KipCarson
Well-known member
For several years now everywhere I seem to turn I see alligators. Seriously. Working in waterfowl habitat management in the Red River watershed of northwest Louisiana keeps me outside nearly 100% of my days in wet and swampy places. I grew up here, and when I was a kid there did not seem to be that many around. But as time has gone on, the populations have exploded. There does not seem to be one backwater hole, that I come across that does not contain some of the big lizards. I’m constantly bumping into them, I’ve watched them cross the highway in front of my truck moving from one ditch to another, I’ve had them come swimming up right beside me when I was standing in waist deep water putting up wood duck boxes, caught and removed them from my beaver traps, I routinely have little ones pester my bobbers in the spring when I’m bream fishing, etc. They turn up everywhere from city parks to neighborhoods to church parking lots. For my part, I like having them around. They are a comeback. Story of conservation success, but in their case they are getting to be a little bit too successful for most peoples taste!
Speaking of taste, they are quite good to eat! To be frank in many ways there is nothing special about alligator meat. Other than the fact it’s not nearly as cheap as chicken. You are going to pay for it, I think about $14+ a pound at the store I believe. As far as taste goes it’s mostly a blank slate, you can make it taste like whatever you want. It’s very mild and can be cooked a bunch of different ways; fried, blackened, smoked, grilled, stewed or whatever else you can come up with. For me the downside to it is a somewhat chewy texture. One of my favorites is definitely cutting it up in small little nuggets, frying them golden brown, and stuffing them inside a Po-boy. If you don’t know, that’s basically just a big sandwich on French bread, slathered with a sauce like mayonnaise, tartar, sauce, or remoulade, with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and your choice of meat, such as shrimp, catfish, oysters, and often times alligator.
When it comes to alligators, my major frustration has been the lack of access to them. Just because they are here does not mean that it is easy to get tags and just because this is a Louisiana does not mean that we all live in one giant episode of “Swamp people” there is a lottery system in place to allocate tags for many public bodies of water across the state, but I had been unsuccessful in getting any. Until this year, I was finally drawn for tags on one of the lakes here in northwest Louisiana. There are places much closer to my house that I could have gotten tags at, but on this lake in particular, I have several friends who fish it regularly and live on the lake that I knew you would be able to point me in the right. One of them has had alligator tags multiple years, and has successfully caught some giants. This year when I applied, I did it out of habit, assuming that I would not be drawn. But but then I got an email and realized I would have a very busy September.
Season opened up the first week of September right when I was in the middle of trying to fill a trying to fill a much more important elk tag in Colorado. For the most part, I put the alligator hunt out of my mind because I was completely focused on Colorado. After successfully getting home from that hunt, and having a ridiculous amount of butcher work to do on the elk in the evenings after work, and having the wheels come off in some other areas of personal/family/work life I had begun to regret even applying for the tags. I just wasn’t going to have any time to devote to getting them filled. I was able to carve out one weekend to get it done.
Fast forward to September 22nd.
I had contacted my friends who live on the lake who were more than eager to share their knowledge and planned to meet me to point out some areas and watch me. set out lines on Friday after work. Starting on Wednesday I took a bag of chicken leg quarters out of the freezer and set them in the back of the truck to start getting “ripe”. By the time Friday rolled around the smell coming from that bucket would flat out gag a maggot, but was just right for gator bait!
We launched the boat a couple hours before sunset and headed off toward the honey holes. It was a good time and a family affair since my friend Colten brought his 2 little boys along. The boat was plenty big for all five of us, unfortunately, there was not enough room to get away from the smell lol! It got to ride far back in the stern, where at least they sent would be blown behind us until we stopped.
Colton on tiller, the future alligator hunting experts, and Jeromy.
Now I am extremely partial to mountains, but there is a lot to be said for the beauty that can be found along a southern bayou, or Cypress studded lake.
And the rarest of pictures from me, a selfie…
To me there is always something enchanting about giant old bald cypress trees in a Louisiana swamp.
