St. Jude Alligator Hunt

[Whip]

This trip had its beginnings last June during the annual Trad Gang St. Jude auction.  One of the listings was an alligator hunt in central Florida offered by Chris Horsman.  Chris has graciously donated this trip annually, and I think this was the fifth year for the hunt.

I watched the auction thread with interest, but assumed that it would be priced out of my range.  I eventually took a swing at it, and then Chris upped the ante by adding a second tag to sweeten the pot.  Woody Blackwell (Knife River) offered to partner up, and we were off on the bidding wars.  We worried about last minute snipers, but did end up with the high bid, for an amount that we both felt was one of the biggest bargains of the auction.

Phone calls and emails were exchanged, and plans were laid for the second week of the Florida alligator season.  After spending a few days with Marty McMahon I headed for Okeechobee Florida for a rendezvous with Chris, his father Pete, and Woody.  

We checked into a local motel, laid waste to a large buffet dinner place, and headed out for an early departure at the boat landing.

[Whip]

Our hunting grounds would be the Kissimmee River north of Lake Okeechobee.  This is the land and swamps made famous by Will and Maurice Thompson in the Witchery of Archery.  I had read the book, but it had been a number of years, so I made sure to reread it prior to our trip.  It provided a perfect background for our adventure.

Our means of transportation was a step or two above what the Thompson brothers had available.  
The Bog Trotter

 

Alligator hunting is a nighttime affair with hunting hours from a half hour before sunset to a half hour after sunrise.  We left the landing a couple of hours early to have a chance to see the river and surrounding marshes during the daylight.  

The area we would be hunting was a wide area maybe three or four miles across by twelve miles long.  We sailed across Lily pads and marsh grass, with ducks, egrets, herons, storks, and a myriad of other aquatic wildlife scattering in front of our approach.  

 

 

Chris has spent years in the marshes of this area, and his passion and love for this unique land is quickly obvious.  He shared stories of the history and ecology of the area as well as his own adventures and misadventures along the way.  His insight, and that of his father Pete, really added the extra spice to our trip and he helped Woody and I see the true beauty of the place.

[Over&Under]

Here we go!!!!!!


Been looking forward to this one Joe, keep it coming!

[chopx2]

[elkken]

       

[Whip]

With the sun nearing the horizon, it soon was time to start searching for alligators, and it wasn't long before we found what we were looking for.  Many were small, but there we also spotted some very large gators, and many in between.  

The moon had been full the night before, and according to Chris that was not generally a good thing for alligator hunting.  The larger gators in particular prefer the dark of night to do most of their hunting, and the bright moonlight would not be an advantage.  

As we worked our way along the river however, it seemed that we were seeing plenty of lizards to keep our interest high, and it quickly became apparent that it would become more of a game of finding a speciman large enough to met our personal goals.  

 

Most of what we were able to approach tended toward the smaller side, with some approaching the 6 - 7 foot range.  Anything larger that that seemed to slip beneath the surface before we could drift within range.  They didn't get large without knowing what an airboat was, and they didn't hang around to give us a chance to put an arrow into them.

I won the initial coin toss for first shot, and after taking the first shift as shooter, Woody and I started alternating in one hour shifts.  Some opportunities were presented, and some shots taken and missed.  Shooting the heavy fish arrows would take a little getting used to for both of us.

Finally, at about 3 am, Woody was in the bow and managed to arrow a gator.  If you know Woody, you know that he is a master flint knapper.  And of course he had brought along some personally knapped heads for just this occasion.  With the gator firmly secured by the barbed fish arrow, Woody drove a stone point tight behind the front leg.  

In the excitement of the moment the camera was forgotten.      You'll just have to take my word for it that Woody was very happy with his trophy, and it measured in at a little over 6 feet long - perfect eating size!  

We continued to see red eyes glowing back at us, and ended up staying on the river right up through sunrise.  
 

[Whip]

It was time to head back to the dock, and on to the motel for some much needed sleep.  As we flew along the river channel Chris spotted a very large alligator trying to back itself up into the bull rushes to hide as we passed.  

I hadn't seen the gator, and when Chris suddenly swung the boat around I wasn't sure what he was doing.  I suppose the lack of sleep had me groggy and slow to react.  By the time I saw the gator it was making a fast escape.  I quickly nocked an arrow and drew, but just as I reached my check the gator disappeared into the thick brush along the bank.  A half second slow on the biggest alligator we had seen close to the boat all evening.

Time for bed tonight.  I'll have to finish this one up in the morning.  

[Chris Surtees]

   

[Benjy]

Sounds like another great hunt!

[rastaman]

[smiley]

time to wake up Joe  

[Greg Szalewski]

Hurry up Joe, I have to leave for UT in an hour.

[IndianaBowman]

Bringing up some great memories. Thanks for sharing Whip.

[tippit]

Now this is what I've beeen waiting for, waiting for, waiting for...Doc      

[Jack Denbow]

Oh boy.

[Whip]

Our first night on the water was a long one.  We were excited, and had been seeing lots of gators, so we had stayed out the entire night and then slept well into the afternoon.  I'm getting a little too old to be pulling all nighters, so we didn't want to do that again.

We hit the water at about 10 pm, and headed straight toward the spot we had seen the large one earlier in the morning.  Of course he was nowhere to be found.  But there were plenty of other eyes glowing back at us.

The skies were overcast, and we hoped that would help keep the night darker and negate the effect of the full moon to some extent.  We cut off the main river channel into some narrow side sloughs.  The water wasn't as deep here and we found gators right away.  

With as many as we had been seeing I set a goal of at least a 7 foot gator.  When they are in the water generally all you can see is the head, so judging size is an estimate.  The rule of thumb is the distance between the snout and the eyes in inches will give an approximation of the length of the entire gator in feet.  Seven inches to the eyes equals a seven foot gator.  It's a great way to estimate size.  Except for the fact that they don't allow you close enough to use a tape measure.   :rolleyes:  

We slipped up on one weed covered head and were nearly on top of him before I recognized what I was looking at.  I promptly missed him to the left and he disappeared.  

More eyes straight ahead, and we eased toward them.  This one also stayed at the surface as we approached.  The head seemed wide and long enough, and as the arrow hit him in the back all hell broke lose!

[Whip]

He was on, and not very happy about it.  He dove under a thick mat of weeds and it took some time to work him out of there, but eventually we brought him to the boat.

He was a little short of what I had been hoping for, measuring 6'7" from snout to tip of the tail.  But I was very happy, and actually the smaller alligators make for better eating.  This one would be perfect!

 

 

[Duckbutt]

Whooooot!!!!!!!!

[Tique]

Nice gator Joe; he looks plenty big enough to me.  

[DW]

Very Nice Joe! That is on our short list for sure......Congratulations to both of you and THANKS to Chris.....