Gators

Who's ready to get after the gators. What zone did y'all draw

I drew West Central. Still waiting on my tag to come in the mail.

West Central here too. I called yesterday just to make sure I hadn't missed my tag and they said they still hadn't mailed them

Hmmm I got mine monday or Tuesday I got a south west

My cousin got his the same day and he drew eufaula.ours came ups

I called the lady at the DNR yesterday and mentioned my tag had not arrived yet. She said to call her back on Monday if it still hadn't been delivered.

I wasn't real pleased with ups just leaving it on a chair on my front porch luckily the dogs didn't carry it off

I drew a West Central.... I figure I'll be over there with the other 49 boats in Miller's Ferry tomorrow night.

Should definitely be better hunting this year with the lower water levels.

Post pics of ur gators.

[/img]
This is the 7’8” I let my son fill my tag with last year.

Heck yea that's awesome

a gas station nearby[/
That’s our biggest also killed a 12’6” 520 and several 7’s. We have let several nice 9-11’ get away by not being ready.

Pm sent

Do yourself a favor and try below claiborne if you get a chance. There are some smart good size gators as soon as you put in.. They will swim across the river and go underneath a snag but you will get plenty of throws at them. VERY SPORTING!

I know where there was an absolute monster way back in a tough to get to spot on millers ferry last year.

I appreciate it. We ran a bunch of river last night just trying to get a feel for what’s out there and quite honestly I’m shocked they’re still putting 50 tags on this zone. Saw probably 35 different gators total with the majority ranging between 4-7.5 feet. Did find a 11+ that is a booger that I’m going to go back and try to work tonight. We put in at Elm Bluff Public Use area and ran all the way to the dam at Miller’s Ferry. We hit every slough with deep water in between as well except one which a local told us this morning has a 10 footer in it. I saw BDL’s podcast this morning and the biggest that came in was 9.5’ which matches with what I was seeing last night. There was a cool north wind till about 2am and that’s when you really started seeing gators so maybe tonight will be better. Good luck to everyone!!

Well how did you do?

I killed a 10’6”, 325lb gator early on Friday night. Pretty happy with it but hoping to get a better one in Georgia this weekend.

i need the nearest gas station

I saw the pic on big daddy lawler. Congrats my buddy tagged out on a 10’ Friday night too.

Congrats!

Thanks!!



Yeah he put it out there. I told BDL when we came in to get ready because it was going to be a good night. You could just tell by how many gators were up.

Where did you get him? How long of hookup and where you hunting in Ga? Congrats.

Got him right outside of Roland Cooper. We use pretty heavy gear so our fights don’t usually take long (not the bass and catfish rods with Bass Pro trebles you see a lot of gator hunters with). I think we were tied up on this one for about 10 minutes before we had him in the boat and the only reason it took that long is because he went to the bottom in 42 feet of water. We also get them in the boat live and dispatch them with a knife. The guys that pulled up to watch just couldn’t believe we weren’t using firearms. In Georgia I’m in Zone 1A (Lake Eufaula). I’ve been out 2 nights so far and seen some good gators. I’m going after a particular 13’+ so it’s been a little difficult passing the 10’s and even an 11’ so far. Actually missed him twice tonight because my hook just skidded over his scoots.

Congrats

That ga side is nice.. me thinks south of georgetown bridge.. And yeah we use penn battlions. Thats where I would like to try next. Buddy of mine has a house directly behind rabbit island. Shine his house.. he hates it. lol

Its crazy that you can pretty much cast at 8-9 footers at ga ramp. I WILL SAY THIS MUCH. HIT THEM HARD NOW. First change of weather and you see exponentially less gators. They like the heat.

Yea that's why we're front loading the season because of the weather and because most of those Georgia hunters don't come out till labor day. It was windy this weekend so the gators weren't staying up too long. Once that first cold front hits the gators slow down but it's already hitting low 70s each night even with the hot days. The water is staying high 80s so its really foggy by day break. Makes for tough hunting. Also if that wind comes out of the north at all the gators just go down and stay down. I'm hoping with this rain coming through all week we'll catch a south wind going into next weekend and keep them up for a few days. I've killed so many 9-10.5 footers i'm ready for a giant to get in the boat so I've really got my heart set on this 13+. I may just eat tag soup rather than kill another 10'.

my nephew killed a nine footerSat night(I think) after being hooked up to a bigger one and losing it. First time going for him, learning curve is steep on gators

Congratulations to him!! It is a steep learning curve but for myself its addictive.

I just love being out there at night chasing them. I wish there was still money in being a nuisance hunter and I would do it rather than this contractor gig I have now. Because swamp people got so popular gator farms started popping up everywhere and now you can't make anything off the hide and meat plus the state doesn't allow you to sell a nuisance trip for a guide fee.

Personally I would rather relocate the gators, tag them and give them another shot..... usually they're just gators being gators. If you pull up on a nuisance gator a second time and its got a tag in it then it's got to go. I guess I don't have the knowledge of our state people though who just call folks to come in and kill them for harassing a neighborhood dog after they've been fed chicken legs for 5 years straight.

I've offered to help the Game Wardens here in north Alabama (District 1) and they don't want it. They call a particular nuisance hunter who has no idea what he's doing with gators. He may know how to remove other nuisance animals but I've seen what he's done to a few gators and it's horrible. I've handled plenty of 9' and under gators by myself and have no trouble getting them in the boat alive. When this guy's done it looks like the gator has been shot with a 30mm machine gun. I don't want to name names but Clem knows who he is because I've seen him comment on him a few times.

Eufaula gets rougher then any other water I have been on. I am shocked at the huge snags that would impale a boat but have no buey or flagging tape... Really awesome you get to be on them. That north NWR boundary line that runs like 2 miles and 100 yards both side of rover or so will get you if your not far enough up mouth of creek. Got my only tic ever that way. Hope you get him!

MASH....

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3130707893636986&id=100000934180748

These guys brought their gators to my buddy to process. They were fat!!

Finally got it done in Georgia last night. The 13’ gave us the run around for a few hours then we saw this guy in open water. Honestly we thought he was 12’ the way he dolphined up but he ended up measuring 11’1”. I don’t have an official weight on him yet because he bottomed out the 500lb scale so just know he’s fat. Good season this year!!







image share

Nice gator

GREAT GATOR.... CONGRATS....

I've never been gator hunting and I don't believe that I have ever been around one that is dead.

But, based on the lengths of some the gators you folks have killed - if those had been on the "TV Show", they'd weighed easily 1,000 lbs.

BTW - congratulations to all, I love the pictures.

They would have said ours was 1500 they always talked up a 11-12’ as 900-1000#s.