So I thought I would post this here. It has nothing to do with wheeling or wrenching, but it was one of the most Amazing moments of my life..
I've been putting in for a Lottery Draw for a tag to harvest a Gator in SC for 6 years. I finally got drawn this year to hunt the Middle Coastal Region (Charleston, Berkley, & Dorchester counties). We headed out on Wednesday night around 1030PM. The odds were against us hunting in the Tidal Marsh due to it being high tide, we had a massive cold front come through, and the three of us on my boat had no clue what we were doing. I had been out on several scouting trips and spotted a lot of small gators (>5ft) but I didn't want to waste 5 years of waiting for a small gator. I was looking for one in the 8ft range.
We didn't see very many gator's that night. We had only been able to get close to 3 or 4 who were just not what we were looking for. We passed a spot with some tall grass leaving out of the small creek we were in and we were headed back out into the Cooper River ready to give up. I turned around and gave the grass line one more shine with the spotlight just for good measures. His eyes lit up like fire. A gator's eyes shine red at night when hit with a light. We decided to creep up on this one to see how big he was and maybe take a crack at him.
We cut the engine on the boat and floated up on him. We got within 10ft of him and down he went. We thought he had swam off, but we floated on to the bank where he was and hit the spot we last saw him with the lights. We were unsure of what we were looking at. It appeared to be a stump under the grass. We got a few more lights fired up and realized it was that gator only sitting about 1/2ft under the water in the grass mat. We had no idea his total size, but we knew he was bigger than 8ft. I grabbed the harpoon and stuck him with all the power I could muster. I almost fell out of the boat I put so much into it.
With one swipe of his tail he was off. He started peeling rope off the reel, took the float and was off. We cranked the boat back up and chased him down the river channel. I was finally able to grab the float and rope and gave a swift pull on it. He was attached and took off again peeling the line from my hand. We chased him down again and I grabbed the rope. I had a chance to put some gloves on in between and I knew he wasn’t able to get away this time. We pulled the rope up and I saw the cable leader come up from the water. I knew he wasn’t far away. I pulled a litte more and his head surfaced. It was huge. It scared me Shitless…. I had an idea he was big, but I never guessed he would be that size…. We fought him for about 30 min or so on the rope before I was able to get a shot on him. He took one .357 to the sweet spot behind the head and it was over almost as fast as it began. Now getting him in the boat was another story… I will be sore for days from trying to haul this beast up.
All in all it is an experience I will never forget… Final tally on him was more than I ever expected.
11’ 2” long and 400lbs on the nose.. Looks like I’m gonna be eating good for a while… Oh and you never know where an OffroadSC hoodie sighting might be..
I've been putting in for a Lottery Draw for a tag to harvest a Gator in SC for 6 years. I finally got drawn this year to hunt the Middle Coastal Region (Charleston, Berkley, & Dorchester counties). We headed out on Wednesday night around 1030PM. The odds were against us hunting in the Tidal Marsh due to it being high tide, we had a massive cold front come through, and the three of us on my boat had no clue what we were doing. I had been out on several scouting trips and spotted a lot of small gators (>5ft) but I didn't want to waste 5 years of waiting for a small gator. I was looking for one in the 8ft range.
We didn't see very many gator's that night. We had only been able to get close to 3 or 4 who were just not what we were looking for. We passed a spot with some tall grass leaving out of the small creek we were in and we were headed back out into the Cooper River ready to give up. I turned around and gave the grass line one more shine with the spotlight just for good measures. His eyes lit up like fire. A gator's eyes shine red at night when hit with a light. We decided to creep up on this one to see how big he was and maybe take a crack at him.
We cut the engine on the boat and floated up on him. We got within 10ft of him and down he went. We thought he had swam off, but we floated on to the bank where he was and hit the spot we last saw him with the lights. We were unsure of what we were looking at. It appeared to be a stump under the grass. We got a few more lights fired up and realized it was that gator only sitting about 1/2ft under the water in the grass mat. We had no idea his total size, but we knew he was bigger than 8ft. I grabbed the harpoon and stuck him with all the power I could muster. I almost fell out of the boat I put so much into it.
With one swipe of his tail he was off. He started peeling rope off the reel, took the float and was off. We cranked the boat back up and chased him down the river channel. I was finally able to grab the float and rope and gave a swift pull on it. He was attached and took off again peeling the line from my hand. We chased him down again and I grabbed the rope. I had a chance to put some gloves on in between and I knew he wasn’t able to get away this time. We pulled the rope up and I saw the cable leader come up from the water. I knew he wasn’t far away. I pulled a litte more and his head surfaced. It was huge. It scared me Shitless…. I had an idea he was big, but I never guessed he would be that size…. We fought him for about 30 min or so on the rope before I was able to get a shot on him. He took one .357 to the sweet spot behind the head and it was over almost as fast as it began. Now getting him in the boat was another story… I will be sore for days from trying to haul this beast up.
All in all it is an experience I will never forget… Final tally on him was more than I ever expected.
11’ 2” long and 400lbs on the nose.. Looks like I’m gonna be eating good for a while… Oh and you never know where an OffroadSC hoodie sighting might be..
