[bswiv]

Caught this guy at about dawn today. He's 12'5" and if we did the math as we cleaned him correctly he's pushing 500#. Just his head, with the tongue and jowls removed, weighs 44 pounds.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/bswiv/Gator32009003.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/bswiv/Gator32009014.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/bswiv/Gator32009021.jpg

Last picture just finished scrubbing his nasty self off with bleach and soap before we haul him in the market so we can clean him. And yes cleaning that thing is UNFUN. But then not enough UNFUN to counteract the fun of catching them.......

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/bswiv/Gator32009023.jpg

[Floppy_D]

Holy cow, how do you take them? Looks like rod and reel! Well done, thanks for the pics, and welcome to The High Road. :)

[dakotasin]

that's a biggun! nice work!

[Eschaton]

You can hunt alligators?

That's awesome!

[JWF III]

You can hunt alligators?


AFAIK, every state from LA (maybe even TX) to SC has a season. I'm positive that GA, SC, FL, and LA have seasons. Georgias hunt is by draw only. So it's pure luck of the draw. And it's a very popular hunt, many people enter for a chance.

bswiv, congratulations, that's a monster there.

Wyman

[Eschaton]

AFAIK, every state from LA (maybe even TX) to SC has a season. I'm positive that GA, SC, FL, and LA have seasons. Georgias hunt is by draw only. So it's pure luck of the draw. And it's a very popular hunt, many people enter for a chance.

I guess being from the state that water abandoned I've never given an alligator hunt much thought.

[kanook]

Florida is on a lottery style permit now. It took 15 years to get my first permit. We didn't see anything that big, but I still got till this Friday night to fill my tags. Congrats on that big one.

[Speedo66]

I assume you can eat the meat?

Can you sell the hide or do you do something with it yourself?

What would the hide be worth? I saw an article recently that said due to the downturn, the market for luxury items made from alligator was down significantly.

[bswiv]

Because we have a inspected facility (A retail/wholesale seafood business. ) we are able to get a processing license from the state. The license allows us to not only process and sell our own gators but also to process for other hunters.

We sell more parts of the gator than you might imagine. Besides the tail, which is what everyone thinks they are getting when they eat gator, the balance of the meat from the body is used. We also seperate out the jowls, the ribs and the legs.

The legs, with the feet still attached, go out of the retail market, mostly to customers of Chinese decent but sometimes to other folks. They end up as part of a traditional soup.

The jowls, which close the jaws and which on this gator weighed almost 20 pounds, are also used for frying and as ground gator for making "gator rolls".

The ribs get cooked just as would pork ribs. On one this big they will need to go through the pressure cooker or get the LONG & LOW HEAT treatment to be tendar. Lot's of meat on them.

We also sell the heads, in the raw.

Finally in answer to the skin question. Sadly they are worth almost nothing right now. We caught 3 last week, all over 10 feet long. Got in excess of 33 feet of gator skin in the cooler, 33 feet that in years past would have been worth $1,000 to $1,500!, and right now they are about worthless......

[Tim the student]

What do they taste like? Chicken I'm guessing...

[usmc1371]

that is just super bad ass! I assume its dead befor you birng it on board?

[bswiv]

Unless you encounter a fat nodule that was missed during butchering the meat is, IMHO, about tasteless. The fat on the other hand is, while not nasty or really objectionable as is some deer fat, still not what you want in your mouth.

Whether gator meat is "good" or not is more dependent on properly tenderizing it, removing the fat, seasoning it well, and then making sure not to over cook it. For sure get it done but don't go crazy with it.

And here's a unusual thing about it. The meat has no smell. If you've cleaned a deer or a hog or most any other animal, and taken note not of how the guts or the outside of the animal smelled but rather how the processed meat smelled you've probably noticed that they all have a slightly different smell. Well with gator meat, if you wave a piece under a persons nose they smell nothing....... Don't know why but all the guys at the market agree that it is about the cleanest smelling stuff.

[Chuck Dye]

While in Australia, I helped skin a couple of sharks. The locals who did the real work cut a very small slit on the ventral center line and inserted a compressed air nozzle and inflated the fish. Nearly the entire hide lifted from the body, leaving only a few spots near the head to knifework. I was told that crocs can be treated the same way. Can 'gators?

[03Shadowbob]

Good lookin gator there. Jowls can make some good eating. I personally like them a little smaller for eating. There are numerous ways to catch gators but 1/2 a chicken on a big hook with solid rod and reel and heavy heavy test line can bring em in. I know my grandpa used to shoot em with his 22mag. My dad used his 410 slugs.

[Readyrod]

That honestly looks like a lot of fun!