on it. The big one took the three of us 5 hours to clean it.
Scott I guess was watering it to make it grow even bigger….if that works super well then I’d decided that next year I’d choose a smaller gator and just miracle grow the hell out of him
Gotta add some sunlight to help make it grow though
It did make the gator feisty though….
Checking to make sure Steve didn’t leave anything in his mouth
Whew, Steve’s finally figgered what side of the gator to stay on
And for being such a rude gator (I mean what gator wouldn’t want to be hauled into our boat?) he had to be shown who was boss…..
But afterwards he seemed to be a happier gator….with a smile on his face just as he was going to get nekid….
Big one I shot was 11’1” !!!!! Not bad for our first time gator!
Danibeth
