SUN-SENTINEL (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) 11 November 07 Gator hunting gives an adrenaline rush … and some scary and wet moments (Bryon Stout)
Richard Williams was lucky his hunting partner was so sharp-eyed, and had seen the glint in the eye of the 10-foot bull gator he thought he had just finished off with a bullet to the brainpan.
"I don't think he's dead," his partner advised before Williams came to grips with the beast.
"He stuck a boat paddle down there and the gator chomped it and broke it right in two!" his partner recalled with a touch of glee.
Williams' partner, as always, was his 64-year-old wife of 25 years, Benita. And the 10-foot alligator with the paddle-crushing jaws was their second, and notably smallest catch of the season.
A few weeks before, the intrepid twosome had caught an 11 1/2-foot gator in the same area at the south end of Lake Okeechobee.
That put Benita, also Richard's business partner in their Fort Myers glass and aluminum company, in the same league with a couple of other top gator hunters in the state.
Lauren Brown, 52, is a registered nurse in a hospital cardiac monitoring unit.
Theresa Giampia, 45, is systems analyst/auditor for the U.S. Postal Service.
They all bagged really, really big reptiles this year in Florida's public waters alligator harvest, which ended Nov. 1.
The Williams' gators were both so big the couple couldn't get them into their Go-Devil-powered aluminum johnboat.
Giampia got a 12-foot, 4-inch gator on the Big O with her friend and guide, Capt. Dave Markett.
And Brown got a 12-foot, 8-inch behemoth with her friend and guide, Tampa Capt. Phil Walters.
Brown's monster likely will take second place in the "Big Gator Shootout," the first statewide alligator tournament, sponsored by Central Florida Trophy Hunt outfitters. The winners will be announced Saturday, Nov. 17.
To boot, Giampia and Brown also have taken 9- and 10-footers this season.
"I've had five big gators taken by women this year," Markett said.
"It really has shocked me how much women have taken to alligator hunting. It represents a significant part of my business.
"They sure seem to like it. They love the beauty of the night on the lake or marsh. They love the airboat. And for whatever reason, they like alligator hunting."
Brown knows why she goes.
"It's the biggest adrenaline rush for me. It's a good thing I don't have a cardiac monitor when that's going on. They'd commit me if they knew how crazy I was."
Brown admitted by phone from her home in New Smyrna Beach that she was bleary-eyed from gator hunting and working nights at the hospital. She already had filled her own tags for the season, but she planned on going out a few more times before the season ended, as an assistant to other gator hunters.
Florida doles out alligator hunting permits in an annual lottery designed to maximize the number of stalwart folk who want to participate — some 4,000 this year. Each pays $271.50 ($1,021.50 for nonresidents) for two alligator harvest tags in one of hundreds of water bodies, each of which has a specific number of permits based on the gator population. Florida has about 1 million adult alligators statewide.
Williams admits her own gator hunt was her husband's idea.
"He's always wanted a gator. He coaxed me into it."
"We're like joined at the hip, just about," she said. They have a vacation home on Lake Okeechobee in Lakeport, and they bass fish together all the time. So they decided they'd take their adventures up a notch with gator hunting.
"We're two old farts, and we did it all by ourselves," she said.
Like all gator hunters, they first used a spotlight to pick out the eyeshine of gators. They found their first on a bend of Okeechobee's Rim Canal near marker 92, where it was preoccupied with eating a large softshell turtle.
They snagged it first with a rod and reel loaded with 30-pound-test line for easy casting, sending the weighted, four-barbed hook beyond the gator and retrieving it back to the beast before setting the hook with a sharp jab. That begins what typically is a hotly disputed relationship.
Following the fleeing gators and continuing to cast as they closed the distance, the Williamses then snagged the beasts again with a heavy outfit rigged with 100-pound line. After long fights they were able to harpoon them, thereby attaching themselves to the powerful reptiles with virtually unbreakable tethers.
In the end, the gators were dispatched with multiple blasts of a bangstick — a long pole that discharges a bullet on sharp contact with the gator, preferably underwater.
"We hooked it on a Friday night, but it was actually Saturday before we got it.
"That was my first trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it," Benita said of her first big catch. She's looking forward to receiving the full-body mount, for which they're paying the taxidermist more than $3,000.
In Giampia's case, she wasn't quite sure who was hunting whom, as she and her dog, Abby, sat in Capt. Markett's airboat before their hunt. They had seen a massive gator slide off the canal bank as they were putting along, and the guide had pulled over to the bank to see if it would resurface.
"The only sounds around were the garfish on the surface of the water and Abby panting and whining. Dave spotted another decent-size gator up the canal and was anxious to investigate, leaving me and the dog on the deck of the airboat, right at the water's edge. It left me feeling like we were bait," Giampia wrote in an e-mail.
