Mobetter's Gator
Timing is everything.
Set out Friday night to fill mine and Mo's tag.
Tide was wrong, so were not in a hurry to get in the water early Friday evening. Mo wanted a 8-9 footer and I was looking at the same for mine.
30 minutes off the landing, and we are hooked up with exactly what he was looking for, but decided it was too early in the evening to fill his tag and passed him up.
7 hours later and we both regretted the hell out of that decision.
We bumped into CUDexter and Chucky, they rode with us and we ended up putting one gator in the boat to break the monotony:
The sky was getting rosy and the birds were chirping so we decided to load the trailer and try to get some sleep. Pisses me off because it broke my batting average of 1000....
Woke up, ate a good breakfast, went to a dove field, then set out to do it again. Tides were still kicking our ass and we just hauled ass all over hells creation. Finally about midnight we see a set of eyes that looked decent and decided to set up on him. He was a cagey bastard, but was intent on sticking around "his" spot so we were optimistic. We never could get close enough for a harpoon stick so the treble hook was the primary weapon of choice.
Finally, right at midnight, after several missed attempts at places he "was just at" I sunk the treble in his jawbone.
With that said, let me say that I will not go with only two people in the boat again. I never thought it would be that hard to hold a fishing pole, a spot light, and operate a boat against a dumping tide...
2.5 hours later we had trial and errored our way around one line in a large gator, figured out you can not launch an harpoon accurately with a spot light in one hand and finally connected with something that we could manhandle him with. Bad luck prevailed, and the harpoon went into his bowels. Pulled him up from 13.4 foot off the bottom, and mo put a solid stick right in his lungs.
The gator was nowhere near done and almost bit the lunger harpoon in half. Finally got some lead in his head and right at the 3 hour mark, he was on his way into the boat for the sad ride home.
I couldnt have been happier.
I have killed much bigger and heavier gators, but this one was by far the hardest one to get in the boat.
He measured out at 10'3" kinked up just a bit, and I would guesstimate his weight around 450-500 lbs.
Congrats Mo, that is a fine first gator!
Last edited by BigBrother; 09-27-2010 at 09:38 AM.
"Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration" -Izaak Walton
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Originally Posted by Highstrung
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