Solo Cracker this time...

Once again I was unable to rally a crew to hunt with (despite high levels of pre-season interest) and unfortunately this time my phone list let me down, so disregarding the "critics” (i.e. mom), I decided to go out alone and try to subdue a monster of the night by myself.  For those of you questioning the safety of such an endeavor, I was in my flats boat and that has relatively high sides so I felt pretty safe attempting the unmentionable. Besides, it ultimately only takes the flip of a knife blade to cut any lines connecting me to a pissed off gator, sending both of us on our merry way. Anyway, my solo venture started out as a really slow night so I began moving around, covering a lot of water as quickly as I could.  Just trying to get some action going, I covered about 4-5 miles in an hour or so and ultimately ended up where I've been hunting for the better part of the first phase, a large lagoon off of Middle River.  I took a few casts at some good gators but nothing panned out.  I finally hooked into a 6 footer at about 10:30 p.m. but as I wrestled it at the boat, all of a sudden, it just came off.  So, what I thought was the end of a tough night just became the beginning of an even tougher night.  I had already lost two before that one even though they were just on the line for a second or two, but I was feeling pretty bummed out and short a few hooks at the point too; I think I only had two left.  I took a little break and drank my red bull, had an apple, sat for a bit, and regrouped.  I decided I would head toward the boat ramp and just hunt what I could find as I went down the river.  It didn’t take long to figure out how the gators were acting that particular night so I quickly developed a plan where I approached gators from along the shoreline, waited ‘til they moved off the shoreline towards the middle of the river, and then casted at them. I practiced this method several times until I came to what I could tell was a very large gator.  I used my “action plan” and SUCCESS!!! My second GOOD hook up of the night.  In the tiny window of time in which I was able to see the gator’s full body, I was able to tell it was around 11 feet.  So, there goes this monster gator with the current of the river and about two minutes into the fight pulling me downstream it give one massive thrust and POP… it’s gone.  Expletive…Expletive…you get the conversation I had with myself.  So there’s my second-to-last hook in the ass of yet another gator and I’m reaching around to “put” (that is, slam) my hookless rod down when the light from my headlamp catches a pair of eyes watching me over from the shoreline about 50 yards away in the darkness.  OH Boy, here we go again. I set my large rod down and grab my last fishing rod with a hook, which was a fishing rod I just grabbed on the way out the door that I normally use to catch fish in the Indian River Lagoon that are no bigger than 4-5 pounds.  In one sweeping motion I set the one rod down, grab the other and flip the grappling hook toward where I thought the body would be lying in the water behind the glowing eyes.  Splash!  Got another one!!! I could tell right away this wasn’t the 11 footer but it was a good one and it was on.  I wasn’t willing to let this gator get away so I wanted to be as perfect as possible to avoid anymore heartache.  I had pre-loaded the speargun during my “break” and I grabbed that and set it at my feet so it was close and ready.  As soon as I saw her head I took the best shot I could into her neck, hoping that would slow her down significantly, and it did-- enough.  I was able to catch my breath and load the bangstick for use in a moment or two.  Keep in mind I’m alone and it’s extremely difficult to manage this chaos by yourself.  I then was able to get a rope around her neck and it was much easier to handle her after that.  I actually had the sense of mind to grab the video camera and document some of the mayhem. Hopefully I can get that uploaded for you…once I got a few .357 rounds in the gator, I went to sever the spinal cord and PLOP…there goes my knife into the deep dark water…sh!t…However, I eventually got the gator in the boat (leaving my $90 knife in the murky depths of Middle River) and patted myself on the back.  I cleaned up the boat then headed to the ramp where I was met by the grouper troopers who held me up there for almost an hour “just chatting”.  I got home, took some self- portraits and started skinning.  I butchered from 4:30-6:00 a.m., cleaned up the table/knives and was ready to take a shower by 7:00 a.m. That’s when I fell asleep sitting in my easy-chair till about 7:30 when Blythe got up with the baby. Then I called in late to work, fell back asleep till 9:00, woke up, went to the store, picked up salt for the hide and finished rolling that up and was to work by 10:30 a.m. Not too shabby…

As a summary:
          A 15-20 pound class river rod
          My last hook
   +     20 pound power pro line
          Penn 450 spinning reel
          110-120 pound 7’3’’ gator
          No help_____________
= 36 more pounds of meat in the freezer!!!

