After 40+ Hours of Hunting...

...we finally got our two! Hurray! A 7' and a 10'. We dropped them off at the processor on Sunday morning October 9th! We can't wait to get our order back!

That wraps up a great first year of hunting. See you next year!

The Second Hunt

09/24 6:30pm-12:00am & 9/25/11 6:00am-10:00am + 5:00pm-12:00am. We checked into a cabin that I had reserved just in case we needed it that night. There was a large storm headed our way and we didn't want to get caught out in the lightning. We grabbed a bite to eat at the Cherry Pocket Steak & Seafood Shak http://www.cherrypocket.com/home. It was a good thing we did because the rain was coming down in buckets and there was lightening everywhere. It wasn't until 6:30pm when we started out. Dark & stormy clouds were still looming all around the lake & lightning was still striking off in the distance; lighting up the sky like distant fireworks. To the right of the boat ramp we spotted a tree just about every bird in town was using as a roost to sleep in that night.

We slowly approached the tree, as you'll see in these first two videos, looking for alligators underneath that the birds were using as protection.

We didn't see any of harvestable size...just a bunch of babies..

Mike & I were still having fun regardless!

Starting to get a l-i-t-t-l-e sleepy...

Continuing our search for the elusive Lake Pierce alligator.

The sun was setting. It was a gorgeous night with the best sunset I have ever seen!

 

 

 

We love being out-of-doors! <3



We took a break from hunting around midnight. Hot showers & a power nap were just what the doctor ordered! When we got back on the boat & out on the lake, the sun was j-u-s-t coming up. My favorite part of the day - MORNING!

I decided to take matters into my own hands!

We spotted a BIG bull gator that was swimming along the far side of the lake.

Mike kept an eye on him too.

Before we could get close a speed boat scared him off & he never came back up! Darn! We motored around the lake until 10am trying every trick in the book to get our two gators.

Sunday night we started out around 5pm and stayed out until about midnight.

Still no great opportunities at a sizeable catch presented themselves. If they were anywhere in that lake they didn't want to get caught!

Unfortunately, we didn't strike it lucky on this trip. Next time though...we'll be ready.



The First Hunt

With bellies full of burgers, beer and the best gator tail we have ever tasted, we arrived at Lake Pierce - Beautiful! (and eerie...)

The scenery from the boat was awesome! Natural and as we would come to learn, more dense than the trophies we set out to catch!

Mike & I were excited to be out hunting, which is MUCH better than watching gator hunters on television from the comfort of our moss green couch!

Right away we started looking for alligator snouts and heads poking out of the water. 

If they went underwater before we got to them, we would follow their bubble trail around (if we were lucky enough to see one!). After several great attempts at snatching a few 6-8 footers, we cruised around to look for more.

 

We hunted all through the night, which was exciting! (& buggy & spidery!)

We saw A LOT of gator babies and juveniles, which would let out a high-pitched yunk if you squeezed them. (... which we didn't do.)

Mike tried his hand at harpooning.

After about 13 hours of hunting, the sun finally started to come up.

I was glad that it was because I was cold, damp, bug bitten and in a lot of pain from trying to sleep on a cooler for ~ 5 of those 13 hours! 

This was the first sunrise Mike & I had shared in our 2 1/2 years together. 

We both agreed to start sharing more sunrises because they are beautiful!

:)

Well, still no catch...uh oh. We had seen about 6 medium size gators in all and a ton of babies - they were everywhere! The larger gators were onto all of our tricks and certainly did not want to get caught! They wouldn't let us get even within a hundred yards before they would sink to the bottom into the deep muck and refuse to come up! So our guide decided it was time to take a break & grab a cup of joe at a lakefront store that had just opened. After pulling an all-nighter on the boat, we all agreed that coffee never tasted better!

The mist on Lake Pierce after the sun had risen created a feeling of mystery.

The great mystery after a difficult night of hunting was, "How in the heck were we going to catch our gators?" Our guide assured us he would figure it out! We weren't going to give up easily so we cruised around the lake for a few more hours looking.

Were they in there somewhere?

Mike got a couple chances to use the crossbow.

At 10am our hunt came to an end. We had hunted for 17 hours! Our guide reassured us that I had drawn a difficult lake, the gators were wise and skiddish, and that we had been dealt every bit of bad luck imaginable. But hey, at least we were still alive! I could go to work tomorrow with all of my limbs and Mike could too. Even though we had to go home without our two gators we still had a blast!

So our hunt continues!

We hope that we get our two monsters before the season ends!

All About Alligators

This blog entry is all about alligators! 

It contains information that every Florida seventh grader knows & you should know too!  

