Alligators

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mete

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Does anyone hunt alligators ? They have now found the bodies of three women ,in separate incidents, that have been killed by alligators in Florida !!!
 
There is a carefully regulated season on alligators. Place to hunt, number of hunters and "catch" are carefully supervised. There is illegal hunting. I live on a lake, but haven't seen one this year. Dogs are vulnerable. [email protected]
 
Texas is similarly regulated and I've never hunted 'em. Don't go swimming with gators and there's little worry. Actually, there's little worry anyway, but stuff can always happen. I think they said on the news, something like around a dozen people in Florida have been killed by gators since 1948, not a major threat. They ain't salt water crocks, but then, they ain't iguanas either. I'm figurin' the ones that get ate are being Darwinized. They did something stupid or they wouldn't have gotten eaten.

I remember one guy getting ate SE of Houston a couple of decades ago. He was swimming a small lake which happened to have a 12 foot gator residing in it and it got him. I have not heard of another incident of gator attack and we've got 'em comin' out our ears down here. I don't lose sleep over gators, but I walk a wide birth around 'em when I see 'em. The area I duck hunt has big numbers of gators and in early teal season, they are often out. I've hunted in potholes with gators swimming around, never got bothered. I'd have been a little more nervous of 'em if I'd had a dog along. But, I was handling a 12 gauge and gators don't like to be peppered by number 4 steel. :D Only ran one away from my decoys like that once. Never had to defend myself.

My uncle used to run a bait camp in Matagorda, Texas on the intracoastal. His boat ramp, shrimp boat, and bait cages were on a side creek leading into a slough called "little boggy". There was a huge gator in there he had trained. He'd come in with his catch, start culling, and call the gator with loud yells. The gator would come swimming up to be fed the cull fish. I thought that was kinda cool when I was a kid, pet gator. LOL They're aren't completely stupid, though, interesting creatures.
 
I hear that fried Aligator tail is great eating:) . I never had none myself, so's I can't say for certain.

I have seen a lot of aligators in a place called "Alligator Adventure" in Myrtle beach, SC. $15.00 per adult to get in. They have aligators, black bears, snakes, otters, 1 crocodile named Utan* & several other shows. I reccomend it highly. Here are some pics from my trip there. The snake is a King Cobra.

I have not seen any gators where I reside though & that's very good because I read in a magazine that their hides are so tough that bullets sometimes bounce off them:eek: :eek: :uhoh: .

*who is HUGE with a capitol HUGE! His picture isn't on there however.
 

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I watched a show one time on ESPN where they were "hunting" alligators with a bowfishing rig down in Florida. They shot the gator many times and still had a heck of a time getting him out of the ditch.

There are alligators sighted every year in the Alligator River, just to the south of me. Two years ago there were several alligators up in the Pasquotank River where it crosses Rt. 17. People stopping on the highway became such a problem that the state put up no parking signs around the bridge. This is around 10 miles south of the Virginia border. I've never heard of any north of there, though.

From what I've read about crocodile hunting, it takes a brain shot from a heavy caliber rifle to anchor them on the shore. If they get in the water, their buddies eat them and no hide. I've always thought gators would be "challenging" with a .44 revolver. Kind of like bullfrogging with a .22. :D

I've had deep fried gator several times as bar snacks. I thought it was pretty good, tastes something like rattlesnake. Unusual texture but very edible. Goes good with beer. YUM
 
Late night phone call..........

I was awakend by a phone call at 1:00 am one day last week. Looking at the caller ID, it was my recent college graduate son calling. Knowing he does not normally call me just to "talk", I thought "Oh no, accident, car trouble, etc."

However, he asked me to call one of our neighbors and advise them that there was a large alligator in their driveway. I made the call, but did not go to the the scene.

After action report: A 7ft, 8inch alligator was removed from under the neighbor's truck. My son has photos, which I will add when he returns home.

We do not have any open water in the area, only "wet" woodlands and one retention pond.

I think I'll shorten the leash when I walk the dog after dark.

1040 in Tampa.
 
My wife desperately wants to go gator hunting...

Something about killing something and having it made into boots, belts & handbags as nearly as I can tell.
 
