Redman54
Senior Member
I thought this year was going to be a bust. My work schedule has been crazy, add to that my youngest boys football schedule and everyday life, we had one weekend to hunt. The plan was for my two oldest boys to head down to the coast Friday, get the boat in the water and everything ready, and me, my wife and youngest would head down Friday night after his football game. We were determined we were going to hunt day and night if we had to. The first part of our plan went off without a hitch, the boys got to the coast house, got all the gear ready and the boat in the water. I get a call from them saying the GPS wasn't working, I told them it was probably a fuse and I would check it that night when we got there. We get to the house that night around 11:30, I checked all the fuses and everything looked good but still no GPS. I know the waters around Colonel's Island, St. Cats like the back of my hand, but navigating the coastal waters at night without a GPS, wasn't happening. So Friday night was out. We woke up at daylight Saturday and couldn't find anything bigger than 4 foot. We hunted all day and at almost dark, finally spotted one that was a shooter. We were up in a creek off the ICW around St. Cats which is about a 30 minute run from the house. I knew we didn't have time to fight the gator and make it back to the house before dark, so we left him swimming and hauled tail back to the house. Got up at daybreak Sunday and went straight back to where we last saw him, and as luck would have it, he was sunning on a mud flat. He hit the water and my youngest made a perfect cast hooking him. The battle began and as we got him closer to the boat, he made a run under the boat and broke the rod. He shook the hook and disappeared. We waited for a little bit and saw him one more time but he was on the wrong side of some blow down trees we couldn't get past. We made a short run to another creek and eased our way in without seeing anything. We started heading back out of the creek feeling defeated when out of nowhere, one comes crashing out of the marsh right in front of us. My son made a cast and barely missed. The gator made a big swirl and vanished. The creek we were in was very skinny and I knew he couldn't get past us, he had to head for open water. We waited about 10 minutes and eased forward towards the entrance of the creek and he was making his way out. My son made a great cast and he was hooked up again. After a short fight, the gator made his way into a narrow cut between mud flats and sat on the bottom. I tried to get the big treble hook down to him but couldn't get through the marsh grass. We finally made the decision to try and find him with the harpoon and get a dart in him. The cut was about 6 foot deep and the first time the harpoon touched the gator, he shot out under the boat and bam, rod #2 broke. I grabbed the broken part and kept pressure on him as my wife backed out of the cut. I grabbed my big hooked and was able to snag his back leg. We fought him back to the boat and my youngest made a great shot with my Glock 43. I finished him off with my spear and it was fist bumps and hugs. This is the 5th year in a row we have been blessed to take a gator from Zone 8. This one came in at 8' 8". My wife still holds our family record.....but there's always next year.
