Fasten you seat belts and get ready for a fun filled Florida family gator hunt.
2013 would be the 6th consecutive year for alligator hunting in Florida. This year I was very excited to find out if we would be lucky in the random draw tag lottery. I was really hopeful that we could draw a couple good tags as I had a very special group of bowhunters lined up for this year. My oldest daughter Emily hunted with me last year and did everything perfect but my buddy Jeff Holchin and I seemed to be able to mess it up for her. We lost two nice gators while trying to land them after she made great shots with a 50# Bear Grizzly recurve. So this year she was on a redemption hunt. The next hunter would be my son Jeff, who has taken two gators in the past but was going again this year because his wife (married for a little more than a year) wanted to give it a try. That brings us to Harmony (Jeff's wife). She is quite the sport and a real trooper. She doesn't come from a background of hunting or fishing, but we've been breaking her in. What makes her even more impressive this year is that she was gator hunting with us while 7 1/2 months pregnant with my first grandson. To round out the 4th hunter we have Daniel Holchin the 17 year old son of my great friend Jeff. Daniel hunted with my son Tyler and I back in 2008 and while he had many opportunities we were just rookies and he didn't get a gator. So this was another redemption hunt for him. This would be a special hunt for he and Jeff as Daniel will be flying the coup soon as he graduates from HS and moves on to college.
Now we just needed to draw the tags!
This should be good :thumbsup:
You have to apply for the tags in May and you don't find out until the first of June if you've drawn any or not. We had all six of us apply and only two of us drew tags. We are pretty selective in our tags and this year we got our first choice tags. So we were all set for a fun filled gator hunt. Each tag/permit allows for the taking of two alligators and this means we had enough tags for the 4 gator hunters.
My daughter Emily who lives in Manhattan, NY is a 1st grade teacher and she would be coming to Upstate NY where I live to help me make the VERY long 24 hour drive to Okeechobee, FL. My son Jeff and his wife Harmony would fly from Salt Lake City, Utah to Orlando where Jeff and Daniel would pick them up on their way down from Taylorsville, NC.
Emily and I departed Albany, NY at about 2 PM on Tuesday August 13th. Emily is a good driver, but a big truck and a long boat did give her a little trouble last year as she tried to drive it over the pump protecting pipes at a gas station. Popped a tire, bent the rim, and bent the axle. New tire, rim, and axle and we were on the road again for this year. (http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2PullingBoat.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2PullingBoat.jpg.html)
Emily did a great job and didn't hit a thing.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2EmilyDrivingTruck.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2EmilyDrivingTruck.jpg.html)
That doesn't mean we didn't have a little bit of trouble. After passing the iconic "South Of The Border", my trailer tire decided to give up the ghost. (http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2SouthoftheBorder.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2SouthoftheBorder.jpg.html)
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2BlownTruckTire.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2BlownTruckTire.jpg.html)
After a quick stop at a tire store to buy two new radial trailer tires we were on the road again and pulled into our home sweet home for the next 5 days at my parents place in Okeechobee.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2HomeSweetHome.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2HomeSweetHome.jpg.html)
We drove down early to scout for gators and we immediately hit the water. Emily is a great boat driver as well.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2EmilyDrivingBoatUpClose.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2EmilyDrivingBoatUpClose.jpg.html)
Here she is on one of the many South Florida canals. The area is full of canals used to provide water to the many orange groves and cattle ranches.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2EmilyDrivingBoat.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2EmilyDrivingBoat.jpg.html)
In order to get to some unpressured areas we crossed under some low bridges. This keeps many of the larger boats out and all of the airboats.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2LowBridge.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2LowBridge.jpg.html)
Emily and I did find a lot of these.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2NiceGatoronWater.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2NiceGatoronWater.jpg.html)
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2GatoronWater.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2GatoronWater.jpg.html)
There were many gators cruising around and we were pretty excited for the others to get to Florida and start hunting.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1GatorsinWater.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1GatorsinWater.jpg.html)
This is about a 9 foot gator that is right next to the side of the boat. You can make a gator grunting sound and they will swim to the boat. My daughter Jen shot a 10' gator at the whopping distance of 3 feet!
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1GatorbyBoat.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1GatorbyBoat.jpg.html)
Emily and I were pretty beat so we went home and crawled into bed for some much needed rest. This was the view from my bedroom window.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2BackDeck.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2BackDeck.jpg.html)
Our rest didn't last too long as we were in Florida and when in Florida you bass fish! We got up before daylight on Thursday to bass fish and were greeted by this beautiful sunrise.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/SunriseinFlorida.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/SunriseinFlorida.jpg.html)
This was going to be a very long day as Thursday was the first day of gator season and we would be hunting all night (you can hunt from 5 PM until 10 AM).