Gators are very common across central Florida. You can see them in most lakes. I work at a power plant and the warm water outlets on the lake draw them like magnets. For the most part, leave them alone and they'll leave you alone.

On the other hand, it sure scares the hell out of you to be driving to work in the dark and have to slam on the breaks because one of these things is laying across the road. ALL the way across the road, head on one side, tail on the other. :)
 
My dad's home town of Anahauc (about 50 mi. east of Houston, pronouced Ana-whack) has a 'Gator Festival coinciding with the annual alligator season. It is nothing to have a 12'+ gator pulled in by hunters with a 14' jonboat:what: . It made me kinda nervous checking out the 'dead' gators surrounded by people, especially kids. My favorite fishing spot located in a wild life refuge has a gator hole not 50 yards from it. He or she doesn't bother us and we don't bother them.

The style of hunting here in Texas is more like fishing with a marlin hook tied to a length of wreaker cable attached to a stout tree or post with the hook baited with a whole chicken. The idea is that the bait is hung at a distance above the water (to keep smaller gators from taking the hook) and once the quarry takes the bait the hunter "reels" him in. The fun starts when the POed gator breaks the surface :what: .

Some hunters shoot them in the brain with nothing more than a .22 mag from a rifle. If I did it i would want something more powerful to make sure he is dead and not stunned.:eek:
 
One of the news media made the most profound statement during a report. He said that the lack of rain is turning these animals into "...cold blooded killers!" I do believe they are born cold blooded and they have to kill because if supper is still alive, it is kinda hard to hold it and chew at the same time.
 
BTW, they've been doing their thing for millions of years - it's worked so far !!!
 
Try about 200 million years, or more, 240 I think sticks in my head for some reason.

I hear that fried Aligator tail is great eating . I never had none myself, so's I can't say for certain.

Ever eat fried gar meat??? It's about the same, kinda tough, chewy. I ain't raving crazy about it, but it's okay I guess. Usually cut into slivers, battered, and fried.

I've got a lot of gator stories cause there's lots of gators around here. One gator killed a guy about 10 years ago here, not how you'd think, though. He was driving home about 2am, probably sauced "closing time", a 12 footer was stretched out across the two lane hiway coming from Magnolia beach and he hit it at about 70. Like hitting a downed oak tree. :what:

When I first went to work down here, I lived about 85 miles north and had to drive it every day. We moved after about a year. Everyone in the Brazosport area was laid off at the time and houses were NOT selling. I digress. Anyway, I'm driving home down a FM road with rice fields on either side and come upon a huge gator stretched across the road. His head is in one ditch and his tail in the other. There's a guy stopped on the other side of him and he's out of his truck kickin' at the gator about his hind leg trying to get him to move! :eek: I grabbed my Security Six and jumped out of the van and yelled at him to get his stupid butt back in his truck! :rolleyes: As he climbed in his truck, the gator got up and slowly moved off the road. I think if that guy had kept it up, you might have seen him on the evening news. :rolleyes:

There was an alligator/frog farm near Damon, Texas when I was a kid and we'd go fishing there. The lakes were stocked with bass and they charged a modest fee. Signs about saying "don't pet the gators" :rolleyes:. They havested 'em when they got 6-8 feet or so. Weren't any huge ones around. But, it was fun trying to avoid 'em while you were fishing. LOL
 
Glad I don't have to worry about the gators here in the mountains where I live. Yea I have seen them on vacation near the coast but that was at a distance. I saw on the news where they were catching a bunch of them. The news said that construction developments have pushed the gators in different areas. Imagine that? :eek:
 
Florida is just plain overpopulated. If gator attacks are gonna happen anywhere, that's the place they'll happen. The Louisiana and Texas coast isn't near so crowded, and besides, cajuns know better than to swim with the things. :D Florida has a lot of clueless vacationers and big city northern transplants, the same type people that feed the bears in Jellystone. It's a cool state, really, just too danged crowded for me. It's like the city of Houston stretched out all the way down both coasts. I mean, I live next to the bay, okay, on a 22 foot cliff on the upper end. Had to move somewhere close to work, so I researched, looked, found this house that the water didn't make it up to in the last major (cat 4) hurricane. But, the clueless come down here in droves and buy right on the water, think nothing of it. I've been through three hurricanes, a cat 2 a couple of years ago, a cat three (Alicia in 83), and a cat 4 (Carla in '61). I have insurance, I'm on high ground, I've done what I could do short of moving 30 miles off the coast. The people that live right on the water, if they're that clueless, can't wake up when a big one hits somewhere else like the Mississippi coast, well sir, Darwin had it pretty well right. :rolleyes:

