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.
We left David’s home at dusk and stopped off at McDonalds for some coffee. Colton drove us to the gator marsh.
The area we are hunting today is a water Retention Pond and it has a high dyke surrounding it on all sides. We drove up on the dyke and shined the light to see if the chicken was still on the wooden stake. It was not. So I would be buying breakfast at Clocks tomorrow. Now we looked for the red and white float.
A hundred yards from the initial site the red and white float moved slowly on top of the water. The gator was a little bit ahead of the float. You can see both the float and the gator in the picture below.
Bingo, we had the alligator located. We proceeded slowly around the dyke and eased up to where the gator was. When David shined the light on it the gator went under water right away. Bubbles and more bubbles came up, indicating that he was holding tight on the bottom.
The John Boat was stashed nearby and Colton immediately went for it and returned. The gator was still under water and we waited 15 minutes. Still no gator so Coltoin and David slid the 14 foot aluminum boat down the side of the dyke into the water. I carried my bow and a bucket containing a bright yellow float and orange gator line attached to a fish arrow.
Carefully, we all got inside the boat. Colton at the front, I sat down in a swivel shooting chair and David got between us.
David saw the red and white float in an island of hydrilla and floating tussics that was about 6 yards from us. Colton used a 12 foot fiberglass Push Pole to silently move us to the float.
David carefully untangled the float and then tugged on the line to put some pressure on the gator. “I can feel him,” David said quietly but in a sober tone.
Seconds later the gator rocketed to the surface a few inches from the side of the boat and snapped his jaws savagely.
Once he’d seen us the gator thrashed and went back down out of sight.
David put the pressure on him again and the gator busted the surface of the water and slammed into the side of the boat. I drew my bow but he was too close to the boat for me to get a shot from the chair.
So I stood up and leaned on the chair to steady myself just in time to draw again as the gator brought the fight to us. I put my sight on the gator but could tell that it was too close to use the sight pins. I shot instinctive. The fiberglass fish arrow slammed into the gator and the gator point stuck out the opposite side. It severed the gator’s wind pipe and now he couldn’t stay underwater for long. It was a lethal hit … but the gator didn’t know that yet. Neither did we, and from what happened next you would never think it possible.
I tossed my yellow float in the water.
Wham, the gator yanked on the cords and drug the boat over into the hydrilla and tussic island. Colton pushed us back out with the push pole. I nocked a regular hunting arrow.
Now the gator was furious and violent. Dangerous. He came up over the side of the boat, biting wildly. Cat tails were tangled around him and he slung debris into the boat. David forced him back over the side with the strong cords.
Without hesitation, I shot him instinctively, this time with a Grim Reaper broadhead.
He went back under.
The yellow float popped up to the surface.
An instant later the gator grabbed the float in its steely jaws and gave it a thrashing.
I gave the gator a thrashing of my own with another broadhead, this time right behind its eye. Blood clouded the water around the gator’s head and neck.
David Mills deftly used the two lines to control the gator and keep it off from us and out of the boat.
Suddenly the fight went out of the gator.
David used the line to pull the gator’s head over the side of the boat and grabbed it by the front of its jaws and locked down. Colton rapidly tied some strong chord around its jaws.
All three of us pulled the heavy gator into the boat. The fight was over.
I looked at Colton and David and took their picture with my iPhone.
Colton polled us the short distance to the shore and hopped out — I gave him my iPhone to take our picture with the gator.
It was after 5:00 when my head hit the pillow. And all to soon David knocked on my door. We had a bunch of work to do.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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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