I was issued three tags and was allowed to keep six lines set. Everyone calls it alligator hunting, but it is basically alligator fishing in my opinion. The basic concept is you have a giant hook tied to a heavy line that is anchored to something very sturdy. You take a piece of rancid chicken, or other bait and suspend the hook above the water. In theory the higher you get the chicken, the bigger the alligator will be that can take the bait. I was not concerned with this, I was looking to catch alligators, not hunting for size. The line is suspended with something like a clothes pin that once the alligator grabs the chicken and pulls it into the water the line will come free, allowing them the ability to swallow the chicken and get the hook buried deep inside them. If you only hook them in the mouth, they would almost guaranteed be free before you got to check the line.
Speaking of taste, they are quite good to eat! To be frank in many ways there is nothing special about alligator meat. Other than the fact it’s not nearly as cheap as chicken. You are going to pay for it, I think about $14+ a pound at the store I believe. As far as taste goes it’s mostly a blank slate, you can make it taste like whatever you want. It’s very mild and can be cooked a bunch of different ways; fried, blackened, smoked, grilled, stewed or whatever else you can come up with. For me the downside to it is a somewhat chewy texture. One of my favorites is definitely cutting it up in small little nuggets, frying them golden brown, and stuffing them inside a Po-boy. If you don’t know, that’s basically just a big sandwich on French bread, slathered with a sauce like mayonnaise, tartar, sauce, or remoulade, with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and your choice of meat, such as shrimp, catfish, oysters, and often times alligator.
When it comes to alligators, my major frustration has been the lack of access to them. Just because they are here does not mean that it is easy to get tags and just because this is a Louisiana does not mean that we all live in one giant episode of “Swamp people” there is a lottery system in place to allocate tags for many public bodies of water across the state, but I had been unsuccessful in getting any. Until this year, I was finally drawn for tags on one of the lakes here in northwest Louisiana. There are places much closer to my house that I could have gotten tags at, but on this lake in particular, I have several friends who fish it regularly and live on the lake that I knew you would be able to point me in the right. One of them has had alligator tags multiple years, and has successfully caught some giants. This year when I applied, I did it out of habit, assuming that I would not be drawn. But but then I got an email and realized I would have a very busy September.
Season opened up the first week of September right when I was in the middle of trying to fill a trying to fill a much more important elk tag in Colorado. For the most part, I put the alligator hunt out of my mind because I was completely focused on Colorado. After successfully getting home from that hunt, and having a ridiculous amount of butcher work to do on the elk in the evenings after work, and having the wheels come off in some other areas of personal/family/work life I had begun to regret even applying for the tags. I just wasn’t going to have any time to devote to getting them filled. I was able to carve out one weekend to get it done.
Fast forward to September 22nd.
I had contacted my friends who live on the lake who were more than eager to share their knowledge and planned to meet me to point out some areas and watch me. set out lines on Friday after work. Starting on Wednesday I took a bag of chicken leg quarters out of the freezer and set them in the back of the truck to start getting “ripe”. By the time Friday rolled around the smell coming from that bucket would flat out gag a maggot, but was just right for gator bait!
We launched the boat a couple hours before sunset and headed off toward the honey holes. It was a good time and a family affair since my friend Colten brought his 2 little boys along. The boat was plenty big for all five of us, unfortunately, there was not enough room to get away from the smell lol! It got to ride far back in the stern, where at least they sent would be blown behind us until we stopped.
Colton on tiller, the future alligator hunting experts, and Jeromy.
Now I am extremely partial to mountains, but there is a lot to be said for the beauty that can be found along a southern bayou, or Cypress studded lake.
And the rarest of pictures from me, a selfie…
To me there is always something enchanting about giant old bald cypress trees in a Louisiana swamp.
I was issued three tags and was allowed to keep six lines set. Everyone calls it alligator hunting, but it is basically alligator fishing in my opinion. The basic concept is you have a giant hook tied to a heavy line that is anchored to something very sturdy. You take a piece of rancid chicken, or other bait and suspend the hook above the water. In theory the higher you get the chicken, the bigger the alligator will be that can take the bait. I was not concerned with this, I was looking to catch alligators, not hunting for size. The line is suspended with something like a clothes pin that once the alligator grabs the chicken and pulls it into the water the line will come free, allowing them the ability to swallow the chicken and get the hook buried deep inside them. If you only hook them in the mouth, they would almost guaranteed be free before you got to check the line.
