2013 Annual Florida Family Gator Hunt

[IndianaBowman]

The next night we were up and at it again. Daniel was the first up and did a great job in connecting on a good sized gator.

Daniel's gator did give us some pretty good excitement. I had it by the snout and was trying to keep it from death rolling, but it was just to strong. It gave a huge thrust and spun loose and lunged forward all at once. I had to roll back on the front of the boat to avoid his gaping jaws. I had a very close and personal look at his dental hygiene. It was pretty close. These gators do have some impressive teeth. When Emily's gator flexed back to bite me the night before it clamped onto the side of my boat and just grinded some teeth to nubs. The next morning my boat showed some pretty impressive dents and scratches. I guess I'm pretty glad he missed me.

Here is Daniel with his solid 8 1/2' gator.

 

Here is Daniel and his proud Papa Jeff.

 

This is Daniel and his gator after getting it into the boat. This was a great moment for Daniel as he didn't get one on his first hunt way back in 2008.

 

[JEFF B]

now thats what i call style right there          

[IndianaBowman]

Since Daniel got his gator that left only Jeff. We hunted hard for the rest of the night and had some great success and bad luck/execution. My son Jeff was a bit jinxed as some monster gators got the best of all of us. He did a fantastic job and we were hooked up and fighting a 10', 11', and 12' gator. The first was the 10' and Jeff made a good shot and it dragged us up and down the river for a while and then it bored into a big thick willow pile. We just couldn't stop it. It was in pretty shallow water and we could see the tail and back legs. Ding, ding, ding...good idea popped into my head. Let's grab this really aggravated 10' and 300# alligator by the tail and legs and see if we can pull it out. So Jeff and I grabbed it and pulled with no luck. It just surged forward burying deeper into the jungle. We just could not budge it. Finally, we got a solid hold and had Emily put the boat in reverse and we held on with all we had. No luck. We couldn't hold on and it broke our line. The gator then buzzed up over a bank into a swamp that we couldn't follow it into. The next gator Jeff made a perfect shot right into the jowl of a HUGE 11 - 12' beast. It dragged us around for a while and was heading for the scrub thickets so I quickly tossed a snatch hook out to get another line on him and to give us some more leverage to control him. I unfortunately snagged Jeff's arrow line and my hook cut his line. The 3rd gator was another mutant giant and he was just a dinosaur. We fought him for over an hour and could never get a 2nd or 3rd line on him. This gator was probably 50-75 years old and it seemed like he had been in a rodeo like this before. He would just grab onto the bottom and not budge. We couldn't lift him and he was too deep to harpoon. After I was drenched in sweat and well over an hour later he decided to start heading down river and we just could not stop him. I have 250# PowerPro braid on the reel and trust me I was pushing every bit of that poundage trying to stop him. He finally made it to a bridge and went between two narrow pillars that we couldn't get the boat through. He then took off and the line was cut on the concrete pillar. This was at 5 AM and the 3 gators smoked us and most of our gear so we packed up and made it back to the house by 6:30 AM. We then slept till 9:30 AM and prepared for our final night. We had some vengeance to exact. Unfortunately, we didn't have a full night. Emily and I had to hit the road so I can make it to work Monday morning. This means we  needed to leave by 4 AM at the latest for our 24-25 hour drive. Jeff and Harmony's plane left at 8 AM on Sunday and they needed to be at the airport by 6 AM. We hoped to have a gator in the boat before midnight to 1 AM because we needed to get back to my dad's place, shower, clean the place, and hit the road. What a whirlwind! Daniel said he has never been on a hunt where he was so tired.

Some ask what do you do with them after you get one. Well the following should explain it.

This is Emily and my wonderful wife enjoying some very tastey "gator bites".

 

Here is another good way to eat them. Any good pork or chicken recipe will work. I think they taste like a cross between a pork chop and frog legs.

 

The hide can be used for some neat products.

 

The skull makes a neat trophy and you can get many different mounts and the hide can make a neat rug.

 

[IndianaBowman]

Anyway, let's get back to hunting. The final night was actually a pretty short one and we were actually all done gator hunting and had the boat loaded and back on the trailer right at last light. We launched the boat at about 6:00 PM and made a very long canal run (at least 10 miles and probably more) to get to a water flow structure. The gators love to stack up on the outflow side and catch any dead or wounded fish that come through the discharge gates. Since we couldn't find a launch site on the downflow side we had to travel all the way to the structure, get out of the boat and try to get close to the unsuspecting gators from shore. We managed to succeed and Jeff connected on a solid 8' gator. Jeff and I had to chase the gator a good ways down the canal and fortunately it never decided to go to the far side of the canal, so we didn't run out of line. Jeff fought the gator for a solid half hour and worked it close to the shore where we sunk an arrow and harpoon dart deep into the gator. He didn't like that much and took off again to fight some more. We finally got it back to shore and had a bit of a dilemma. We normally have pretty good access to the gator and can get control of the mouth pretty well. We couldn't do that off the very steep canal bank. So the Jeff(s) and I muscled the gator up the canal side on to flat ground. We've heard gators can run very fast so we were a bit concerned about the possibility of it deciding attack the source of his discomfort. A few tense moments and lots of advice from Emily and Harmony about how I should keep away from it's head. That really wasn't an option and I did see a guy jump on a gator from behind on TV once, so I knew what I had to do. A little tap on the gators head to see how aggravated he was resulted in a pretty fast backward lunge and snap. No worries. I had this! I took a short PVC tube and pushed the gators mouth closed and jumped on. I grabbed his mouth and then my son Jeff came to the rescue with the electrical tape. We were now pretty safe and I backed off and Jeff and his 7 1/2 month pregnant wife jumped on and adminstered the final pithing. A quick and painless end to a quality animal. Jeff then had the task of hauling the big gator all the way back to the boat.

Here's Jeff with his gator. What a smile!

 

The gator was pretty heavy and my son married very well and has a wife that supports him in any way. What a woman!

 

This filled out our four gator tags and everyone was happy for a early and succesful end of our hunt. This meant we could get back to the house and get some much needed rest before we all started our long travel home. Overall, it was a very fun, successful, and certainly memorable hunt. I just don't think there is a better way to spend a Florida family vacation. Mickey who??? Jeff was able to spend some quality time with his son Daniel who is a Senior in HS this year and will soon be flying the coup. These type of hunts are priceless for creating memories. I was able to spend quality time with my 1st grade teacher daughter Emily and my son and daughter-in-law who live way too far away in Utah. What a great chance to help Jeff and Harmony build common experiences to strengthen their marriage and family. Plus, I had the honor of taking my yet to be born first grandchild (Keegan Jeffrey Receveur) on his 1st hunt. What stories he will be able to tell when he sees the photos of his very pregnant mom gator hunting.

Folks, making memories is what life is all about. I'm so blessed to have a wonderful wife, amazing children, and phenomenal friends like Jeff and Daniel Holchin. Thanks for coming along.

You young hunters out there, girls like Harmony and Emily (who is available) are what you are looking for.

My favorite picture of the hunt says it all!

The End!

 

[wooddamon1]

Awesome!    

[Sean B]

I really enjoyed that Terry!!

[OBXarcher]

Great hunt !

[Stone Knife]

That was great!

[pitbull]

Awesome adventure, congrats to all!  

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Great Trip with the family and all Terry! Good Looking Family btw.  

When are we having gator bites?   :rolleyes:

[IndianaBowman]

Charlie, let me know when you and Becca want to come down. We can make a day of it. We can bowhunt in the AM, eat a nice lunch of caribou and gator, and then hit the woods in the evening.