Last gator.....#12.....

B

bswiv

New member
I know this is hard to believe, I'm still pinching myself to be sure it's real, but the pictures don't lie.

This one is even BIGGER than the one I posted last Tuesday. Look at the scale......839 pounds!

Caught him Sunday morning about a mile and a half from where the other big guy was. Unlike with the other one, which I knew was there, this one was a surprise. We just stumbled across him.

The state sent a biologist to have a look at this one. When he got there he did a "official" measurement which is different from the measurments you see posted in typical harvest reports.

It's kind of like a "offical" B&C score. It's done in a precise and repeatable way. Gator is laid out on a flat surface and a line is drawn at his snout and at his tail. He is then rolled out of the way and the distence between the lines measured.

This produces a somewhat shorter measurement than the typical "down the back" measurement you will see reported by individuals.

This one will end up on the state records list.

What makes me sick, and I should have known this, is that we should have gotten a state biologist to measure both these gators IMMEDIATELY. We should not have set them in a cooler for 24 hours before doing so.

According to the biologist the "shrink" on such a animal is in the 5 to 6 inch range. You can do the math on that.

What's even worse is that we had a State FWC Officer measure him at the ramp while he was still twitching. That revealed over 14 feet......but it does not count for the records because it was not a "biologist" but rather a "enforcement" officer.

Fact is both this gator and the one from Tuesday had a "live length" of 14 feet or more.........................

As I said I am sick that we did not know the proper procedure. And what good does it do now? I mean what are the chances of our ever catching such a animal again? NIL!!!

What is a fact though is that there is in all likelyhood not a gator hunter alive who has caught 2 gators in the same week that were both over 13 1/2 feet long and 764 & 839 pounds respectively. That our ignorance can not take away.

One last thing. If I understand correctly once the taxidermist that bought them gets them mounted at least one of them will be in a Gander Mountain someplace here in Fl. And at least we'll get a plack with our name on it..................


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Good Lord! That's gator version 2.0, the sport utility lizard. Who cares what a tape measure says, look at how wide that beast is! Cadillac-style.

I mean what are the chances of our ever catching such a animal again? NIL!!!
Click to expand...

Maybe you go by a different school of statistics than I do, but I would venture that the chances are a good deal better than nil. Whatever you are doing seems to be working...
 
Man that's a big gator.

I'm in north Louisiana. Our gators are usually pretty small up here. We have some big ones down south, but that is a monster.

Jason
 
OH MY FRIGGIN GOD!!! Wow, congrats, and sorry to hear about the official records. But keep it up; you may yet catch an even bigger one someday...
 
The value to one that large is in the WORK, lots of work!, that the taxidermist that bought it will do before it is ready for him to sell.

A little over $120 per foot whole is what we got. If we had measured it earlier and if it had made the state record then it would have been worth far more.

But even in that instance the biggest value is to the man who does the mounting work. And from what I know of the effort that goes into it he is well deserving of what he gets..............dificult job to make it look right.
 
Ive seen plenty up close and personal but man i aint never seen one that darned big.

He doesn't even have to chew hell just swallow you whole.:D
 
back in 1998, we took one that measured a bit over 9 feet out of Orange Lake. He was big, but nothing like the one you have posted. Wow!!
 
During gator hunting season we do not have to target only nuisance gators. Many folks target large trophy size animals while others just go after a medium eatin' size. Just like deer huntin' there are monster trophy and freezer fillers.
Brent
 
I spoke to the state bioligist who measured it on Friday. He said that his best guess is that it was in the 30 year plus range. He went on to say that male gators never actually stop growing but that as they age the rate slows down so much that it can be hard to measure it.

He also said that they do die of old age. Just like a deer, they eventually lose enough teeth to where they can not compete for food or fight effectively for mates.

Some more things to know. After a gator gets past about 5 feet or so he has only two preditors, man and other gators. The point of that is that taking a big gator out of a area is the same as when a big tree falls in the rainforrest, it opens a space for new trees, new trees that can not grow becasue of a lack of light untill the big old tree is out of the way.

And this too I learned from the biologist; he said that they can tell fairly closely how long a gator was by measuring his head. He said that they have measured every head they can find in every collection all over the place and as far as they can tell there is no DOCUMENTED case of a gator 15 feet. For that matter ones that attain 14 feet can be counted on less than two hands and those of the size this one is are exceddingly rare.

And this too: He said that the genetic variation between gators is so slight that scientist can not tell if the gator is from South Florida or North Florida. That was surprising............
 
Holy crap, a dinosaur!! :eek:

Seriously though, congrats. Those things (this one and the other one) are huge!

I've seen some gators in the SE NC swamps but the biggest was only 5 or 6 feet. I can't imagine running across a 13-14 footer in the wild.
 
What is most disturbing is to be out in the swamp looking for hogs and see one of those things in some little tiny creek or in a isolated pocket swamp. They will travel through the woods when it's dry looking for wet places and when it's wet they will go just everywhere.

A number of times I've seen the paths through the palmettos where they have gone. They just go in a straight line right over the palmettos. Nothing else leaves a trail like a big gator moving through the woods.

And not much sounds worse than a hog getting got by a gator. Heard that a couple of times up on Cumberland Island just off the Georgia coast. UGLY!
 
bswiv, It is even worse to be using dogs to hunt hogs and hear them hit the water and baying a hog while swimming. That is a major dinner bell for a big gator. I know of several dogs killed and/or eaten in the last couple years. One guy tracked the collar for several days until he shot the gator to at least get his $150 collar back.
Brent
 
There was a Florida Times-Union article a few years ago about exactly such a problem here in St. Johns county. A big dog hunting club had lost a number of deer dogs when somebody finally tracked a collar to a creek ultimately leading to the capture of a gator.

Five years or so ago my brother in law and I were on the way back to the ramp after catching a couple of gators here on the St. Johns river about 35 miles south of Jacksonville. As we got near a point that had a few houses on it he spies 3 sets of eyes out beyond the end of the docks.

We went into hunt mode and started slipping on the trolling motor toward them. As we got closer all three dipped under. Sense it was late and we already had 2 good gators to clean in the boat I suggested we go on to the ramp.

Just as I say so he says he sees something still on the surface and to keep ready and stay on the trolling motor. He figured it might be a gator with only one eye, something we've seen a few times. When we finally get close enough to make out what it is, turns out it's half a cocker-spaniel. At least that's what kind of dog it appears to be.

So as we're standing there, and I still had the snag rod ready in my hands, one of those gators surfaces and decides to defend his meal. Big mistake for him....................
 
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