Johns County alligator results in catch of a lifetime
When Keith Kelley finally pulled the massive body of an alligator he caught Sunday night into his boat, all he could say was, That is a beast.
He could have added, We re going to need a bigger boat, since the alligator was just a few feet shorter than his 17 foot fishing boat. patagonia guide vestCaught in the St. Johns River just outside of Riverdale, the beast was indeed an impressipatagonia backpack discountve specimen at 765 pounds and 13 and a half feet long.
They started with a two inch by half inch diameter wooden peg tied to a piece of fishing line. The peg is then inserted into a cow lung which is attached to an off shore fishing reel. It is prohibited to use a hook and bait in alligator hunting, but the peg is legal, Kelley said.
This way if the gator breaks the line, the peg won t hurt him. But once he takes the bait, the cow lung goes into his stomach but is still attached to the line so it lets us monitor where he is, Kelley said. Very few people do it this way. It s a finesse game that s taken me literally hundreds of hours to perfect.
The boat hovered about 300 feet away from the alligator while Kelley spied on him through binoculars. When the gator took the bait, Kelley powered up the engine and got within 20 yards. He tried to snag him with a second rod and a snag hook with a 200 pound test line, but the alligator broke that in half.
Kelley then used a 1,000 pound line with a snag hook and this one took hold. Then men then put on leathpatagonia backpack discount2er gloves and engaged in a four and a half hour battle to brpatagonia better sweater womens pineappleing the gator in by hand.
It was epic, Kelley said. It was a crazy and old fashioned way, but that s just how we wanted to do it.
Once the gator was close to the boat, a bangstick was used to finish the fight. A bangstick is a triggerless weapon with a chamber that holds a live round of ammunition. It goes off when forcibly pressed against patagonia mens full zip better sweater jacketthe target.
After the gator was dead, it stilpatagonia backpack discount1l took another hour just to drag the body into the boat.
Kelley said the gator was so big he was flopped all over the placpatagonia better clog curve womens size 8 black leather mules shoese, barely leaving room for the men. With the boat riding dangerously low in the water, the men began their long, slow, triumphant ride home.
Even before getting him weighed, the patagonia outlet store 5 belowguys knew without a doubt, this one was huge. They took him to their favorite processor and taxidermist in Cocoa Beach. Right after they got the 765 pound reading, the heavyweight snapped the cable on the scale. The alligator was estimated to be 50 years old.
The alligator was the second Kelley had caught on his tags this year. The apatagonia discount code jouleslligator season runs for two weeks in August and then again from Oct. 1 through the end of November.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission web site, the Florida state record for alligator weight is 1,043 pounds, recorded in 1989. Kelley s catch appears unofficially to fit into the top 10 records for weight since 1983.
When Kelley isn t hunting alligators he s the owner of First Choice Florida Realty in St. Augustine Beach. He has lived in St. Augupatagonia backpack discount0stine for 23 years. you mean like a 17 foot fishing boat and a bang stick? Impressive!
Although what would REALLY impress me would be if you wrestled the gator with your bare hands and took him out with nothing more than a choke hold. Then you could thump on your chepatagonia backpack discount3st afterwards while letting out your loudest Tpatagonia guide jacket fabricarzan call of the wild yell to let everyone else know that you are THE BIG MAN OF THE JUNGLE!
Until then I guess you ll simply need to boast aboutpatagonia guide jacket vest your alleged gator hunting tales here in cyber space for all to marvel at.
One can safely assume that since you are ranting against hunting it is not something you care to do. To me hunting takes gumption and means.
So I will restate my question; So do all of you that are objecting, object to hunting in general, or is there something you don t like about hunting gators for food. You do know they are raised for the hides and food on farms. Those that are killed in thepatagonia jobs opportunities online wild are also eaten, and the hides sold. That is unless the hunter has it mounted.