The fishing was pretty darn good! Last year Emily caught a giant bass over 9 pounds and this year she whooped up on us again. Here are just a few of the fish Emily caught.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2EmilyBigBass2.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2EmilyBigBass2.jpg.html)
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2Emily3rdBass.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2Emily3rdBass.jpg.html)
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2EmilyGreatBass.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2EmilyGreatBass.jpg.html)
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2Emily4thBass.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2Emily4thBass.jpg.html)
She was kind enough to let me catch a couple as well and this was a pretty good one!
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1TerryNiceLargemouthBass.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1TerryNiceLargemouthBass.jpg.html)
After the first night of hunting Jeff's son Daniel was pretty excited to give some fishing a try as well and he was on a quest to catch his biggest bass ever. He was successful. Here's a couple of the fish he caught.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1DanielampNiceBass.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1DanielampNiceBass.jpg.html)
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1DanielampSmallBass.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1DanielampSmallBass.jpg.html)
After a pretty good morning of fishing and a lot of time preparing for the nights hunt Emily and I launched the boat and waited for Jeffrey, Harmony, Jeff and Daniel to arrive. They were meeting us at the launch ramp. Jeff and Daniel drove all night from NC and Jeff and Harmony were up at 4 AM to catch an early flight. They were going to be some tired puppys before the sun comes up on Friday.
Emily had a great time last year and was very excited for the hunt to begin. Here she is in my boat and ready to go. We got the nice comfy chair for my very pregnant daughter-in-law!
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1EmilyinBoatReadytoGo.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1EmilyinBoatReadytoGo.jpg.html)
This is Emily holding the bow she would be using. It's a Monte Dunaway custom at 57#s.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1EmilyWithBow.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1EmilyWithBow.jpg.html)
This is a picture of Emily in her hunting garb. Some say the mosquitos can be bad at night, but I don't seem to be bothered by them.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1EmilyMosquitoNet.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1EmilyMosquitoNet.jpg.html)
Well, it's getting late here in NY and I was up very early for a bass fishing tournament. It is a team tournament series and my partner and I finished 2nd today and clinched the season championship...so it was a good day. But I am tired. I won't leave you hanging all the way. Here's one of my favorite pictures of the hunt. It is my son on the last day of hunting with the 4th and last gator taken. Some very exciting hunting to come.. That gator weighed more than he does and he was barely breathing hard after a pretty long hike back to the boat.. a really fun story about why we were out of the boat...
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/16fc7e6a-1223-4538-a3c0-51a0bcfc704f.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/16fc7e6a-1223-4538-a3c0-51a0bcfc704f.jpg.html)
Awesome Terry!! Looks like a lot of fun!!
Wow looks to be a really fun family outing, I feel left out :rolleyes: Great pictures and also love the picture of your son and his gator!
Wow. What a trip! Cannot wait to hear the rest of the story.
Terry, I would love some "schooling" on this statement "This is about a 9 foot gator that is right next to the side of the boat. You can make a gator grunting sound and they will swim to the boat. My daughter Jen shot a 10' gator at the whopping distance of 3 feet!"
I figured out a way to use the slide on a bowfishing arrow on my "gator" arrows. I think we need to exchange some secrets!
Benjy
:clapper: This is great! Thanks for sharing. I hope to do this hunt with my wife soon!
That sure looks like a successful adventure to me. Great story and photos Terry
Can't wait to hear the rest of the story Terry, brings back some very fond memories !!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome!
The first night was "Ladies Night". Our thought was to try and get Harmony a gator first so that if she got too tired (from being VERY pregnant) that we could take her back to the truck and she could go home and get some rest. Well, our plan did work out pretty well, except there was no way Harmony was going to leave us and quit gator hunting.
