Took this picture from a kayak this past weekend, he is around 11 feet long, I have seen him a couple of times this year hanging around my houseboat.

Those are great pictures guys, really enjoy them!!

Found this bad boy Sunday. He is about 12 ‘ but insanely thick.

Larry,

Good luck with the hunting.

I will have 40 plus tags in September with little to no market for the hides.

Thank you sir.

Crocs are also very difficult to judge from behind.

Saw a massive croc we were after in the Sengwe River in Zimbabwe, from a bout a mile away.

We had to do a detour to get downwind of him, which took quite a while.

Eventually we got to where we wanted to be, and he was lying half out of the water on the bank, facing away.

I remember we had to crawl through all sorts of weeds to get into a position to get a shot.

I fired a shot at him.

Hit him, and he raised his head.

As soon as we saw the head, we could see it was not the one we were after, but another, much smaller one which came and replaced him.

When we got to it, it was a 10.5 feet croc.

Alan and me were falling off our feet laughing, and Roy was mad!

Usual performance from us three.

One is always screwing things up, and it was Roy's turn to be blamed!

MikeBurke,
I would think there would be plenty of people who would buy a tag to shoot a gator. Is it legal for you to sell them one at a time?

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
MikeBurke,
I would think there would be plenty of people who would buy a tag to shoot a gator. Is it legal for you to sell them one at a time?

I cannot sell the tags, I can sell hunts, but never have.

In 2016 I donated a hunt to the Dallas Ecological Society (tied in to DSC) as a prize for winning a high school contest that involved writing a paper on conservation.

We had a great time putting on that hunt, the young man that won and his Dad really enjoyed the experience. We hunted alligators, rode in the airboat, brought them frogging, and slept on my houseboat for two nights.

I have never lost my boyhood love of snakes,frogs,turtles and such.
Has the population changed much over the years?
Has the market for the meat dropped also?
Not trying to flood you with questions, but it's very interesting to me having never been exposed to gators and their ways.

I am sure Larry will forgive this trespass of his thread, if not I will buy him the drink of his choice in Dallas next year.

We started hunting in 1979. The hunting is tightly regulated. In my opinion there are as many alligators today as when we started. At times I think there are not as many big alligators as the old days, and then I will see several 10 foot plus gators.

There is still a good market for the meat. Actually the market for the meat is the only reason I have been able to sell the hides.

A couple of alligator and snake pictures.

Mike, is most of the meat in the tail?

Even a far north yankee like me can tell those snakes by the head shape!
Not to put it all on you Mike for answers, so anyone please chip in.
How are tags allocated?
Do gators have their own smell, or smell like whatever swamp/marsh they live in?

Bill,

Most of the meat is in the tail, however a fair amount comes from the jowls and legs. Rib meat probably goes in to sausage.

In Louisiana, the tags are allocated to landowners. Depending on type of land marsh, swamp, saltwater, freshwater, etc the tag allocation is around one tag per 100 acres.

There is some public land that can be hunted, but I am not sure how those tags are allocated.

Alligators do have a distinct odor, not strong or overbearing and a little hard to describe.

Mike,
I really appreciate your sharing of knowledge, very interesting to me.
Maybe you could post some pictures of this years success, when the season comes around.

OK Guys, no laughing.

Are the "gator tails" I enjoy at my favorite Cajun restaurant really gator tails? One of my favorite reasons to visit the deep south.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
Mike,
I really appreciate your sharing of knowledge, very interesting to me.
Maybe you could post some pictures of this years success, when the season comes around.

A couple of videos taken while hunting, nothing serious.


https://youtu.be/f8rW8dgWyyI


https://youtu.be/1qzCZa-fsh8

That 11-footer looks huge. Thanks for posting the videos Mike. What a different world.

I liked the little guy.
" I found this, and I'm not leaving without it!"

Found the answered to my own question.

Our gators are farm-raised, which makes the meat extra tender. Alligator meat is extremely versatile, gracing tables in the form of sausage, dropped into a gumbo or jambalaya.

quote:

Originally posted by JBoutfishn:
Found the answered to my own question.

Our gators are farm-raised, which makes the meat extra tender. Alligator meat is extremely versatile, gracing tables in the form of sausage, dropped into a gumbo or jambalaya.

You must be dining at Pappadeaux’s.

Last year there was a new law passed in Louisiana that regulates restaurants in how they market seafood. Items like shrimp and crawfish have to identified if they came from local waters or overseas.
I would guess if they are selling alligator tails it would need to be tail meat but not sure if that is a legal requirement.

