13-3 Gator Taken By Lady Hunter On Video

Meghan Bailey, of Carrollton, with her 13-3 gator from Lake Seminole.

A 13-foot, 3-inch gator has been reported from Lake Seminole, the largest so far this season. Georgia’s gator season will officially end on Oct. 2, but this one will be hard to top in the remaining days.

The hunter? Well, it’s a girl… and one who’s no stranger to taking big alligators.

“I went on my first hunt with him in 2016,” said Meghan Bailey, of Carrollton. “We hunted with Christopher Blackmon with Get-R-Done guide service and got an 11-footer.”

Then in 2020, Meghan’s dad Lane drew a tag. They went back to Seminole with Christopher and killed a 10-6, which had some of its tail missing…

“It took seven years for me to get another tag,” said Meghan.

You probably guessed it by now. Back to Big Sem in the boat with Christopher, who has become an old friend at this point.

“Christopher is amazing, he knows the spots. He keeps an eye out for where the big ones are at,” said Meghan.

When many think gator hunting, they think night hunting, as in sunset to sunrise. That wasn’t the case on this hunt.

“We left at 6:30 a.m,” said Meghan. “Usually we would go at night, but Christopher had been seeing the bigger ones right when the sun was coming up. Hunting through the nights is how he usually hunts, but for some reason the bigger ones were coming out right at daybreak.”

Christopher put the boat on plane and was making a beeline to an area he had a gator picked out for Meghan. Those plans changed pretty abruptly when they arrived at the mouth of Spring Creek just north of the Indian Mounds.

“We went around a curve, and it was right there sunning in the middle of the lake. Him and dad saw it before I did because I was sitting down in the boat,” said Meghan. “We stopped so he could look at it through the binoculars, and he said, ‘Meghan, you may want to get ready. I think this is the one we’re going to try to get.’ It was a fluke because he’d never seen it before.”

Meghan was spending her birthday week on Seminole. In fact she had to figure out in advance whether she wanted to pursue gators or deer with a bow to celebrate. She was fixing to discover that she made a wise decision.

“The very first cast with a snatch hook caught right under him in the sweet spot. It hooked, it was perfect,” said Meghan. “This was a God thing. He went down, and they started to get another rod and reel ready.”

Meghan held onto an 8-6 Abu Garcia Veritas Toro extra-heavy rod loaded with 200-lb. PowerPro braid loaded onto a Daiwa Lexa 400 HD offshore reel. One hook in a gator is never enough. The next hooks in would be attached to 6-foot offshore boat roads. Those rods are setup with Penn 114 Senators, 400-lb. PowerPro braid and 14/0 treble hooks he makes himself.

There’s a reason you get multiple hooks in a gator of this size. They went from having one rod attached, to two rods, back to one rod, then two and finally three rods hooked up at once.

“All three of us are sitting there with bent rods, and he is just latched onto the bottom,” said Meghan. “When we had the three rods in, it was a waiting game. You wait for him to come up for air or he just gets tired. He finally did get tired, and we got him up to the boat and shot him with a Glock model 20 10mm. He died quick.”

Meghan didn’t know exactly the caliber of gator that she had been fighting.

“I didn’t see him at first when they saw it. I had no clue because it immediately went under,” said Meghan. “It was awesome. I was so excited, getting to go with my dad. It’s a once in a lifetime thing. I’m not even an emotional person, but I cried I was so excited.”

Meghan wisely took her gator to Ryan Giddens at Spring Creek Processing & Taxidermy Bainbridge. The 13-3 gator weighed 675 pounds and yielded about 200 pounds of meat for the freezer.

“I like to share the meat with people,” said Meghan. “My dad will take some to his friends and co-workers. I gave some to my friends, it’s just too much to keep for myself. We got the tail, backstrap, tenderloin and jaw meat. I don’t want it going to waste.”

Meghan chose American Tanning & Leather in Griffin to tan the alligator’s hide. She’ll also have a large European mount of the gator’s head to put on a sturdy table in her home. Meghan, who is an affiliate with Mtn Ops, thanks her dad, Christopher Blackmon and Jennesi Bartel, another female hunter who came in from Wyoming.

“This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime moment with my daddy that I will cherish forever,” said Meghan.

So what’s next for Meghan? You’d probably guess Seminole, but not so fast.

“My next goal is Eufaula, I want to change it up a little bit,” said Meghan.

I can about guarantee you that Meghan will make Christopher with Git-R-Done to be a part of that change of scenery. Since Christopher started gator guiding, he’s been a part of killing 20 Georgia gators between 13 and 13-10 in length. He’s taken some longer one in Alabama and South Carolina. Meghan’s alligator was No. 649 for him. If you get a coveted alligator tag, consider Christopher.

Meghan is on Instagram and YouTube.