Jeffrey, Harmony, and Jeff and Daniel arrived shortly after legal hunting time (Jeff got lost) and we traveled about 10 miles up a canal to reach a spot where Emily and I saw a lot of gators and knew that one would likely be around and offer Harmony a good shot opportunity. The gator did not dissapoint and we pulled up to the gator with some good daylight still in the sky. Fortunately, the gator was near a water flow structure and didn't seem too concerned with us at about 5 yards away. Harmony has really never shot a bow before and actually missed on the first two tries. No problem, a gator grunt here and there and it seemed to stay close. Harmony finally got an arrow in it and the fight was on. As you can see from the photo of Emily holding a bow above that we use the "Davis Rig". It is just a soda bottle filled with expanding insulation stuck into a walking cane tip mounted to the bow. I use 250# PowerPro fishing line to attach to the arrow. Anyway, you will not stop a gator with 250# thin line and that was the case hear as well. What we do is to gingerly pull the gator close and then harpoon it with another sharp tip with a really heavy line attached. We pulled the gator up next to the boat and Harmony stabbed the big gator with as much power as she could must and it just bounced off the hard back scutes of the gator. No fear her husband to the rescue. He grabbed onto the harpoon with her (what a team) and the two of them got a good hit and the rope was attached. Some more fighting ensued and then we pulled it up next to the boat where I grabbed it by the snout. He didn't like it too much and did a death roll and pulled loose. We fought it to the boat again and I grabbed again and this time was able to hold until Jeffrey added reinforcements. Harmony then taped the mouth shut and administered the final pithing. We are bow hunters and do not use a bangstick. We just wrassle them gators into submission and kill them with our pocket knife. Pithing is just scrambling the spinal cord and brain with a knife just at the base of the skull. It is a very quick and humane method to kill a large reptile. Anyway, Harmony had her gator even before dark.
It was a very nice 8 1/2' gator that will be some great eating and she is really looking forward to a gator skin purse.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1HarmonyampGator.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1HarmonyampGator.jpg.html)
Here is Harmony and her doting husband Jeff.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1HarmonyampGatoronLawn.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1HarmonyampGatoronLawn.jpg.html)
Beautiful sunset on her wonderful hunt.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/2JeffampHarmonyonBoatwithGator.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/2JeffampHarmonyonBoatwithGator.jpg.html)
Harmony works for a dental office and Jeff is studying to become a dentist so they wanted to checking out the teeth.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1HarmonyShowingGatorTeeth.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1HarmonyShowingGatorTeeth.jpg.html)
This is how you grab them.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1TerryGrabbingGator.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1TerryGrabbingGator.jpg.html)
Off to church now. More to come later. Emily is up next....
It wasn't 10 minutes after we finished with all the pictures of Harmony and her gator that Emily had a big gator on. We fought it for a long time but was unable to get it stopped before it buried into a big weed matt. We could see the line going into the matt but couldn't budge the gator. I asked Jeff H to follow the line down and see if he could feel the gator. To his credit he reached right into the dark tannin colored water. The gator was too deep so we decided to try to horse it out. No such luck and the line pulled out. Emily was disappointed and thought the results of last year might repeat. Remember Jeff and I lost two of her good gators last year. Fortunately about 10 minutes later Emily had arrowed another alligator. It wasn't as big as the first one, but she wasn't being picky. She hit it back a little and when we would pull it up next to the boat the back end would be all we could reach so I grabbed it by the tail and back leg and tried to reach around for his head. He wasn't too keen on that idea and twisted back and tried to bite me. Jeff said "they seem to know where their discomfort is coming from and they don't like it". Fortunately the gator missed and it didn't deter me from trying again. My grabbing the gator had the same result this time except Daniel said the gator only missed me by an inch. I think it was more like 2 or 3 inches. Emily simply said "it's probably good mom didn't come!" Anyway, I was finally able to grab the gator and Emily did the mouth taping and pithing. These girls aren't afraid to get their hands dirty.
Here's Emily and her very good 7' alligator.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1EmilyWithBowandGator2.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1EmilyWithBowandGator2.jpg.html)
He she is with it on her lap. The smile says it all.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1EmilyGatorHeadonLap.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1EmilyGatorHeadonLap.jpg.html)
Here is Emily with her very proud Papa!
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1EmilyampProudDad.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1EmilyampProudDad.jpg.html)
One of the requirements of gator hunting is that you must attach a CITES tag immediately after harvest. Jeff was the lucky guy to draw the tag for the area we were hunting and I asked him for the tag. Well... here's a picture of the situation and Jeff's explanation of what happened.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/JeffGrabbingLostTags.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/JeffGrabbingLostTags.jpg.html)
"I will explain that photo of the lost/floating license. Terry and I will make a presentation at the 2014 PBS Banquet in Cincinnati on gator hunting. Terry will be the expert that has this thing totally figured out; I will be his sidekick who has figured out how to screw up as many chances to kill a gator as possible! I have a pretty good supply of "don't do this" items from the previous two gator hunts with Terry, but just to be sure, I found several new items this year. One good one was to misplace the gator tags in my house over the summer and have to turn the house upside-down the day before I left for Florida, until I found them in a laundry basket in a corner of my home. Oops. But even better was to decide to place the $1000 gator tags, which can not be replaced if lost, in my left pocket during that first night's hunt. Surely they would be safe there, right? Except when we had the second gator in the boat and Terry asked for a tag, I discovered an empty pocket. A very detailed search of every inch of the boat revealed no gator tags. Oops. Turns out that earlier in the night, when I reached into a thick matt of weeds to feel for an alligator, I had laid down on the bow of the boat and reached way into the water, and the license must had slipped out then. My saving grace, and escape from a mutiny/beating from the boat crew, was that I had placed the gator tags in a ziplok baggie and the bag was found floating in the weeds at the edge of the canal. We only wasted an hour "hunting" my gator tags! Double oops."
