WJXX (Jacksonville, Florida) 13 October 04 Palatka Gator Hunters Land A Big One (Kyle Meenan)
Photo: Hunters Pose with 13 foot gator
Palatka, Florida: For the past four years, Sparky Rinnert and his friends have been going through the process of obtaining tags for hunting gators.
Now his quest for the 'big one' is over.
On October 2, they bagged a monster alligator on Rice Creek just north of Palatka. The unofficial measurement: 13-feet 6-inches long, weighing 760-pounds.
The measurement is unofficial because it wasn't confirmed by a biologist from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The longest gator on record was just over 14-feet in length, and the heaviest weighed 1,043-pounds.
"But when you see a big, like a twelve to thirteen foot (gator), they have big teeth, and I always wanted a big toothed gator," said Rinnert.
Rinnert's long-time friend and hunting companion, Bruce Ditto, was aboard his 16-foot all-aluminum boat when they first hooked the gator with a rod and reel with 60-pound test wire.
Over the next 90-minutes the men used their years of experience, skill, and luck to harpoon the big gator two times, then subdue it with three shots from a 'bang-stick,' a device that fires a .44-magnum bullet into the gators skull.
"You really can't describe it. It's something you gotta kind of live," said Ditto. "I mean, it's a rush. Your heart gets to beatin'. When you know you've got a big animal like that, yeah, your heart gets to beatin'. You don't really have time to get scared, you've got to treat it with respect."
The men were well aware of the potential for injury when dealing with such a large animal.
"This is a potentially dangerous gator. We got it less than 200 yards from a dock that people like to fish," said Ditto.
Their boat, an appropriately named, 'Psycho 16 footer' bears the scars of battle with the titanic reptile. There are four large scrape on the underside of the hull, and a quarter-inch diameter puncture mark in the heavy aluminum deck.
"That's a war wound." said Rinnert. "We need to leave that."
Ditto explained how the big gator left his mark.
"Before we was actually able to get him in position to bank stick him, he swung his head and grabbed the boat right here like this, (motioning both arms clamping together) and there's a hole there and rubber's all tore up and it's loose."
And between the four men and the massive beast the all-aluminum hull was balancing nearly half a ton when it was brought aboard.
"We figured we had 1750 pounds on that side of the boat and four of us hoisted the gator in the boat over that bow," said Ditto. "And he pretty much took up the whole boat, lengthwise."
Their prize is at the taxidermist --getting stuffed.
"We kept all the meat ourselves, we skinned the gator ourselves, and he's going to have a full body-mount done. He's a healthy, perfect looking gator, and he deserves to be full body mounted," said Ditto, who has his own 12-foot prize gator taken in 2002 stretched across his living room floor.
Sparky Rinnert's wife isn't so keen about sharing her humble abode with thirteen-plus feet of reptile.
Thank goodness for Sparky's machine shop
"And we've got some big I-beams and we're going to hang it from an I-beam and hang it down at the shop so when people walk in the door they're going to see this big gator," said Rinnert, the man who wanted a prize gator with big teeth.
"I'm done. I'm happy. Never have to go gator hunting anymore!"
{Photos and video link at URL}
Palatka Gator Hunters Land A Big One
