Later Gator!

Time has a tendency to get by before you know it. Such was the case as summer began to give way to fall this year. I had every intention of planning another men's fellowship on the river like we did last year, but with a new job and Josh's (the camp owner) busy schedule it didn't look like it would happen. Thankfully, Paul Hand stepped in and took the reigns.

Originally, we figured on bow fishing just as we had done the previous year. However, those plans unraveled as the date drew near. That's when Josh let it be known that he had a couple private land alligator tags...that's right, alligator tags!

After arriving early Friday evening, a couple of the guys went with Josh to check trail cameras (I've been sworn to secrecy on the contents) while the rest of us shot bows. Instead of spending all our time cooking this year, we had some fine pulled pork from C'Paw's in Brandon. Before, during and after dinner, numerous war stories were told about hunts past...that's always my favorite part. Then we jumped into some Word. After our Bible study, Scott Berry was anxious to get on the water in pursuit of a gator. Naturally, there was no shortage of spectators. Myself and several others hung back at the camp and told more stories while Scott and his crew tied into a 9'1" female...gator that is! The boys motored up to camp in the boat whooping and hollering about their success. Turns out, the female gator was only a few several inches from the state record. Having never been that close to a gator that size, I was impressed by her mass, as well as the size of her back feet. After a lengthy picture taking session, another attempt was made for another gator. It didn't last long before sleep deprivation got the best of everyone.

Saturday morning started off right...scrambled eggs, whop biscuits, bacon and orange juice! Several of the guys packed their stuff up to head back home, but Scott and Josh gathered their gator hunting equipment. Josh had been eying a big'un in a borrow pit off the levee of their camp property. I decided to hang out to see how this would unfold. Having never viewed the gator any closer than 100 yards, Josh really didn't know how big this thing was. Let me just say that if he had known he would probably have chosen a more worthy vessel to pursue this gator in! What was supposed to be a quick kill turned into a 4 hours battle with a 12'10" jurassic size alligator. I'm pretty sure there's a rule that states that the vessel you're hunting out of should be larger than the gator you're pursuing...if not, there should be!