-Our 2014 Alligator Hunt in Georgia-
It took me four years of waiting, accruing priority points, before I was finally able to draw an alligator tag in the state of Georgia my fifth year. I have been on hunts before in the state of Alabama but have always held the belief that the Georgia side held the bigger alligator territory when concerning the Chattahoochee River. We have all heard about the 15' alligator killed on the Alabama River but I was more interested in the East Alabama/West Georgia - Lake Eufaula corridor gators because that's where I live. Our past hunting experience includes a 9'+ gator I killed in 2010:
We felt pretty good about our success to this point but we never had the opportunity to tangle with a true monster. Both of the above alligators came in years where the success ratio for all hunters, all gators, was below 20% regardless of size. Lake Eufaula is a hard place to hunt on the Alabama side due to the small area you can hunt. Most people don't realize that Georgia owns/operates the river and the lake up to the channel marker buoys. The deep channel follows the Alabama side the majority of the time which eliminates much of the lake for hunting. Take out the area's around Lake Point Wildlife Refuge and it really narrows the focus further. The fact we were able to get two in the 9' class without help from guides or paid-for operators was even better. I felt we were ready to take the next step and see what we could really do. Thus began our journey into the much anticipated Georgia side of Lake Eufaula.
The season opens at midnight the Saturday of opening day. Any hunter who wants to venture out onto the water in the early morning hours is free to do so. Anxious to get started, we were out on the water at midnight getting a good feel for the area. We saw lots of gators in the 6-7' range but no monsters. I was determined to get a big alligator and not settle. We left the lake at 3am with nothing to show for our time.
Fast forward to Saturday: We find a gator laying in one of the rivers and it is easily the biggest alligator we had seen. We first snagged it with a fishing rod because it wouldn't let us get close enough to shoot it with a bow. Once we had it snagged, the fight was on. It swam all over the river bed looking for something to tangle us in but never did. The big gator resorted to hanging to the bottom for long lengths of time without coming up. At this point we started using hand thrown weighted snatch hooks to move the process along. Once we snatch hooked him, we were able to make him move and draw him to the top. This cat/mouse game of getting him hauled off the bottom and him only staying up for seconds at a time went on for hours. Eventually the big gator gave us a shot with the bow and I placed a good arrow behind his head, in the neck. This turned the tide in our favor. I hauled the exhausted gator up beside the boat and delivered the final shot with my pistol for the kill. The alligator measured 12' exactly in length. We didn't have any way to weigh it but it was definitely 500lbs+. Below are a few pictures we were able to take of the hunt:
Advice for anyone wanting to go:
To those who have never been before, alligator hunting looks a lot like hard work. I don't know why it's so popular because every time I go, I am exhausted. Be prepared with good equipment. I can't overstate that enough. To tangle with a big gator takes big equipment. Go buy the Big Game version Bow reel from AMS because it has a detachable buoy that disconnects from the bow after the shot. Practice with it before you get there. You shouldn't be pulling it out of the package at the boat ramp. Make a bunch of weighted snatch hooks or buy them........ AT LEAST size 10 or better. Seems like a big hook but its not the size you are after as much as the weight it can hold. Smaller hooks will simply bend under 200lbs of pressure. Always use a top jaw line BEFORE you kill the alligator. If you don't, you will be hauling it off the bottom, limp, as dead weight. Nobody likes that. Buy the necessary licenses as you will get checked. I have never been where I wasn't checked at least once in either state. Don't go in a small boat. A 20' boat gets small with a 10-12' gator next to it. I see people trying to go in john boats and it makes we wonder about natural selection. Take a friend. This is a team sport where you will need all the help you can get before and after you kill it. A three man team works best but a two man team is possible if you are experienced. Be patient. This isn't easy. An alligator can hold it's breath for 4+ hours with no problem. If hunting at night, be quiet. Everything you do above the water can be heard below the water. An alligator doesn't like a spotlight shined in it's eyes any more then you. Be conservative with the light and don't point the light directly at it eye. The biggest error I see people make is giving up too soon. If you haven't seen him in over an hour, he hasn't escaped. He is waiting for you to leave. Be safe and Choot Em'.
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