The gator thing is a pretty similar deal. Heck, last year I think was the big shark scare. Kid at Surfside near Freeport (where I grew up fishing) was mauled by a big bull shark. Of course, there was a huge scare. Well, I still go fishing. I catch a lot of sharks mid summer, too. They're in here by the droves, mostly black tip and lemon shark and mostly under 5 feet. Out off in the gulf you get the big ones, but I still fish.
 
My ranch of the coast of Texas is full of gators so I get to hunt them every year. Or I guess you could say I fish for them. By law we must have them hooked before we can shoot them. I just use an extra large hook like you would use for big catfish and 1/4 inch nylon rope. No need for cable. I shoot them with a .22 long rifle handgun. Here is a picture of one I got last year.

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Small world. My uncle and I used to fish out of Port O'Connor and camp overnight on Decros Point. Our old family ranch is just north of Thomaston, on the Victoria/Cuero highway. Heck, Bolivar Peninsula is named for my ggg-uncle, Bolivar Pridgen. :)

Art
 
Small world. My uncle and I used to fish out of Port O'Connor and camp overnight on Decros Point. Our old family ranch is just north of Thomaston, on the Victoria/Cuero highway. Heck, Bolivar Peninsula is named for my ggg-uncle, Bolivar Pridgen.

Yep, know all those spots. So, you wind up in the middle of nowhere? LOL!

I love huntin' out in west Texas, but man, it's desolate. :D Was in a hunting club for a while that leased a 13,000 acre place near "Pumpville", a little hole in the road off Hwy 90 other side of Langtry on the way to Sanderson. I LOVED hunting out there. Wouldn't wanna get lost and short on water, though. :what: :D Amazing how much game there is in the desert. Friggin' deer can hide behind a blade of grass. No gators to worry about, though.:D
 
MCgunner, My place is just down the road in Long Mott. About five or six miles north of Seadrift on the Victoria Barge Canal.
 
Yep, know where Long Mott is. You should come join the bay gun club if you haven't already. We meet first wednesday of every month at the First National Bank, park around back, in Port Lavaca. Nice range out at the old dump. You just go by the police station and check out the key. $30 a year, can't hardly knock it.;) I've been a member for about 20 years. Good group of fellers.

My place is small, but in the right location off Lane Road goin' toward Charlie's bait camp. I get a deer about any year I hunt down there. Haven't hunted it in a few years due to all the bird hunting I've been doin, but I wanna get a better stand up down there and put the feeder out this season. Hard to keep anything down there. Locals rip me off. I need something BIG I can anchor in sack crete. I've been using a portable tripod and bringing it home after the season. But, I'm gettin' too old to sit out in the weather. I'd like to be able to go down there at night, sit in a comfy chair, snooze a little, and wait on a hog, too. LOL

Drum run is going, going to meet a friend down at the new lighted pier down the street from me and see if we can snag some tonight.

I do a lot of duck hunting at Guadelupe Delta WMA. Good huntin' down there.
 
We'd have a lot fewer people killed by gators if other people would just quit feeding them, which in Florida is illegal. They are a wild animal and normally they are afraid of us. But not if some darn fool keeps feeding them. Also when they are breeding they get nasty, so you keep away from them. We kayak around them all the time, but once they start to breed we don't do it on a small stream where we can't get away from their territory.
And yes they are delicious. Especially in a good Louisiana sauce over rice.
 
I take a big help'in of that gator and rice, and I wouldnt mind some of that hide to cover one of my guitar cases:evil:
 
Photo followup

Attached is a picture with the gator and two of Hillsborough County's finest and Mrs. Trapper.
 

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I have not hunted gators in the past few years, but I have in the past. We used an airboat, and a bang stick.
Gators don't kill as many people in Florida as Deer do, so frankly, unless you are one of the few victims, its all media hype.
 
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