Seminole Gator Hunt Yields 20 Feet Worth Of Lizards

Two gators totaling more than 20 feet in length made for a great adventure hunt on Lake Seminole for Ashley Bowlden (wearing the GON hat) and her family and friends.

Ashley Bowlden first started putting in for her Georgia alligator tags back in 2018, when she got to attend her first gator hunt. She loved it so much that she immediately started putting in for herself and her children every year, as well.

Six years later, on the opening weekend of Georgia’s 2024 alligator season, her, her husband, their children and a group of friends made the trip down to Seminole State Park in the farthest southwest corner of the state. Armed with a tag for both Ashley and her son, .22 mag pistols, homemade harpoons with handlines, and casting rods with big, thick treble hooks, they were planning on taking two trophy gators off Lake Seminole, and they sure did!

Before the trip had even started, there was quite a bit of skepticism on how successful the group would be in filling two separate tags. Anyone who’s ever chased a trophy gator knows it’s not easy, and even after you’ve pulled the trigger, it’s not guaranteed until you boat the big behemoth. To get not just one sizable gator, but two, would certainly require a bit more logistical preparation than your average hunt. So that’s what the Bowlden family did! With two boats and two groups of five, they’d certainly double their chance of bagging at least one large lizard.

So, on the early morning of Saturday, Aug. 17 , both “The Boy’s Boat” and “The Girl’s Boat” launched, and they headed south. Ashley and her son had their minds set on alligators that were at least 9 feet long. Gator hunting in the daylight makes it significantly easier to gauge the size of the reptiles and makes the excursion much more manageable for the kiddos, as well. By daybreak, both boats were on the water scoping out any movement and trying to find the right target. The hunt started off with each boat staying within ear shot of each other so that they could communicate and help each other out as needed.

Shortly after sunrise, The Boy’s Boat spotted a sizeable gator, and the hunt was on. They creeped over to where the gator had been spotted and casted a line over and hooked up to the creature just like that! They hoisted the alligator into range of Ashley’s son, and he was able to dispatch the 9-7 gator with a single, perfectly placed shot.

Ashley, proudly (and maybe a hair cautiously) emphasized to her son, “It ain’t always that easy so don’t expect that every time!”

When they boated the boy’s alligator, it was just shy of 8 a.m., and the two vessels still had one more tag and a whole day of hunting ahead of them. So, with one trophy in the boat, they headed just north of where the first gator was bagged and started scanning again. As fortune would have it, they spotted a large gator near the shoreline and crept within range of a cast. When they got in position, they let a hook fly over the gator and missed. They scrambled to get readjusted and were waiting for the gator to resurface, when out of nowhere, they spotted a larger gator on the opposite side of the boat. Immediately, they started after the new target, got positioned, casted a line, and the monster was hooked.

“He gave us a run for our money,” said Ashley.

The crew fought the behemoth for nearly an hour. Unsure of the size of the beast, Ashley asked the boat captain probably five different times, “Are you sure he’s big enough?”

They were certain the gator was at least 11 feet long.

“He pulled us all over the place. He was hooked and sat on the bottom in the middle of the river for a long time,” said Ashley.

When the gator finally resurfaced, he started moving fast toward the shoreline and got into some weeds near the shore. The big alligator played cat and mouse with the boat, submerging and resurfacing at every noise from the trolling motor to the outboard. Ashley jumped back in the boat to try and battle the gator from the water again. With the gator hooked and lying in the weeds below them, they knew that he couldn’t be far from the boat.

The crew then tried the harpoons. Cutting on the outboard to try and agitate the gator to resurface, they attempted to harpoon handlines into him three separate times. After the trebles just bounced off the thick-hided beast twice, they were finally able to land a handline on him. With the additional line on the gator, they pulled and fought the monstrous-sized animal by hand with no avail. In a last-ditch effort, they fired on the outboard again, and the beast rose to the surface right beside the boat.

“It was like chaos, pure panic,” said Ashley. “Where we were just dipping our hands and arms in the water, trying to untangle weeds and fishing line, the gator was just there.”

Ashley set her sights, pulled the trigger and finally killed the massive alligator. As with every hunt, the easiest part of the hunt is almost always the hunt itself. In this case specifically, it’s almost doubly true. The Girl’s Boat now had to lift a 12-foot, 4-inch alligator into their boat. Unfortunately, Ashley and the crew were not able to get the gator to a scale, but it is safe to say that the group had to manhandle 800 pounds of dead weight from the water into the boat.

Nonetheless, after shimmying around to counteract the weight and with a little help from the fellas on The Boy’s Boat (five grown men), they were finally able to load him into the boat and head back to the launch, and then the processor, where they were able to hoist up their spoils and celebrate. Undoubtedly, they did so with two boat loads of smiles, over 20 feet of American alligator, and what very well could be a once-in-a-lifetime story.

Thanks a bunch to Ashley Bowlden for sharing this awesome story. If you ever find yourself on Lake Seminole and run into these two boats during alligator season, I suggest you just find a new hole, because the boys and girls have more than likely already shucked your corn!