GATOR WITH A BOW

[BOBSTER]

This hunt started while my wife, hot4huntin (h4h) and I were bowfishin for carp, and mullet. During that time we encountered a few gators along the way. We bagged a few fish, with some mullets exceeding (?) lbs., but continued to have the gators hang out with us. There was one gator that really caught our attention. We knew that he was well over 11 feet. With gator season starting soon, I asked the ranch manager about a permit and one was given to me. The only problem was I had others that were hunting gators also, but they were setting lines, and mine was going to be all archery. After I was given a permit, we did not see the gator for a couple of weeks. Hot4huntin and I set out on opening evening of the gator season to try and located the big gator. We searched the area all over and were not able to find him. The other hunters had taken several gators now with hook and line and were starting to move back towards our area. I was starting to get a little nervous that they would take him with a line, and we would end up with nothing. I told h4h that I was going to drive to another location to see if he might have moved due to the extra traffic in the area. As I was traveling down the bayou, I found what I thought was him farther down. I went back and picked up h4h and headed back to the gator. When we arrived he went down in the same area that I had seen him in. Not only did we want to take him with archery, we also wanted to video that hunt. H4h has never used the video camera, and this was a learning experience for her and a funny experience for me. She did a great job and I let her know that she would put TK and Mike out of business with her videos. None the less, we did not get the gator that day due to legal hunting hours was over. The rain set in for the next couple of days and h4h talked me into going out and checking anyway. Also the other hunters were calling and telling me that were going to start setting lines in my area. I had to go, and could not find any gators and called h4h that I was heading back home and it was not worth her to come out. Once I got her on the phone, I saw a gator swimming down the bayou and let her know the hunt was on. The gator went down and did not come up for awhile. H4h showed up and then other hunters started showing up which was keeping the gator down also. Finally after about 45 minutes, the gator came up for a breath of air and h4h spotted it. It did not take long for it to go back down and I started worrying about sunset again. I really did not know how big this gator was, but knew that if I did not get it that evening, the other hunters were going to set lines for it. It surfaced and I stuck an arrow into it and the fun began. We did not have the camera rolling at the time of the shot, but did get it going for the rest of the excitement. H4h was a real trooper in helping me get another arrow into the gator and getting it out of the bayou. We also had a friend that showed up and videoed the rest of the hunt and his commentary along with h4h really made a great video, Look out TK and Mike, you have competition. After it was all over with the gator was only 8