Lizard hunting.....

B

bswiv

New member
This one was caught south of Welaka, on the St. Johns river. He's 10' 5" and about 400 pounds. Not a giant but not bad for a old guy with a girl as the only crew.

We finish them off with a .357 bang stick using HOT reloads.

Gator hunting, at least the way we do it, is a combination of hunting and fishing. How much better can it get than that?



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Our normal procedure here on the open waters of North Florida is to slip up close enough to them, either at night with a light or just before dark or right after sunrise, and cast a light line with a snag hook over them. We use a spinning rod and 20 pound test Spiderwire for that.

This line we use as a "locater" in that we follow them on the trolling motor with it. Eventually they will come to rest on the bottom someplace. Once they do we use the "locater" line to get right up on them.

Once over them we then use a heavy rod, 80 pound test with a big stout snatch hook, and drop that down and drag it about till we feel gator. When you feel gator you set down hard on him. This is when it gets fun. Imagine 4 or 500 pounds of gator attached to the end of your line. Starting out maybe as close as 10 or 15 feet away. Even more fun in shallow water where you can see him kicking up all sorts of stuff.

With the heavy line you can now fight the gator. Once he settles down again, depending on how large we think he is, we will either hoist him to the surface and stick him with a harpoon or if he seems to be big we will set a second heavy rod on him and then haul him to the surface.

Once the harpoon is stuck good, it's tied off to the bow ring of the boat with 1/4 inch nylon, he's ours. Haul him to the boat and pop him behind the head with the bang stick.

And yes she and I do this alone quite often. Just us two on that one in the picture.

It's about as much legal fun as you can have.

And let me tell you, in the middle of the night, when you can't tell what you've really got snagged, and that thing rises to the surface right next to the boat, and you can see the boat in the picture and you can imagine how low it is in the water with two of us standing on the gunnels putting a bunch of pressure on a 4 or 500 pound gator.........well when that thing pops to the surface only a few feet from your feet........excitement!

There are other ways to do it, some folks use bait which is BORING, but we've caught loads of them over the last dozen years this way and it is fun. Five so far in the last 2 1/2 weeks of the season. Two of those five were as big as this one.
 
Imagine 4 or 500 pounds of gator attached to the end of your line. Starting out maybe as close as 10 or 15 feet away.
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I can imagine! :eek: Very interesting indeed; thanks for the info. Do you utilize both the hide and the meat?
 
We own a retail/wholesale seafood business in Jacksonville. Every year we get a permit from the state to clean and sell what we catch. In fact I taught one of the guys who works for us to clean them and he runs a side business during the public gator hunts cleaning them for a fee. Kind of like the deer coolers you see all over the south.

The skins, after being carefully cleaned (There can be no knife holes in them or the buyers will deduct $.) are sold. We bone out the meat and sell it also.

Contrary to common lore all the meat on a gator is usable, not just the tail. We even sell the ribs. Usually we can get somebody to give us a few dollars for the head too.

Cleaning them, especially the big ones, is a PAIN. The skin does not peel off but rather has to be very carefully cut away in most areas. Then they get scraped and salted.

Some of the profesional cleaners use air tools to blow the hide off and then pressure washers to clean the hides. We don't have a place to make that kind of mess so we do it the old fashoned way. The one you see took me and a helper almost 3 hours from start to finish, including boning out the meat.

Not a way to make money for us, even though I do think I manage about a $1 a hour profit..........but please pay me a dollar a hour to have fun!
 
We own a retail/wholesale seafood business in Jacksonville.
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So, what would it cost to talk you into shipping a pound or so of frozen meat and a recipe? I've had only one chance at 'gator meat and got called in to duty before I got to the head of the line.

Pops
 
When I saw this thread title, first thing that came to my mind was the scene in Raising Arizona where Tex Cobb's character blasts the tiny little lizard off the rock with his sawed-off shotgun holding it one-handed, while screaming down the road on his hog, just for spits & giggles. Blasts a rabbit to kingdom come, too. :)
 
Would be happy to send the meat free of charge but the shipping is kind of expensive.

If you really want a piece email me at bswiv@comcast.net

I think if you call UPS or Fed-x and request a pickup at our place they will deliver to you and only charge you the shipping charge.

I would be happy to pack up the meat, from a gator we harvest a day before we ship, and have it ready to ship. Actually, if you specify their AM next day delivery I would ship it fresh.

The packaging, and a gel pack or two to keep it cold, will weigh about 3 or 4 pounds so the whole thing should come in easy under 7 pounds.
 
The only problem with that is in my psyche. :rolleyes: You are in business. I would like you to still be in business when I wish to purchase from you next. Giving away free doesn't help your bottom line.

That said...PM on its way! :D

Pops
 
Well, I don't want the free meat, but am wondering where in Jacksonville your shop is. We get down there 3 or 4 times a year and are always looking for good places to pick up fresh seafood.
 
Bswiv, I will be in jacksonville next week for work-vacation. I will be at the Volvo dealership. Give me your adress and I will come by and say hello.
 
Fisherman's Dock
11610 San Jose Blvd.

We are in Mandarin. About a mile and a half south of I-295 on the east side of the river.

904-268-8918
 
We're out of fresh for the moment but we are heading out at about 3 in the morning to look for some more, still in the skin. We'll go again on Sunday too. We've still got a few tags for this season so I'm sure we'll have more soon.

The offer of free stands, within reason, so long as you will arrange the shipping. I've got styrofoam boxes and gel-packs that we save from some of our shipments so I can pack it up for nothing.

What you'll need to do is get with FED-X or UPS or whoever and arrange to have a pick-up made.

Be sure to get them to do the early delivery as this will be fresh and we would not want it to arrive hot..........

I would guess that a couple of gell packs and the syro box and some tape and paper along with a couple of pounds of gator will weigh around ten pounds.....?

You can email me at bswiv@comcast.net
 
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