The Beginning Of The Hunt
Editor's Note: I can’t think of anything more
exciting than hunting big bull aggressive alligators
with a bow. This week I’ll take you with me on
a thrilling alligator hunt. Alligator hunting is primarily
a southern sport since gators don’t do well in
snow. Because regulations vary from state to state on
seasons, bag limits and equipment you can use, always
check the laws in the state where you plan to hunt.
In the inky-black darkness, we could hear only the
hum of the trolling motor above the roar of the mosquitoes
as we hunted for a cannibal that weighed more than 500
pounds. Any animal that would eat its own kind had to
be vicious and despicable. The tremendous-sized cannibal
we hunted on this sweltering summer's evening had claimed
numbers of victims of his species and others for many
years. We already had encountered an 8-foot and
a 9-foot alligator earlier in the evening and decided
not to take them. But an hour later when the white light
from our Q-Beam spotlight reflected on two, very wide-set,
quarter-sized eyes, John Tadlock, a professional alligator
hunter and guide from Panama City, Florida, whispered,
"There's a good 'un." Then Tadlock began to
call to the gator just as someone would call ducks or
turkeys.
"The calling makes the alligator think another
gator has moved into its territory," Tadlock explained."
Since gators are very territorial and cannibalistic,
if that's a big gator on the bank, it'll come out to
fight when it hears me call." In the still blackness
of the night, I heard a loud splash. I saw a 6-inch
size limb on a tree laying in the water pushed below
the surface." When a gator can push down a limb
the size of a man's arm on a green tree, you know you've
got a big lizard coming after you," Tadlock commented.
As Tadlock held the spotlight on the gator's eyes and
continued to call the reptile with aggressive, challenging
calls, I wondered about the size of this gator. Even
though the current came swiftly through the oxbow lake,
the gator moved at a steady pace straight for our small,
12-foot aluminum boat. "I guarantee you
as wide as that gator's eyes are apart, it's at least
10-feet long," Tadlock observed. I certainly never
anticipated the immense size of the prehistoric monster
now on a collision course with our skiff that felt smaller
with each passing minute. Ronnie Groom, a long-time
hunting buddy of mine, a master bowhunter and owner
of C & G Sporting Goods in Panama City, invited
me to go with him on an alligator hunt. He told me that
John Tadlock, "is a really good gator-hunter. John
will scout before the hunt to try and find us some 10-foot
gators. I've never seen or heard anybody call alligators
as successfully as John does." I'd hunted turkeys
and ducks all my life and was fascinated at the idea
of talking to wildlife to bring them to me. I understood
how I could call ducks into decoys because of the social
nature of waterfowl. I knew I could lure in a male turkey
with the seductive calling of a hen. But I realized
most reptiles never uttered a sound except for bull
gators that bellowed during spring nesting season. I
wanted to know what would trigger an alligator to come
to a call in the late summer.
When
I asked Groom to explain, he replied, "Reptiles
are animal-eaters. An alligator responds to calling
because it wants to kill and eat the intruder it thinks
is coming into its territory. The alligator anticipates
a fight to the death and expects a victim dinner as
a reward. If we hunt a gator, understand when it comes
to the boat that it is leaving the bank and coming to
kill something." Then and there I decided this
trip might take the award as my top adventure of a lifetime.
I learned that when a big bull gator moved into a territory,
he became like the warlords of old. Any time he saw
or heard a contender to his throne, the alligator would
meet that challenger with deadly force. When I asked
Groom if he thought he could kill an alligator with
his bow, he answered, "If that gator gets close
enough, I'll shoot it." Excitedly I told Groom
to, "set the date. You plan to do the shooting
with your bow, and I'll shoot with my camera. Now we
need to find us a big gator."
TOMORROW: THE FIRST HUNT
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