Sent today, from back home (that is a big one!):
"Bobby (my son) and Robert ( my grandson) with 12' 9 3/4", 540 lb. gator they killed this morning north of the wild life refuge. They had four other men in the boat with them but Bobby actually hooked the gator and brought it to the boat. The length is close to the state record but the weight is 100 lbs light."
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The alligator population around the National Wildlife Refuge has grown very large over the last 20-30 years. When I worked there back in highschool, we used to go out at night and get visual counts and within four hours, we'd often see between 150-200 gators. The ones that would pop up around us in the day time, were typically no longer than 8-9 ft in length, but I did see some fat ones sunning on occasion.
Last summer, there was a big one hanging out at the marina across from my dad's house. Someone living on a boat at the marina reported a problem gator in the area, and the gator was caught. My dad watched it from his porch, though he didn't know what the heck was going on, until he drove to the marina to check it out. He forgot his camera
, but said that the gator was in a 8' bed of pickup truck, with the tail gait down (an additional 2ft), resting on a board which extended out another two feet, making the gator's length about 12 ft, but he said that part of its tail was missing, maybe another 2-3 feet. When I still lived there, twenty years ago, people around the campground, fairly close to the marina, were occasionally reporting sighting of a HUGE Gator. It wouldn't surprise me if the one my dad saw trapped was that big boy. They don't grow much larger than that.
"Bobby (my son) and Robert ( my grandson) with 12' 9 3/4", 540 lb. gator they killed this morning north of the wild life refuge. They had four other men in the boat with them but Bobby actually hooked the gator and brought it to the boat. The length is close to the state record but the weight is 100 lbs light."
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The alligator population around the National Wildlife Refuge has grown very large over the last 20-30 years. When I worked there back in highschool, we used to go out at night and get visual counts and within four hours, we'd often see between 150-200 gators. The ones that would pop up around us in the day time, were typically no longer than 8-9 ft in length, but I did see some fat ones sunning on occasion.
Last summer, there was a big one hanging out at the marina across from my dad's house. Someone living on a boat at the marina reported a problem gator in the area, and the gator was caught. My dad watched it from his porch, though he didn't know what the heck was going on, until he drove to the marina to check it out. He forgot his camera
, but said that the gator was in a 8' bed of pickup truck, with the tail gait down (an additional 2ft), resting on a board which extended out another two feet, making the gator's length about 12 ft, but he said that part of its tail was missing, maybe another 2-3 feet. When I still lived there, twenty years ago, people around the campground, fairly close to the marina, were occasionally reporting sighting of a HUGE Gator. It wouldn't surprise me if the one my dad saw trapped was that big boy. They don't grow much larger than that. 
