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Zone 2 Alligator!!! Baby girl and I filled that tag!

24on48hunting

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I made the drive home from Bainbridge, dropped my Father and my Daughter off at my house and then drove from West Ga out to Loganville to get the hide/head to Fortner’s Taxidermy. I just now got back home (@ 2:00 a.m.) and filled my chest freezer with 120# (no freaking joke, 120#!) of alligator meat that’s been on ice in the coolers.
I’m wore slap out, it’s been a long couple of days for me.

We were truly blessed with a great hunt, despite the unfavorable weather. I’m going to start this off by giving a HUGE thanks to my good friend Chris, aka Redneck1, who owns and runs Get R Done Guide Service. If you book with him, you hunt with him. His level of experience and knowledge of alligators and their behavior is without rival. You won’t find a better person than him and he’ll do everything that he can legally do to make your trip fun, safe and successful.
We arrived in Bainbridge on Friday evening, met up with Chris and ate dinner at a Restaurant right by the lake. We pushed off around 7:30, heading up the lake to one of his more productive spots. The gators were there, but they were acting strange, just sitting idle near heavy cover. Turned out, they new something was up. Around midnight, a big storm blew up from the Gulf and ended our night early. Mya was feeling dejected, as she’s been heavily anticipating this trip for the last several years. This trip was all about her and I wanted it to be a positive experience for her. So far, things weren’t going our way. On the ride back to the boat ramp, I told her not to give up on Chris because he won’t give up on her. Needless to say, we kept a close eye on the radar and ended up staying indoors for the remainder of the night due to storms and heavy rain.

After sleeping in shifts and watching the radar for a break, we got what we wanted, a 4 hour break in the weather.
Yet again, we pushed off and went to another area known for heavy activity in the early morning hours. As soon as we got there, we spotted a large alligator out in the middle of a big Hydrilla mat, but elected to watch him in hopes that he moved out into open water. We had several others within sight that were 10’ or better and one or two around 8’ long. Things were shaping up in a hurry!
As we watched the gators and discussed which one to move on, we had a really nice looking, 10 footer pop up in open water, nearly in range for a cast. We moved its way and got a hook in it. The fight was short lived, as the hook pulled out and the gator disappeared. Mya was crushed, I felt awful for it coming unhooked, but we still had time and we had several gators still hanging around. We started to go after another that was a couple hundred yards away, but Chris was really wanting to go after that big Bull in the hydrilla. We decided to try him and eased up to him. The cast was a bit wide to the left and he went under, but he popped up in darn near the same place a mere 10 minutes later. The next cast was on the money and the fight was on! It took about 30 minutes of playing tug of war with that gator before we could get close enough to drop a second, bigger line down there to get another hook with much heavier (400#) braided line in him. Once hooked up on the bigger rod/reel, we put some pressure on him and got him to come up. Once surfaced, we got an arrow attached to a buoy in him and a second big hook in him for an additional line. He then went into a death-roll and started winding himself up the lines. He was at the surface in just a few seconds (we were only in 6 foot deep water) and we pulled him near the boat to get ready to put an end to the fight. After putting a bullet in the sweet spot behind his noggin, we tied him to the side of the boat and began the trip back to the marina. By this time, the sky had gotten really dark and it was thundering to the South of us. We left just in time but we couldn’t go fast enough to keep ahead of the fast approaching storm. We stopped and asked a couple of really nice fellas to help us load the gator in the boat. Once loaded, we hauled butt back in and got him to the processor.
The final measurements were 11’, 3.5”, weight was 450#. The thickest part of the gator’s mid-section was right at or just over 50 inches around. Chris said it was the heaviest 11 footer that he’s boated by far. My baby girl beat my 2014 gator by a fairly wide margin. I’m so blessed to be able to do this and share it with my family.
If any of you need help filling your Zone 2 tag, look Chris up and give him a shout.
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