First tag in the tail

Friday morning I lost my hunting partner for the evening so in a panic I went through the old "rolodex" and was eventually able to convince my dad to pick up his agent tag and join me for an evening of adventure on the mighty St. Johns.  It didn't take long to get a good shot at the first gator we saw but like the shots that we've had for the last two hunts before, they were misses.  Not too long after, we moved up river to the mouth of Lake Poinsett to target an 11 footer this guy popped up about 70 yards up the coast from where we were. My first cast, using the large treble hook, got snagged in the grass that our boat was sitting in but the gator stayed up so I dropped the snagged rod, grabbed a spare fishing pole and made a perfect cast, pulling the line directly over his back and getting a solid hook up.  After about 15 minutes of him pulling us around in the lake, we were able to get close enough for dad to get the diving spear gun and shoot it with a dart.  Once that was secured, it was just a matter of a little business till he was in the boat and we were on our way home to get his "coat" off.  He yielded about 30 pounds of fresh ground, nuggets and tenderloins. 

Stolen by a thief

Well I would love to share the pictures from my trail camera but it was stolen by a pathetic thief! I hate everyone.

Late Summer Reef Trip...

Just when I thought I was finished with offshore fishing, John M. invites me out to slow troll for king fish and I couldn't help myself ... so I said I'd go.  We headed out in his boat with every intention of getting some live pogies and slow trolling or drifting over the 70 foot reefs.  We picked up enough bait to fill both tanks just south of the cocoa beach pier and headed to where we planned on trolling.  Once we made the hour or so run NE we got to our spot and saw what appeared to be really good action on the bottom so we quickly adapted and dropped some pogies to the sure death.  GOOD CALL!!!!!  We had a FULL day of CATCHING.  We all had a great day and we were able to get a good mixture of fish in the box.  I caught a personal best 10.5 pound red snapper. I also was able to bring up a really nice 8 pound flounder.  John M. caught a "just short" gag grouper, that was tough to through back, and Bill P. caught some good flounder himself, along with get the winning cast on the cobia that I spotted on the way back to port.  I think we ended the trip with-
15- Black seabass
3- Flounder
1- Trigger
1- Cobia
1- Octopus

Late Summer Update

  

Well, looks like I'm pulling myself back in the saddle again; sorry for

the long delay between posts.  I wouldn't call it writer's block, I just

didn't have much to talk about.  Not much has happened in the last five

or so weeks: just a trip out to the Banana River Aquatic Preserve (long

name for the Banana River) with Adam the King Killer and his brother

in-law, Sgt. Sam, ultimately turning into a booze fest at the Sebastian

Inlet sandbars... that was a long 12 hours on the water.  I've spent the

majority of the last few weeks resting up my back and tearing into my

Jon-boat getting it back into shipshape for the upcoming mayhem,

otherwise known as hunting season.  Pretty much just waiting on some

Ebay parts to come in to finish up.  This year "Light Smoke" (Jon-boat's

given name) will be gracing the waters of Lake Poinsett with an updated

2001 25 horsepower Mercury 2 stroke outboard, a much needed upgrade!  I, on the other hand, will not have a new and improved spine...bummer.

Here are a few pictures from the trips I've taken over the last few

weeks on the IRL and Banana River.

Jonah the Great White Hunter and I have been scouting after work on weeknights for next week's alligator season opener and in my assessment it

has been a success (although there is not quite any type of performance

measure until there is a successful hunt on one of the gators we've been

scouting).  We picked out the gator we are going to target at the

"opening bell."  It popped up behind us as we were field testing the new

bang stick and other new goodies on an old tree, 300 yards up Duda
Canal.  The last few times we've run Middle River, it's been sitting
pretty much in the same place.  In the spirit of the most widely know
alligator hunting TV series, "Swamp People", I've decided to follow
suite and name this monster of the Middle River as they do on each

season by naming the most elusive gator.  His/Her name shall be
DUDEZILLA!!!!!! This particular gator eluded us a few times last year,
leaving us with nothing more than an empty boat and bitter memories.  It
lives right at the mouth of the Duda Canal where it enters Middle River,

thus the DUDE portion of the name, ZILLA is obviously because it's a

monster. It's at least 11 feet long if not bigger and its head is about

a foot and half wide.  Last night Jonah and I were able to get within
about 20 yards of it, which equals a dead gator in my book.
As we sat and drooled over the sheer size of this monster, I couldn't
help but think about the logistics of getting an animal this size...what
if it sinks the boat when we get it in?...Gee, I sure hope it's all the
way dead in that situation...Is it going to collapse my cleaning
table?...How do we get it from the boat to the table?...Do I have enough

freezer space? (NO.) ...that's going to take A LOT of Ziplocs...
Anyways, I guess we'll cross those rickety bridges when we come to them.

I'm including some pictures of last night's scouting trip which was most
likely our last 'til season starts.  You will notice that we are wearing

safety glasses, that's because this time of year there is a major hatch

of some type of fly out on the river; when you're running at about 30

mph, they tend to sting the eyes a little. Also, make sure you chew your
gum with your mouth closed (take my word for it)...Mmmmm...crunchy. We
were also able to run and set a trail cam on a pig wallow, so that
should be entertaining to view those pictures next week. I'll post some

if I get to my camera (and it's still there [that is, it hasn't been

stolen]) next week.