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Hunting the American Alligator
I was wondering who on here hunts the dinosaurs? And what are your methods of hunting stalking and taking them?
I hunt them with three basic methods. Baits, snagging with a fishing rod or drag hook, and I ambush or assinate them. Those methods sound simple enough but it takes different tricks for different gators. My job as a nuisance gator trapper gets tough , some gators get educated about people and they have a sixth sense that keeps them from getting caught.
I have had gators see my truck and hide from me, smell it and hide, they can even recognize the sound of different vehicles. I made eye contact through binoculars with a gator that was 300 yds away , for no apparent reason he exploded away and never resurfaced. They are amazing critters with eyesight on par with an owl , and a sense of smell 8 times better than a dog and gators can communicate up to 2 miles underwater! I guess that is why they have survived relatively since the dinosaur age .
I hunt them with three basic methods. Baits, snagging with a fishing rod or drag hook, and I ambush or assinate them. Those methods sound simple enough but it takes different tricks for different gators. My job as a nuisance gator trapper gets tough , some gators get educated about people and they have a sixth sense that keeps them from getting caught.
I have had gators see my truck and hide from me, smell it and hide, they can even recognize the sound of different vehicles. I made eye contact through binoculars with a gator that was 300 yds away , for no apparent reason he exploded away and never resurfaced. They are amazing critters with eyesight on par with an owl , and a sense of smell 8 times better than a dog and gators can communicate up to 2 miles underwater! I guess that is why they have survived relatively since the dinosaur age .
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Foggy Bottom GIrls on -
Last year was the beginning for me! I am hooked! We have to follow the SCDNR rules for hunting gators. The game warden check frequently during this season. So we used a crossbow and then got him to the boat and shot him with a pistol!
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Permalink Reply by GatorBrandon on -
We have about a 150 pages of rules and guidelines to follow as a trapper. And dealing with the public can be frustrating. In some neighborhoods people think a 10 or 11 ft gator is their pet and dont want them removed . Then there is the other extreme where people think a 3 ft gator will pull a child through a chain link fence and eat them.
Crossbows are great I am only good up to about 15 yds with my shots though because the line attached makes the arrow drop quickly. We are allowed to use baits and in some states baits are allowed with a wooden peg instead of a hook attached to the line. There are several ways to bait a gator, a hanging bait is good or a bait on a platform works good if there are lots of turtles around. Turtles will steal a bait away from a gator if they can. Sometimes we use roadkill for bait , squirrels and small swamp rabbits are good and they fit perfectly on a 12/0 hook. And a coon ham is another great bait. I beleive in using all that nature gives us even with the gators I kill. I try and save teeth, skulls, scutes, or whatever I can use off them. Back to the bait , We usually buy bait from slaughterhouses and get special internal organs to use as bait. Its not good PR to use squirrels or roadkills near neighborhoods . People will freak out when they see a critter on a hook even if it is a roadkill. And you need to follow the laws some states might frown on using a squirrel or a mammal as bait. I get some odd looks from people when I jump out of my truck put rubber gloves on and go pick up a roadkill.lol
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