In fact, Abby may well be what enticed the gator to first surface across the canal from the airboat, and eventually on the same side of the canal, well within casting range. Markett wasn't long in returning, but since it wasn't yet nightfall, they couldn't legally begin their hunt. With Abby whining in the airboat, however, the gator also waited patiently nearby.
"At the appointed hour, the snatch hooks flew," Giampia recalled.
More than a brutal hour of rod work and mishaps later, Giampia finally got the gator to boatside. Markett then nailed it with a speargun, then a harpoon, and finally with a bangstick before he taped the gator's jaws shut.
Then the heavy lifting began, with Giampia trying to pull the incapacitated but still-growling leviathan into the airboat by the head, while Markett hauled with a gaff hooked in its lower body.
That's when the gaff hook straightened and Markett flew out of the airboat, into the canal with the gator and its buddies.
"Thankfully, the only catastrophe was the demise of another cell phone," Giampia said.
Brown's 12-8 trophy is her biggest in eight years of hunting gators. For her, that's the ultimate in outdoor sports.
"I used to do some deer and hog hunting. However, they all pale in comparison to gator hunting.
"There's something very up-close, almost a primitive aura about gator hunting. You're in the lizard's environment, and he has a chance to get away. It's not like you're firing from 100 yards.
"And believe me, those gators aren't stupid. When they get big they've got a lot of smarts," Brown said.
Walters said women often have a big edge over men when it comes to gator hunting. They listen.
"One thing about women is they don't argue with you. They take directions and coaching, and they try to do what you tell them. They're much easier to coach than the men," said the guide.
Now Brown is experienced enough to serve as backup harpoonist for hunters who may not stick a gator on their first try. Her personal spear is weighted on the head with steel pipe that aids penetration, and painted pink because she wouldn't have it any other way.
For Giampia, the thrill of the hunt is an obvious attraction. But the value of the experience goes well beyond the trophy that soon will adorn her wall.
"It's very exciting. And in a strange way it's empowering," Giampia reflected.
"I always anticipate somebody asking, what about the sport do you like? It's good for a lot of adrenaline, of course.
"But it's also instilled a lot of self-confidence. If you can manage your anxiety under those circumstances, with a big gator going crazy, you can manage it in a lot of other ways."
Words From The Wise
Odessa, Fla., Capt. Dave Markett was asked to comment on the capture of an 11-1/2-foot alligator by Benita and Richard Williams, who undertook the hunt by themselves. His comments reflect six years of guiding clients during Florida's public waters alligator harvests on Lake Okeechobee and elsewhere.
Markett said, "Mr. & Mrs. Williams accomplished an incredible feat, together and unassisted. Any alligator over eight feet is indeed a dangerous animal, and any attempt to take one within the confines of Florida law is dangerous by its very nature."
Public waters harvest rules prohibit shooting alligators with conventional firearms, due to the probability of animals being shot but lost in the process, and the possibility of bullets ricocheting dangerously off water. Hunters must first fasten themselves to an alligator with a line, and they then are limited to bangsticks or sharp implements for dispatching them at very close range.
Markett noted the Williams' feat produced a memory that will never fade, but it wasn't without risk.
"Every six inches of growth after an alligator gets to eight feet," Markett said, "doubles, in my opinion, the inherent risks. An 11-foot, 6-inch gator is undoubtedly an alpha male at the peak of his strength and size.
"It's a dominant beast that has weathered many storms, survived several fights to the death from others of his own breed, and it's one that has evaded capture from years of effort by legal and illegal hunters.
"An alligator the length the Williams harvested is indeed a trophy in every analysis. Their attempt was successful and evolved into a happy ending.
"It could have ended differently. Gators of this size are easily capable of doing severe damage to people and to the small boats they often are riding in. Several times this year, while hunting alligators on the same waters involved in this story, I have had gators rise up and bite down on my airboat. The teeth scars run down both sides. On at least three occasions, it could easily have gotten ugly if there had not been a third able hand on board."
If You Go
• What: The next chance to hunt gators will be Florida’s 2008 public waters alligator harvest. Applicants must enter a drawing in mid-June for the 2008 season, likely from Aug. 15 through Nov. 1. Additional information will become available at MyFWC.com/gators.
• Cost: $271.50 for a permit and two gator tags ($1,021.50 for nonresident hunters). An alligator trapping assistant license is $51.50, and is mandatory for non-permitted hunters who join a hunt.
• Training: The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission conducts three-hour training and orientation classes before the harvest season.
Alligator Guides:
• Capt. Dave Markett, 19096 Gunn Highway, Odessa, FL 33556, (813) 927-3474; e-mail DMarkett@aol.com
• Phil Walters, 16147 Ravendale Drive, Tampa, FL 33618; e-mail gatorstick@tampabay.rr.com
Gator hunting gives an adrenaline rush