We started our hunt at noon on Saturday. We took some bass rods to fish a bit while we looked around (not expecting to get anything until after dark). We spotted a few gators, but nothing we could get in range of. We bass fished for about 3 hours and decided to head back to the ramp to get dinner. On the way back we spotted a big alligator on the edge of some grass. We started to approach it with the trolling motor, but it went down about 70 yds away. We kept getting closer and went directly to where it dropped. Surprisingly, it was still there just laying 3 ft on the bottom. We aim and shoot the crossbow where it's sitting......nothing....We missed! The gator is still there, directly under us. It takes us 2-3 minutes to load another bolt. We aim, shoot, and the gator swims off with the string. It lays on the bottom in 20 ft. We grabbed a hand line to get a second rope in it. On the second attempt, I hook into it and it the fight is on. As we're fighting it to the surface, we see the arrow has BROKEN off and realize we only have one rope on it. We tossed another hand line and get hooked up again. Now the gator is wrapped/hooked in the first line and hooked in the second. He brings his head to the surface and we popped him with a .22 mag. We gave him 2 more security shots, taped him up, and pulled him in the boat at 6:05 p.m. He measured just over 10 ft by 1/4 inch.
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10 ft SC gator on opening day
- Thread starter Burton
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