Anyway some people feel wild alligator is better.

They pay much more for a farm raised alligator hide than a wild hide. The quality is supposedly better on a farm raised hide.

Here a picture of the 14 foot gator that was caught in Lake Eufaula, Georgia.





https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/08...cord-trnd/index.html

Dang, what a beast that gator was!

Wow, that is one huge bull gator.

To put in perspective how big that alligator is, in 40 years of hunting and killing over 2400 alligators we have never had one over 13 feet long.

That 14 footer is indeed a monster.

I am back from our trip. I am not sure I said this before but the hunt was filmed for TV. Nick's Wild Ride. It will be airing this fall.

We managed to get 2 gators and 3 gobblers. My guest wounded another gator, an incredibly large gator. We will continue to look for him.

The absolute monster that I was pursuing managed to elude us. The old cracker who works for me down there says he believes it is close to 16'. He got a better look than I did. I am sticking with it being over 14'.

I have 5 more tags and over 9 months to get him.

Larry,

Congratulations on the gators and gobblers. Hate that you lost one.

Are you tanning the hides?

I dropped off six hides that I caught for a friend with American Tanning. The were buying alligators in the metropolis of Coteau Holmes.

https://www.amtan.com/

I am anxious to see what they look like.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeBurke:
Larry,

Congratulations on the gators and gobblers. Hate that you lost one.

Are you tanning the hides?

I dropped off six hides that I caught for a friend with American Tanning. The were buying alligators in the metropolis of Coteau Holmes.

https://www.amtan.com/

I am anxious to see what they look like.

Thanks Mike.

Yes, the hides are being tanned.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
That 14 footer is indeed a monster.

I am back from our trip. I am not sure I said this before but the hunt was filmed for TV. Nick's Wild Ride. It will be airing this fall.

We managed to get 2 gators and 3 gobblers. My guest wounded another gator, an incredibly large gator. We will continue to look for him.

The absolute monster that I was pursuing managed to elude us. The old cracker who works for me down there says he believes it is close to 16'. He got a better look than I did. I am sticking with it being over 14'.

I have 5 more tags and over 9 months to get him.

Congratulations, and stay after the big one.

How big was the one you brought in?

10’2” with a few inches of tail missing.

Glad you have some tags left, Larry. This gator stuff is just fascinating to this old West Coastie.

Back with another question Mike!
Have you, or anyone you know been bit when handling gators? If so, was it the crush or the puncture that was worse?

I know of two. One was on alligator in the boat that was not quite dead. Don’t remember the extent of the wound, but it was not bad.

The other was my brother. It happened around 1981. To this day I never got the whole true story but the bite was on his hand from about a 7 ft alligator. Puncture wounds only, but pretty much through and through. No broken bones and the biggest fear was infection. The bite was more of a snap and release.

If anything bigger than a five foot alligator grabs and holds an appendage and then rolls, bones will break.

Larry--any more luck with the big gator? A 14 foot gator ranks up there with 100 plus pound ivory--a 16 footer would be the trophy of a lifetime any time, any where. Now would be a perfect time to devote some time to taking him since he is more or less in your back yard and this Covid thing has international travel screwed up and Africa on hold.

quote:

Originally posted by sharpsguy:
Larry--any more luck with the big gator? A 14 foot gator ranks up there with 100 plus pound ivory--a 16 footer would be the trophy of a lifetime any time, any where. Now would be a perfect time to devote some time to taking him since he is more or less in your back yard and this Covid thing has international travel screwed up and Africa on hold.

We shot a couple . Mine was 10’2” with some tail missing .

One of my guests wounded a monster, a real monster. It was 12’ plus but insanely thick.

The big one stopped climbing out of the water onto the bank. I took a shot at big one the with my 416. Only a small portion of his head was exposed. It appears that I hit right in front of him. Based upon a review of the film, we think the bullet glanced off the water and right over him. If he had been out of the water, he would be dead.

We have not seen him again. I was sick over it .

Big boy has returned.

How many more days do you have to hunt him?

I have 5 more permits good through 12/31.

Get off the damn computer and go kill that gator!

I was going to suggest over 12’ from the first pic anyway. I’m not an expert but have hunted them up close with a harpoon/knife and taken one 11’. After 11’ it’s a lot harder for me to judge them other than “Big”.
Lake Eufala is one I’ve been trying hard to draw but still haven’t succeeded. Good luck and post pics, really enjoy seeing big gators.