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Brotherhood of Airboaters

BoHawg

BoHawg

Well-known member
Well, earlier this year during the event that will probably be known as "The Gator License Debacle of 2006" my 25 year old nephew hit the Enter button a little prematurely out of sheer frustration and desperation and drew a lake neither one of us could even find on a map. My nephew, I guess since I'm BoHawg I'll call him "Shoat", was just happy that he made it through the process with a license and two tags. I was a little less enthusiastic and frustrated about how we were going to pull off a hunt in who-knows-where. This is where the airboat brotherhood comes in.

I posted here and asked anyone if they knew the lake and if they could offer any advice. One member PMd me and told me that he not only knew the lake, he'd be willing to take "Shoat the Keyboard Happy Gator Hunter" and me out on his boat. Well, last night we drove down to to that lake, Lake Hicpochee, and filled two tags.

The member that welcomed me into his home, took me out on his boat and spent hours chasing gators with us, is Rich Andrews. Rich, you're a class act buddy, my hat's off to you and I'm glad I met you.

This is what this site is all about, building the airboat brotherhood, not arguing about insignificant events that could cause division. I challenge everyone on this site, including myself, to treat other airboaters the way Rich treated us.

Thanks again man, I owe you one-or maybe ten! :D
 
Nice work Rich!

as usual.

Same goes for you BoHawg.
Getting that young person out gator hunting.

Can't go wrong there.

Good deal!
 
I had the pleasure of meeting Rich at the recent KRVSA Reunion and was equally impressed. Just one more example of the quality of folks involved in this passion.
 
That is what it's all about. Yes, Rich Andrews is a great guy. I am proud to be a site supporter here and I too am glad you guys had a great time.

Keep 'em coming.

dawn
 
We'll here's my take on the night....
Shoat is not a liitle ole feller at all, he's a big ole boy and can really throw a pole spear..more on that later.

So, I did a little scouting with a couple of my other buddies to see what was in the area we were hunting. After getting stuck on a major floating island at 9Am!!..I saw a couple of bull gators(and I don't mean football fans..) that I thought we could get a shot at...we'll we go out a little early since Bohawg has a crossbow and I saw a pretty good one near the ramp. We get to the ramp, and lo and behold, that big gator is going across the canal swimming right in front of a 50ft tug boat doing 20kts....needless to say he was spooked for the night. So we go set up on another bigun on the far side of the lake. He shows us his body as he swam across the canal about 100 yds away from where I saw him earlier in the day.NO shot at him
Now I have to go back to the pole spear thing where I told Shoat to throw it like he meant it. So first throw of the night and he looked like a shoat....we proceeded to critique his girly throw(no offense to you Mrs Wizard)..and boy did he redeem himself. Next Gator we threw on, shoat hits him in the lower part of the head, and buries the muzzy DEEP in the head. OK so now we have him, get out the 44 banger and Bohawg gives him a shot....I told these boys about the diff between that 44 and a 357 bangstick. The bangshot was not on that sweet spot, but pretty close, and he looked dead, but all along I thoght he had a bad buzz from that 44, so we taped him shut, grabbed a beer and next thing you know all HELL brakes loose on the front of the boat. Cooler flying(luckily it stayed on the boat or we would have had to go home) people flying, and a woken up gator on the bow of the boat......a second shot and spine cut ended that fiasco....on to the second gator.
We rode our permitted area atleast 5 times over looking for a good one, we went back to where that big SOB was hanging out, and I told Shoat(who has never thrown a pole spear before tonight), if you see where he went down, let him have it.....well, to say let him have it was an understement....he throws the harpoon,(I think another headshot because we are in thick mud..) and it comes back bent like a U shaped pole!

So we retire the first harpoon and go to the back up. After another couple hrs of looking at 7 footers and blind throwing a few others that went down on us, we decide let's fill the tag on the next decent one we see.........so we ride on checking every set of eyes I can find and shoat launches on a 7 footer and about knocks the gator out....HEADSHOT AGAIN, right between the eyes(and one eye popped out) with the muzzy tip. I have not seen a pole spear penetrate a true headshot 2 for 2 any other time...So we give him the 44 bang and call it a night.

I love chasing those gators around at night, probally some of the hardest runnin you can put on a boat( Other than when billybob(or BREWSTER) see's horns) in the marsh. We had a blast and I am glad you guys came down. Talk about hardcore, drive 3 hours, hunt another 6, drive back 3 hrs...glad my wife woke me up @ 7 this morning after 3 hrs of rest!! No respect for a guy who hunted till late, and tried to fall asleeep after the adrenaline rush of gator hunting. Next yr, draw the lake O and well do it again.
 
GOOD JOB RICH you make us proud, hospitality only like an airboater can give it. I had some put on me this weekend as well.
 
Spine cut gets em every time.

I used to always do them that way because we didn't want to make noise
 
Nice job Rich, Sounds like Bo hawg and shoat had a good hunt after all. That 3 hr drive back had to be rough. Were you able to get some good strong coffee?

Dave
 
BoHawg and Rich,

Good stuff, sounded like a good time for sure.

Glad to hear someone deserving got the tag for sure!

Ya'll oughta' send this one to Terry at ABW magazine :wink:
I think she'd like it!

Basketcase
 
Hey fellers, I'm out of pocket in Jacksonville and haven't had internet access.

Yep that drive home was a rough one, but the adrenaline carried us about to Yeehaw Junction. Not much sleep Sunday and had to be up at 0400 Monday for the drive to Jax. I'm still tired. Didn't get the bull, but we still had a blast.

Yeah, ole Shoat is a big un and I'm proud of him.
 
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