Sponsored by David Mills of Team Strutn’ Ruttn’ Reeln’ and Gene Turner Jr. of Team Turner Loose. And Access Tonneau Covers, ThermaCELL, Grim Reaper Broadheads and BowTube.com.
Today I took my camera (only) and we looked around for gators. We took my pickup today but I asked David Mills to drive since he knows the area and I don’t.
You can’t tell it from the picture below but there is lots of water out in these open looking fields.
The area is networked with channels. Gators hang out in these channels so we drive slowly and look a lot.
We drove to a corner and we parked and quietly got out of the truck. David is a gator caller and he did some gator talking.
SPLASH !!!
A loud splash sounded as a big gator shot out off the opposite bank into the water. And a second big splash let us know that he was out of the water and coming up the bank … where we were.
We saw the leaves and reeds moving as the gator came over the top of the bank and zipped the short distance over to us. He stopped under the cover a few yards from my truck and we waited to see what he was going to do. We wanted him to come out so I could get his picture.
Motionless, we waited. Motionless the gator waited. David eased around to the front of the truck and called softly. The gator turned quickly and leaves and reeds shook just three steps from David’s feet.
SPLASH !!!@
The gator was gone.
We continued on.
David said he has something to show me and drove along the channel for twenty minutes. When he stopped David pointed across the channel, “That’s a gator’s nest.”
The nest was barely noticeable unless you knew exactly what you were looking for, which David did, and I didn’t. You can see it in the picture below.
Here is a close up of the nest, it’s 5 foot at the bottom and 3 foot or more high. David told me there were usually 40 or more eggs in a next. The mother was laying at the edge of the water when we drove up but she slipped out of sight when we stopped.
You can see an area where the female gator has worn away the grass and leaves going back and forth from the nest to the water. I asked David if we could drive around to the other side and get a closer look at the nest. He said that we could but when we walked over to the nest we would have a mother gator in the middle of us.
David drove to another area and sat down by a channel and began to call.
From my perspective it seems like the gators respond right away when David calls them. And that is what happened again right here. You can see him below coming around the bend in the channel.
David finessed the gator up closer. I didn’t bring my bow this morning but if I had, this gator would have been in the thick of it.
Part of the time the channels led us through orange groves. We saw wild turkeys several times. I asked David if he took his wild turkey hunters to this area and he said that he did take some. In fact, this was where my buddy Fred Lutger hunted this Spring and bagged 2 Osceola gobblers. If you’re considering hunting for true Osceola wild turkey gobblers David Mills is the man with the plan. (Phone 863-303-4726 and email TeamSRR@yahoo.com.
David got a phone call from his Alligator hunting partner Eugene “Brother” Turner Jr. of Team Turner Loose. We drove to an entrance to this sprawling property and met “Brother.”
Eugene “Brother” Turner is a congenial gentleman with a quietly delivered sense of humor. He is a very knowledgeable hunter with a true passion for hunting. He is a realtor (Turner Realty) and land owner with access to thousands of acres of hunting property. We had a pleasant visit.
Brother’s sons Logan and Landon were with him. They are both college students and Logan (on the far right) was in from Ol’ Miss to hang out with his Florida Gator brother on his birthday.
Afterward, David and I drove back to his house and met Colton. He had taken a wild hog hunter out and guided another first time bowhunter Noah Lancaster arrowed a Florida wild hog. Noah made a perfect shot on his hog.
Then we got ready to go out alligator hunting at dark. This time I was bringing my bow.
To Bowhunting.Net: Alligator Bowhunt 2012 Home Page
The 2012 Bowhunting.net Alligator Bowhunt is sponsored by:
Team Struttn’ Ruttn’ Reeln’ on the web. And on Facebook.com/TeamSRR
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