Florida gators
03-01-2006, 10:06 AM
#22
Fork Horn
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Lake Wales, FL
Posts: 165
RE: Florida gators
a 14 fter is guesstimated to be around 80 yrs old.... so just imagine how old a 18fter would be...
gators grow alot in the first couple of years, but slow down after that... alot of peeps think that they continue that growth rate after they are a couple of years old...
gators grow alot in the first couple of years, but slow down after that... alot of peeps think that they continue that growth rate after they are a couple of years old...
03-11-2006, 12:42 PM
#23
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Orlando, Florida
Posts: 387
RE: Florida gators
I lost one this year that would have been in contention for the state record of 14' 5/8 ". We got him in Lake Jessup, the lake that connects to Lake Monroe where the other one was caught. I was in a 14 foot jon boat and he was every bit as long as the boat. We fought with him for over 2 hours. We managed to get him to the boat a bunch of times and bang stick'em three times. He broke 600# bowfishing line! We were able to get him on tape before we lost him. I gaffed him once under the jaw when we though he was dead after one of the bangstick hits. He came back alive and almost pulled me in with the gaff. Here are some stills from the footage. We're still not over it, but we learned a lot of what to do and what not to do on something that size. It was just a shame to lose something that big. We went back to look for a few days after, but never recovered him.
03-11-2006, 12:48 PM
#24
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: WC FL
Posts: 26,323
RE: Florida gators
ORIGINAL: bigboar23
I lost one this year that would have been in contention for the state record of 14' 5/8 ". We got him in Lake Jessup, the lake that connects to Lake Monroe where the other one was caught. I was in a 14 foot jon boat and he was every bit as long as the boat. We fought with him for over 2 hours. We managed to get him to the boat a bunch of times and bang stick'em three times. He broke 600# bowfishing line! We were able to get him on tape before we lost him. I gaffed him once under the jaw when we though he was dead after one of the bangstick hits. He came back alive and almost pulled me in with the gaff. Here are some stills from the footage. We're still not over it, but we learned a lot of what to do and what not to do on something that size. It was just a shame to lose something that big. We went back to look for a few days after, but never recovered him.
I lost one this year that would have been in contention for the state record of 14' 5/8 ". We got him in Lake Jessup, the lake that connects to Lake Monroe where the other one was caught. I was in a 14 foot jon boat and he was every bit as long as the boat. We fought with him for over 2 hours. We managed to get him to the boat a bunch of times and bang stick'em three times. He broke 600# bowfishing line! We were able to get him on tape before we lost him. I gaffed him once under the jaw when we though he was dead after one of the bangstick hits. He came back alive and almost pulled me in with the gaff. Here are some stills from the footage. We're still not over it, but we learned a lot of what to do and what not to do on something that size. It was just a shame to lose something that big. We went back to look for a few days after, but never recovered him.
WOW! You lost a good one! Lots of good eating there!
