My old lady said she wanted some gator in the freezer and neither of us care to buy meat, so I started looking into how to get tags. The vast majority of Louisiana's alligator tags are issued to private land owners, but after looking into it I found that the state has offered public opportunity on some WMAs and public lakes for the past few years. Did a little research, chose a WMA I thought would give me a better chance of getting drawn while not too far from the house, and was fortunate to get drawn. As soon as I was drawn, I started scouting multiple areas trying to find where some good gators were at. I made 4 scouting trips over the past few weeks. Saw well over a hundred gators but nothing over 4 foot. I wasn't hunting for a giant, but wanted to fill my tags with a decent size alligator for the meat. I would've been very happy with a couple 6 footers.
I was fortunate that my mom works with a guy who gave me a good tip of a place to check out. In this area you have to access with a small boat due to an old low hanging bridge. Either paddle under or carry a boat over. Friday, September 6th I accessed the area in my pirogue, and was barely able to paddle under the bridge. I was very excited to see a couple gators that were 5+ and one large one I thought was about 7 or 8 foot. The season opened that following Monday, but since I was on call for work I waited until this past weekend to set lines hoping nobody else was using that area.
After work Friday me and my brother went to go set lines. We took my 10ft john boat and luckily the water dropped since my last visit, and we were able to paddle under the bridge. Another plus was nobody in the area. Lines were set where I saw the better gators plus a couple other spots I thought might be good. With 3 tags I was allowed to set 6 lines. Checked the lines Saturday morning and non of the lines had been touch. We figured we set them too high (hoping for better gator) so we lowered them and moved two to different locations. While I was disappointed to not have any gators Saturday, we were kind of glad we didn't have to skin gators when we got home. We had 4 pigs in the trap and a lot of cutting do. Not of fan of cleaning pigs this time year.
Sunday morning was much better for gators since we had lowered the lines. We passed our second set and I saw the head of a "little one" maybe a 2ft gator. We decided to work back to front. Towards to the back, two lines had gators and we filled 2 tags. Then went back to the front to get the "little one". While paddling closer I again saw the head of the "little one" go under. Now because of our small boat and the amount of clutter, we had been getting on the bank, pulling the gator to us, and then kill it. But because of how small this one was, I was going to pull him up while still in the boat. What happen next I can only compare to a scene in the three stooges....
I start pulling on the line and felt the slow dead weight coming up. Eventually I started to see a shape emerge from the black water. At first thought I thought the "little one" was wrapped up in vegetation. Then when we saw it. A very large head surfaced next to the boat and both of us at the same time were saying "Oh ____! Put him back! Put him back! Put him back!" as I was putting line back in the water. We pull the boat up to bank and got out with excitement. We got set up near the anchor stake and started pulling him in. We went a couple rounds were Jason would pull him in and as soon as his head barely emerged he would trash back under. Eventually he rolled and entangled himself. We pulled him near the bank and I finally got a shot off.
The 3 gators we got measured 8ft 6 in, 5ft, and 4ft. I'm glad to have to have the experience and the amount of meat from the big, but after skinning the big one I was happy to have the 5ft and 4 ft. Very thankful to have this extra opportunity each year on our WMAs.
I was fortunate that my mom works with a guy who gave me a good tip of a place to check out. In this area you have to access with a small boat due to an old low hanging bridge. Either paddle under or carry a boat over. Friday, September 6th I accessed the area in my pirogue, and was barely able to paddle under the bridge. I was very excited to see a couple gators that were 5+ and one large one I thought was about 7 or 8 foot. The season opened that following Monday, but since I was on call for work I waited until this past weekend to set lines hoping nobody else was using that area.
After work Friday me and my brother went to go set lines. We took my 10ft john boat and luckily the water dropped since my last visit, and we were able to paddle under the bridge. Another plus was nobody in the area. Lines were set where I saw the better gators plus a couple other spots I thought might be good. With 3 tags I was allowed to set 6 lines. Checked the lines Saturday morning and non of the lines had been touch. We figured we set them too high (hoping for better gator) so we lowered them and moved two to different locations. While I was disappointed to not have any gators Saturday, we were kind of glad we didn't have to skin gators when we got home. We had 4 pigs in the trap and a lot of cutting do. Not of fan of cleaning pigs this time year.
Sunday morning was much better for gators since we had lowered the lines. We passed our second set and I saw the head of a "little one" maybe a 2ft gator. We decided to work back to front. Towards to the back, two lines had gators and we filled 2 tags. Then went back to the front to get the "little one". While paddling closer I again saw the head of the "little one" go under. Now because of our small boat and the amount of clutter, we had been getting on the bank, pulling the gator to us, and then kill it. But because of how small this one was, I was going to pull him up while still in the boat. What happen next I can only compare to a scene in the three stooges....
I start pulling on the line and felt the slow dead weight coming up. Eventually I started to see a shape emerge from the black water. At first thought I thought the "little one" was wrapped up in vegetation. Then when we saw it. A very large head surfaced next to the boat and both of us at the same time were saying "Oh ____! Put him back! Put him back! Put him back!" as I was putting line back in the water. We pull the boat up to bank and got out with excitement. We got set up near the anchor stake and started pulling him in. We went a couple rounds were Jason would pull him in and as soon as his head barely emerged he would trash back under. Eventually he rolled and entangled himself. We pulled him near the bank and I finally got a shot off.
The 3 gators we got measured 8ft 6 in, 5ft, and 4ft. I'm glad to have to have the experience and the amount of meat from the big, but after skinning the big one I was happy to have the 5ft and 4 ft. Very thankful to have this extra opportunity each year on our WMAs.