 Adult male alligators can weight more than 1,000 pounds and grow as long as 14 feet.

 Feeding alligators makes them lose their fear of humans.

 A hand-fed alligator becomes a nuisance and will be trapped and destroyed.

 Dense native shrubs around bodies of fresh/brackish water can discourage alligators from sunning in your yard.

 Adult alligators dig holes or take care of holes that hold water year-round. Other fish and wildlife use gator holes during times of drought.

A female alligator can be fiercely protective of her nest, eggs and young. She is never far from her hatchlings.

I hope you learned something today!

Large Lizards & Herons

Anyone who knows me well knows that my favorite animal of all time is the heron. Especially the Great Blue Heron. Great Blue Herons would arrive unannounced, in the pond just outside our house when I was child and I was always surprised & I delighted to see them and watch them hunt!

I love the way they jumped easily away as if they are floating on air and then jump back again and then jab at the water and throw their head up to juggle some squirming little animal and swallow it with hurried zest. Over and over again I would watch the heron walk quietly around the edge of our pond, stop and stand statuelike for a time (a long time), then just as I would start getting impatient, it would suddenly strike out into the water more often than not lift out a succulent morsel.

When any of us ever got too close, the heron would squawk in outrage and take flight. Only to land in a nearby tree or on the bank at the far end of the pond. Directly opposite of where you were standing. I always thought of the cries of the Great Blue Heron to be gross overreactions to wrongs that were quite minor. Repeated causes to these outbursts would be our family dog(s) or frequent trips to the vegetable garden or to the barn to feed the animals.

The funniest Great Blue I had ever seen was at Blue Spring State Park in  Deland, FL. http://www.floridastateparks.org/bluespring/ It was just standing there, drying it's wings..but up until this point in my life, I had never witnessed a bird drying it's wings...

...he was totally exposed, like a naked man in a trench coat asking me, "Would you like to buy a watch?". I was stunned and didn't know what to say.

Herons will eat almost anything! From huge fish, to snakes, to gophers, to ducks and even RABBITS like you'll see in this video:

In the weeks spent waiting for the license, permit & tags to arrive in the mail, I couldn't help but think about the relationship that exists between alligators and herons in Florida. I have read that a lot of the trees the herons nest in are there because the gator built a high bank around a permanent water hole. The herons start to come in and nest and accidentally drop the odd egg, young bird, or fumbled or regurgitated fish into the pool, thus unwittingly aiding the gator in her foraging. The gator being down there would keep off some of the raccoons and snakes that would climb any trees that had no gator under them and eat the eggs and young of herons nesting in such trees. Thanks gator!

Getting Our Bearings

I strongly urged Mike that we should attend a training and orientation program that was being offered on August 7 (Sunday) before we went hunting.
It took us a little over an hour to drive out to Okeechobee where it was being held.  We arrived a little early and when we walked in, there were all sorts of vendors lining the perimeter of the room waiting for us! Places like "Southern Life", "Gator Pro", and "Bad to the Bone Taxidermy" had all sorts of equipment, tools and products displayed for sale.
The outfitters were eager to help us out with all of our gator hunting needs! They encouraged us to purchase their equipment TODAY to take advantage of deals they were offering especially because their equipment is "the best available" and "found nowhere else". We had to let them down gently and say we didn't need anything this year because we were going with a guide who had everything. BUT if we had a really great time and wanted to get into hunting, THEN we would start looking at getting equipment NEXT YEAR.
The guides "had the most experience" and claimed to be the only ones to "get you the most involved in the hunt". They offered to help us fill our two tags but I had to tell them that we were already taken. PLUS the guide I chose a few weeks ago offered a better deal!
The leather tanners & taxidermists were truly enticing! I couldn't help starting a mental wish list of all the things I wanted to do with our gators! We perused the information and talked with people who were there before the training & orientation seminar began.

We learned how to use harpoons, snatch hooks, baited wooden pegs and snares...

 

...how to effectively use a bang stick.  

It's important to mention that a bang stick should be discharged below the waterline when killing an alligator to reduce the potential for aerial dispersal of bullet and bone fragments!  Yikes!

We were shown how to humanely kill our catch...

(which is when I started to wonder if I could keep two adult gators as pets?!?)

(If you are also wondering, the answer is no.)

 

...then haul it into the boat and where to tag it!

 The program ended with a video on how to process our alligators. While it was playing, Mike was figuring out if and how it would be possible to process our gators ourselves back at the apartment. Although I would like to also, I told him I didn't think it would be a very good idea with the wall to wall carpeting and that it might hurt Jeeb's (Mike's Bearded Dragon) feelings. Maybe next year :)