Alligator Hunt report with pictures. Gainesville Florida. Sept 2-4, 2003
09-07-2003, 09:04 PM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Ponte Vedra (Palm Valley) & Cedar Key, FL
Posts: 18
Alligator Hunt report with pictures. Gainesville Florida. Sept 2-4, 2003
Not sure where to post this but I imagine this might be a good place. If I' m wrong please let me know and I' ll place it where it should be:
Over the course of three nights this past week (9/2-04) Eric Thoburn and myself did a little gator hunting on Rodman Reservoir (Frank Foster one evening too). We would leave Gainesville around 7 p.m. and be on Rodman an hour later. We then spent the rest of the evening/morning looking for gators sporting a wide distance between the eyes. If you’ve never been to Rodman, it is a large manmade body of water filled with both upright and submerged stumps and logs. I would add that it has a significant amount of aquatic vegetation making navigation a little difficult. In this lake an outboard motor is not the best gator platform so ours was Eric’s 18 foot Go-Devil boat with a 25 HP Kohler Go-Devil engine. It’s a great gator platform and can handle going over the logs & stumps without any problems-you just gotta hold on.
Tuesday evening we weren’t able to make anything happen but we got a good idea of places to work for the next days hunt. Wednesday, a third person (Frank) was able to go but for only one evening so we had to find a gator for him that night. After working a few good gators but not connecting with any of them Frank took a 7 footer with a harpoon (back to the house at 5:30 a.m.). Wednesday, Eric & I worked a nice gator but it didn’t quite work out (Rodman gators are easily spooked) so we changed tactics and used a bait attached to a one-inch wooden dowel and line (bait was a RANCID hog lung and the dowel functioned as a “hook”). In less than an hour the gator took the bait and swam off. After giving it a little time to process the bait we started pulling in the line. A couple of times we thought the gator had released the bait as the line seemed to be coming in a little too quickly but what was happening was that the gator was coming towards us under the vegetation. After losing a number of gators using this technique before, Eric was standing by with the harpoon ready to make sure we became better attached to this gator. As soon as we could see the size of the head Eric stuck the gator with the harpoon but it was a little further behind the neck then I would have liked. Thinking that the break away tip might not be real secure Eric put a second harpoon right behind the head (I chastised him a little as it took a couple of attempts to drive home the second harpoon-he wasn’t putting enough force behind the harpoon on two of the tries). It would have made for an interesting video with three lines underfoot, the gator coming up spinning and biting the harpoons, line, and paddle and then going back down towing the boat around. At boatside, I maneuvered the gator’s head away from the boat and pushed it slightly underwater, then Eric made a good shot with the bangstick to the back of the skull. Taping the jaws shut and severing the spinal cord was the next step followed by bringing the estimated 200 lb gator into the boat. It was a great evening with a few pucker factor moments. Eric admitted afterwards that he was still shaking after we dispatched it with the bangstick. It was a heck of a lot of fun with some very good friends.
For the duck hunters, I would note that there was very, very little hydrilla (for the upcoming duck season). During our hunts, the Kenwood Ramp was inaccessible by boat (except airboat) and even with the Go-Devil we turned around as we plowed through 300 yards of heavy, compacted, dense water lettuce-even for the 25 HP 18 foot Go-Devil. We made access to another part of the lake using an unimproved entry at another location. A number of other ramps were also choked with vegetation and access would have been difficult. The park and ramp by the dam is clear but is only open during daylight hours (locked gate).
Brian
Here are some pictures from the hunt but they are low resolution for posting on the BBs.
Typical Rodman scene
Frank & 7 footer
Eric with his first gator-a 10 footer
Eric & I (taken w/tripod)
10 footer
Eric, gator, & 18’ Go-Devil
Over the course of three nights this past week (9/2-04) Eric Thoburn and myself did a little gator hunting on Rodman Reservoir (Frank Foster one evening too). We would leave Gainesville around 7 p.m. and be on Rodman an hour later. We then spent the rest of the evening/morning looking for gators sporting a wide distance between the eyes. If you’ve never been to Rodman, it is a large manmade body of water filled with both upright and submerged stumps and logs. I would add that it has a significant amount of aquatic vegetation making navigation a little difficult. In this lake an outboard motor is not the best gator platform so ours was Eric’s 18 foot Go-Devil boat with a 25 HP Kohler Go-Devil engine. It’s a great gator platform and can handle going over the logs & stumps without any problems-you just gotta hold on.
