CLARION LEDGER (Jackson, Mississippi) 12 September 06 Outdoor crew finally subdues angry gator - Barnett Reservoir battle with 11-footer weighing 293 pounds lasts 3 hours (Bobby Cleveland)
They crowded around the check-in station early Sunday morning, all dressed in matching Team OWS T-shirts, all of them smiling from ear to ear.
For good reason.
The 18 team members representing Outdoors With Sambani had brought two alligators to the scales, including a monster 11-footer that weighed 293 pounds.
"Not bad, guys," said team captain Sambani Watts, a Jackson resident and host of the Outdoors With Sambani television show that airs at 5 a.m. Saturdays on WABG in Greenwood.
"We got two gators, including this big one, and we got some great footage that's going to make a heck of a TV show."
But better than that, half of the team got a great story they can tell for years to come.
It's the one about the gator that broke three big offshore fishing rods, including a pair of tuna sticks, and, then in a moment of either desperation or a display of ornery attitude, tried his best to eat the guys trying to catch him.
"I swear, I thought he was coming in that boat to eat somebody," said Michael Clark, a Jackson native now living in Yazoo City. It was Clark who made the long cast that first snagged the big gator.
"When I stuck that gator, he about pulled me out of the boat," Clark said. "Then we just waged about a three-hour standoff battle."
Watts said that after the last rod broke, he figured it was over. Then, he found some line and started pulling it and ripping up pads by the stems when he made a shocking discovery.
"Man, I pulled up a pad and all of a sudden I was looking at one of the rods that had broken," he said. "I was able to get it and put some pressure on the gator, which must have been right under us then.
"All of a sudden he decided that enough was enough and he decided to make a move."
That move was straight up, like a rocket.
"He exploded up out of the water right beside us and tried to come in the boat," Watts said. "The only thing that kept him from getting in the boat was his front legs got hung up in the rail.
"I don't know what we'd have done had he come in that boat ..."
"I do," came a voice from the crowd. "He'd have owned that boat because I think we would have let him have it."
With the gator tired and staying on the surface, the team was able to secure the reptile by rope and dispatch it with a single shot.
While that nearly three-hour war was waged downriver from the group's huge sandbar campsite, the other half of Team OWS was upriver catching another gator, an 8-foot, 4-inch, 120-pound female gator.
For those counting, that's almost 19 1/2 feet and over 400 pounds of reptile.
The first three-day season ended Sunday for the 50 teams eligible after the August drawing. Ricky Flynt, alligator project leader for the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, said all 50 hunters participated at least one night, and the six alligators killed Sunday night brought the weekend total to 25.
"While that shows a 50 percent success rate, compared to last year's 73 percent, it doesn't tell the whole story," Flynt said. "Our catch rate was actually better, when you consider the gators caught and released. We had a total of 49 released this year, which means we had 74 alligators caught in three days. Last year, it was 63 total gators in six days.
"I think the high number of releases is an indication that hunters are becoming more selective."
This year's season is only half over. Another group of 50 different permit holders can participate next weekend, Friday through Sunday.
- Each permit holder is allowed to have as many hunting assistants as desired, but each one must possess a $25 alligator hunting license (in addition to holding a valid combination hunting/fishing license). The licenses are only available from the wildlife agency, either at its main office, district headquarters or at a state lake or state park.
By The Numbers - Some stats from the first of two three-day alligator seasons at Barnett Reservoir:
- All 50 permit holders participated.
- A total of 25 alligators were killed.
- Another 49 were captured and released.
- A total of 74 alligators were successfully captured.
- The largest gator, and a new state record for sport hunting, was an 11-foot, 8-inch gator weighing 390 pounds, taken by Robin Dukes of Jackson Friday.
Outdoor crew finally subdues angry gator