Out playing with the pet

[HandymanHerb]

Out playing with the pet



Come on boy load up

[rjminn]

What's his name? Fido?

What other pets you have? or does this one eat the rest?

[HandymanHerb]

He would eat anything near him if he wanted too, tried to pull 2 of us in the water to play with him, and even after I shot him three times the sucker came back to fight again and I was losing the tug of war as my brother was getting the gaff, I couldn't let go with one hand and draw my gun to shoot him again till my brother got back down there to help me hold him and it took three more shots from my 40 to stop him.

Then we had to load the heavy bastard, 600 pounds is not easy for 2 guys older guys to do.

[rjminn]

In the words of the movie Jaws "I think you need a bigger truck".
What's the biggest gator you guys have gotten?

[HandymanHerb]

13 ft 8 inches 800 pounds here's my brother with the head of that one

[rjminn]

wow I would like to come along and watch you guys play with these bad boys
but I would be afraid you would use me for bait.

[HandymanHerb]

No but we would work you to death, when were running them were out there from 7am till 10pm, you drive around looking for places you think they might be and putting out baits, then the next morning you start checking them and by the time you get them which can take hours to get one gator dug out of what ever they were trying to hide in or in the case of a big one after you get him in then you got to figure out how to load the heavy bastard up in the truck and how to get him out into the cooler trailer, we lucked out on the unloading this time as a bunch of farm workers stopped by to see him and out of 10 four where willing to touch him and help us.

So you get them done by about 3pm eat lunch shoot the shit a little and start putting out baits by 4pm till 10 again and after a few days of that you got stuff hurting you didn't know you had, even your butt as your sitting in a truck for long hours being beat by all the bumps and holes you didn't see, besides that it's great.

[mike]

Jeez Herb, you must have a death wish!! Crazy

[HandymanHerb]

Jeez Herb, you must have a death wish!! Crazy

I do, I want to die in bed doing a hot 20 something

[Snider4]

I feel like a wuss for hunting deer now, thanks Herb.

What type of gear is needed for the hunt?

[HandymanHerb]

I feel like a wuss for hunting deer now, thanks Herb.

What type of gear is needed for the hunt?

Don't do that , my brother is out west hunting deer now and tells me the mountains are kicking his ass, during the day you can just shoot them if you can get close enough and then use a treble hook to snag them off the bottom, at night you have to use a bang stick, but we got to where we just ride around playing a CD of baby gator sounds and they come running most times for an easy meal.

The rest we use shark hooks # 9 or bigger, all we could find the last trip was # 8's but they worked and we use cow lung the longer it sits in the hot sun in the back of the truck the better, not for your nose but the gators love the stinky stuff, then you just put out baits to the places you see gators or think they might be, come back the next morning and check to see if you have one on the line and a gaff to pull them around with and strong backs and brains to load the big ones.

But you have to be ready for anything and you have to stay safe and your to far away for anyone to help within hours, one 8 footer I shot 2 times then we cut the spinal cord and bled him and he was laying in the truck for 3 hours came back to life one more time as we grabbed him by all four legs and tried to bite us, so we dropped him and I grabbed the head so he couldn't' turn and get my brother while he cut him again.

Them guys love eating dead stinky stuff so you don't even want to get a scratch from their teeth or you have a bad infection that can kill you, besides that there nothing to it.

[Snider4]

Sounds like a good time, hunting and fishing all in one!

[HandymanHerb]

Ok and don't forget 4 wheeling too, I'm glad I got the electric shift on the 4x4, you can go in and out of 4x4 high on the fly.

[bug73]

so do you eat them? Or do you donate the meat to some charity? I had gator a couple of times and think its a bit too much grisel..maybe I had bad cuts...

[HandymanHerb]

we take them back to the skinning shop and they process and package the meat in vacuum pack one pound packages fine to a box, and you had to have some bad cuts, or they didn't run them through the tenderizer.

No he sells it all , he just stock because the restaurants have slow down buying so I can get it a little cheaper than last year, speaking of that I need to get off my butt Monday and figure out what the dry ice an shipping going to be for lakerunner, I have 5 pounds for him here and sold another 5 pounds last week and that guy called back and said it was good and wanted 5 more if not ten.

But the hides is were the money is, we just don't enough of that money , were getting 6 dollars a foot and the hides go for 45 bucks a cubic foot, but that's we haven't done it in two years , we were making more money in less time and travel working on houses, it was just to slow and a little money is better than none.