After being really lucky and blessed to find the lost tags our hunt resumed. We hunted really hard for the rest of the night and into the morning. Jeff and Daniel both had many shots, a few hits, a couple sticks that we just couldn't get in, and many misses. These gators are harder to hit that it would seem. Jeff and Daniel were both on the bow with me one time and a nice 9 or 10' gator was swimming at about 6 yards off the front of the boat. I told them to get ready and to shoot when I put the light on the gator. Like clockwork they both released when the light hit the gator. Let's just say the light was the only thing that hit the gator. Jeff's shot was to the right and Daniel's was to the left. If formed a perfect "X" marks the spot over the gator on where they should've shot. I simply just laughed out loud. It was just too funny. Anyway, these guys hunted hard all night. Daniel was really impressed with the stamina of the girls and said "I've never been around girls that will endure so much and work so hard without ever complaining".
Here's a picture of Daniel toward the end of the 1st night's hunt. I think he was a little tired.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1DanielSleepingGators.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1DanielSleepingGators.jpg.html)
Here's Jeff and I as the sun was coming up. He made it a little bit longer.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1TerryampJeffBowHuntingGators.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1TerryampJeffBowHuntingGators.jpg.html)
However, it wasn't too much longer and I was the last man standing.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1LastManStanding.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1LastManStanding.jpg.html)
These hunts can be very physically exhausting. Here's what Jeff H had to say: "One warning about these gator hunts if you happen to go with Terry: don't expect much rest or sleep. I left NC early thursday morning and it took 14 hours to get to the boat ramp where we began hunting. After 14 straight hours on the same canal, we finished the first night's hunt. Then we had another 3-4 hours cleaning up, getting the first 2 gators taken care of, eating breakfast, showers, etc. Then we all got 3-4 hours of sleep and repeated the process! Five of us were dragging but not Terry! The man simply does not need much sleep and has a nearly endless supply of energy. Amazing!"
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.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1DanielwithGatorandBow.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1DanielwithGatorandBow.jpg.html)
Here is Daniel and his proud Papa Jeff.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/ff6e6e76-e58f-429e-aa26-5e4aeacb3a3f.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/ff6e6e76-e58f-429e-aa26-5e4aeacb3a3f.jpg.html)
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.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1DanielGatoronBoat.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1DanielGatoronBoat.jpg.html)
now thats what i call style right there :clapper: :clapper: :shaka:
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".
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/791eacdf-8ef6-4327-90d6-9990d11c921f.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/791eacdf-8ef6-4327-90d6-9990d11c921f.jpg.html)
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.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/1GatorShishKabob.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/1GatorShishKabob.jpg.html)
The hide can be used for some neat products.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/GatorSkinProducts.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/GatorSkinProducts.jpg.html)
The skull makes a neat trophy and you can get many different mounts and the hide can make a neat rug.
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/GatorSkull.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/GatorSkull.jpg.html)
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!
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/81b7e8ec-5fcc-4086-b7e8-698f595a1007.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/81b7e8ec-5fcc-4086-b7e8-698f595a1007.jpg.html)
The gator was pretty heavy and my son married very well and has a wife that supports him in any way. What a woman!
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/989e2f38-e0fb-40b1-a4f2-8fa82a1019b0.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/989e2f38-e0fb-40b1-a4f2-8fa82a1019b0.jpg.html)
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!
(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/TJReceveur/16fc7e6a-1223-4538-a3c0-51a0bcfc704f.jpg) (http://s102.photobucket.com/user/TJReceveur/media/16fc7e6a-1223-4538-a3c0-51a0bcfc704f.jpg.html)
Awesome! :clapper:
I really enjoyed that Terry!!
Great hunt !
That was great!
Awesome adventure, congrats to all! :thumbsup:
Great Trip with the family and all Terry! Good Looking Family btw.
When are we having gator bites? :rolleyes:
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.