# Lake Seminole Gator



## HighyellerLab (Oct 4, 2009)

We took this one last Saturday morning.  Our first gator.  Spotted him at 7:15 in the morning and had him lashed to the boat by 12:01 pm.  First arrow was with my BW longbow.  I got a harpoon in him an hour later, and my brother finished him off with a .40 cal to the head.   He measured out at 12'7.5".  Didn't have a scale that read that high, but he was heavy...We put in some long days and nights before we finally came up on this one.    

Hiding in the hydrilla:







Glad to see another bouy:






Wondering how big he really is:






Back at the landing:






Big enough:


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## Michael (Oct 4, 2009)

Yep, There's a reason most people only give a gator's length and not there weight. Congrates on getting a true dinasour of a trophy!


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## HighyellerLab (Oct 5, 2009)

Thanks..now the question is what the heck to do with 12' of gator hide...


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## Hunter-Steve (Oct 5, 2009)

Super nice gator. Congrats


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## Booner Killa (Oct 5, 2009)

Man, that thing is grown...congrats on a monster.


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## Henpecked (Oct 5, 2009)

Congrats.  Now go kill about 200 more of 'em.


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## turtlebug (Oct 5, 2009)

WOW!  

So how long before you've got that baby girl out there bagging her first gator? Or, maybe just make her a bag, some shoes, a belt and some other trinkets out of that one!    

Congrats Trey!


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## HighyellerLab (Oct 5, 2009)

Hey Turtle...I'm putting her name in for a GA gator tag next year.  I figure she will at least be able to use a harpoon by age two..!


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## turtlebug (Oct 5, 2009)

HighyellerLab said:


> Hey Turtle...I'm putting her name in for a GA gator tag next year.  I figure she will at least be able to use a harpoon by age two..!



   

Can't wait to get pics of her and her first bow.


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## dhardegree (Oct 5, 2009)

Holy cow!!!!


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## arrow2 (Oct 6, 2009)

Congrats to you guys on a fine Lake Seminole monster.


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## HighyellerLab (Oct 7, 2009)

I am working up some notes on gear used on this hunt, and just weighed the Innerloc Gator Grapple point I used out of my 56 lb BW plx osage.   This point weighs in at 501 grains by my scale.  Wow, that is a slug.   These pts  are awesome, btw.


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## bogeyfree31 (Oct 7, 2009)

Did yall get him out from big jims?  We saw a dandy of a gator on the ne side of the big island that big jims channels runs into, by the refuge 4 weeks ago when we were out there.  It was around 10pm but we couldn't get close enough for the harpoon and after he went down, he never came back up.    We settled for a 8 footer that night.


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## Golden BB (Oct 8, 2009)

bogeyfree31 said:


> Did yall get him out from big jims?  We saw a dandy of a gator on the ne side of the big island that big jims channels runs into, by the refuge 4 weeks ago when we were out there.  It was around 10pm but we couldn't get close enough for the harpoon and after he went down, he never came back up.    We settled for a 8 footer that night.




That looks like the refuge in the background.  If so, I think everybody that hunted sem this year saw that gator LOL.  We never could get him to play.  Congrats !!!!!


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## HighyellerLab (Oct 8, 2009)

That's actually up the Creek from the Refuge.  We put in at Knights (1st landing above Reynolds, aka, big jims) and found him within 5 min of leaving the ramp.  It was good luck that I spotted him while drinking a cup of coffee cruising down the channel.

My brother and I had hunted a hoss of a gator the previous weekend out from Reynolds on the edge of the Refuge.  He ran from the little island between the big island and the channel to 10 Mile Still.  He was a beast, and could well have been this gator.  We hunted him for several hours, but he never would pop up in bow range.  He would not let us get within 100 yds after dark, so we headed to the house.  We had hunted over 12 hrs that day.  Night hunts had previously only got us close to small gators, so we decided to try day hunting, with mixed, but eventually successfull, results.  

I wonder if that was you guys hunting the edge of the Refuge the evening we called it quits.  We were out there in the open water across from the Refuge on the 29th right at dark and there were two boats working the edge of the Refuge.  We wished them luck and headed to the house for Mom's cooking and dry clothes.  The weather had been he-double toothpicks that day and we had come close on two, but no gators.  At least we didn't get zapped by all the lightning that day.  

We are hooked now.  The only kicker is how to cover costs for the darn out-of-state tags for us GA boys who have had to move to follow our jobs to other states.  Bites to be a GA boy buying an out-of-state tag.  The hide market is so bad now that we are just sitting on 12' of gator hide.


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## Wood Smoke (Oct 8, 2009)

Nice use of a Gator Trax!  Did you step out onto the hunt deck while he was still loose and kickin'?


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## bogeyfree31 (Oct 8, 2009)

We got our 8 footer on 09/16 at 10pm.  1.5 hours into our first gator hunt and we were done.

Now we are ready for a 10+


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## HighyellerLab (Oct 8, 2009)

Ha!  I love my bro's boat.  It will go anywhere.  I had actually just rinsed my hands off in the water on the starboard side of the boat and stood up when he came up on the port side about 5 feet from the hunt deck.  That's when bro. shot him w/the 40 cal; one perfect shot to the brain and he was done.  

That hunt deck is cool, btw.  We didn't dance around on it while we were waiting for him to come up, that's for sure.  

Bogey, sound like you got way more sleep last month than we did! : )


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## Judge (Oct 8, 2009)

Congrats.  Great pictures.


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## Al33 (Oct 10, 2009)

Nice gator for sure. The best for me is that you got him with your longbow! Way to get-r-done!!!!! Congrat's!


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## TurkeyProof (Oct 11, 2009)

*Amen*



Henpecked said:


> Congrats.  Now go kill about 200 more of 'em.


Lord YES.


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