Daddy Dave
Well-known member
Well, the mud, rocks and dust settled after opening night 2007 and we survived the experience and prevailed.
Two rookie clients...real nice guys though. OkeeWest...rocks and more rocks...no emergent grass...15 kt east wind....few gators over 7' until the winds layed off about 1:00 am...set of eyes out in open water.....first time hunter saw the gator, made a perfect shot into the front armpit...RatWorks dart went in and rotated...tag line created a blister or two on the hunter...a tidal wave appears as he tries to flee, foot wide head finally comes up beside the boat and the Cajun made 44 mag powerhead fired on first contact...all we could do to get it into the DBack....knew it was big & heavy.
Twenty minutes later, another set of open water eyes....another rookie on the dart line...a whopper comes up beside the boat...6 feet away...and...a miss...and another miss....11 shots later and the dart finally hits home...by then the gator had bitten both rails on my boat, tried to climb up on the deck...this one was mad, mad, mad.
And, he was big, big, big. An hour and two 44 mags between the eyes later, his legs finally stiffen and relax. it takes three of us another hour to get him over the side and into the boat....and now what?? Five miles of open water and an over loaded DBack.
Fagan measured 'em. The first was 11' even....the second was 12' even and weighed a whole lot more than #1.
My best first night ever on public waters...
Two rookie clients...real nice guys though. OkeeWest...rocks and more rocks...no emergent grass...15 kt east wind....few gators over 7' until the winds layed off about 1:00 am...set of eyes out in open water.....first time hunter saw the gator, made a perfect shot into the front armpit...RatWorks dart went in and rotated...tag line created a blister or two on the hunter...a tidal wave appears as he tries to flee, foot wide head finally comes up beside the boat and the Cajun made 44 mag powerhead fired on first contact...all we could do to get it into the DBack....knew it was big & heavy.
Twenty minutes later, another set of open water eyes....another rookie on the dart line...a whopper comes up beside the boat...6 feet away...and...a miss...and another miss....11 shots later and the dart finally hits home...by then the gator had bitten both rails on my boat, tried to climb up on the deck...this one was mad, mad, mad.
And, he was big, big, big. An hour and two 44 mags between the eyes later, his legs finally stiffen and relax. it takes three of us another hour to get him over the side and into the boat....and now what?? Five miles of open water and an over loaded DBack.
Fagan measured 'em. The first was 11' even....the second was 12' even and weighed a whole lot more than #1.
My best first night ever on public waters...