Tuesday evening we weren’t able to make anything happen but we got a good idea of places to work for the next days hunt. Wednesday, a third person (Frank) was able to go but for only one evening so we had to find a gator for him that night. After working a few good gators but not connecting with any of them Frank took a 7 footer with a harpoon (back to the house at 5:30 a.m.). Wednesday, Eric & I worked a nice gator but it didn’t quite work out (Rodman gators are easily spooked) so we changed tactics and used a bait attached to a one-inch wooden dowel and line (bait was a RANCID hog lung and the dowel functioned as a “hook”). In less than an hour the gator took the bait and swam off. After giving it a little time to process the bait we started pulling in the line. A couple of times we thought the gator had released the bait as the line seemed to be coming in a little too quickly but what was happening was that the gator was coming towards us under the vegetation. After losing a number of gators using this technique before, Eric was standing by with the harpoon ready to make sure we became better attached to this gator. As soon as we could see the size of the head Eric stuck the gator with the harpoon but it was a little further behind the neck then I would have liked. Thinking that the break away tip might not be real secure Eric put a second harpoon right behind the head (I chastised him a little as it took a couple of attempts to drive home the second harpoon-he wasn’t putting enough force behind the harpoon on two of the tries). It would have made for an interesting video with three lines underfoot, the gator coming up spinning and biting the harpoons, line, and paddle and then going back down towing the boat around. At boatside, I maneuvered the gator’s head away from the boat and pushed it slightly underwater, then Eric made a good shot with the bangstick to the back of the skull. Taping the jaws shut and severing the spinal cord was the next step followed by bringing the estimated 200 lb gator into the boat. It was a great evening with a few pucker factor moments. Eric admitted afterwards that he was still shaking after we dispatched it with the bangstick. It was a heck of a lot of fun with some very good friends.
For the duck hunters, I would note that there was very, very little hydrilla (for the upcoming duck season). During our hunts, the Kenwood Ramp was inaccessible by boat (except airboat) and even with the Go-Devil we turned around as we plowed through 300 yards of heavy, compacted, dense water lettuce-even for the 25 HP 18 foot Go-Devil. We made access to another part of the lake using an unimproved entry at another location. A number of other ramps were also choked with vegetation and access would have been difficult. The park and ramp by the dam is clear but is only open during daylight hours (locked gate).
Brian
Here are some pictures from the hunt but they are low resolution for posting on the BBs.
Typical Rodman scene
Frank & 7 footer
Eric with his first gator-a 10 footer
Eric & I (taken w/tripod)
10 footer
Eric, gator, & 18’ Go-Devil
09-08-2003, 09:06 AM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 1,665
RE: Alligator Hunt report with pictures. Gainesville Florida. Sept 2-4, 2003
Sweet! Congrats on the gators! Thanks for the play by play, sounds like some exciting nights!
What do you do with the gators now? Are they edible? Worth anything to sell?
What do you do with the gators now? Are they edible? Worth anything to sell?
09-10-2003, 09:00 AM
#8
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Ponte Vedra (Palm Valley) & Cedar Key, FL
Posts: 18
RE: Alligator Hunt report with pictures. Gainesville Florida. Sept 2-4, 2003
Thanks guys. Just like any other game we eat the meat ( a little different than most people are used too, but it can be very good if prepared well), get the head mounted (~$155 for an 8 footer), and we usually sell the hide. However, this year two weeks before the Florida gator season, Louisiana flooded the hide market with 4000 farm raised gator hides so no one is buying hides this year. We are now tanning them ourselves this year.
It’s quite an interesting & fun hunt.
Brian
It’s quite an interesting & fun hunt.
Brian
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