Jump to content

Lufkin Man And Friends Bag HUGE Gator

KFDM COOP

By KFDM COOP
in SETXsports Archived Threads

 Share

Recommended Posts

KFDM COOP

KFDM COOP

Posted
Posted

image_5877356.jpg

They say everything's bigger in Texas, and apparently alligators are no exception.

A Lufkin man and three of his friends have a potential state record on their hands after capturing a gargantuan gator Friday morning near Trinity.

Justin Wells of Lufkin, Tom Bass of Dallas, Jarrett Hanus of Spring and Ryan Haltom of Houston set the baits together Thursday night at the Gospel Ranch, which is about five miles outside of Trinity.

http://www.lufkindailynews.com/news...9/24/gator.html

"It was the experience of a lifetime, and I'm glad (Ryan) took me out there on it," said Wells, a Lufkin High School graduate and SFA forestry student. "I don't think we'll ever catch one bigger than that."

"We'd gotten word back in the spring time that there was a big gator out there," said Haltom, a wildlife biologist and land management consultant, "so me and Tommy had gone out there several times and scouted and seen quite a bit of gator activity and videotapes of gators."

Ranch manager Larry Denson had spotted the big gator, prompting them to get tags for the season, and Thursday night was just "kind of a last-minute deal before the season was over," Haltom said.

Using the hook-and-line method, the group anchored a rope to a tree, left enough rope so the gator could run with it, and hung a 14-ought treble hook about a foot above the water with their own "secret recipe of chicken and some other stuff."

"We can't let too many secrets out of the bag," Haltom said.

When they showed up Friday morning, they had a line in the water, but when they started pulling on it, it was tangled. Not knowing whether the gator was dead or alive, the four slowly made their way through the 6- to 7-foot-deep water to untangle the gator and tie some ropes around him to drag him out. But they quickly discovered it wasn't going to be that easy.

"He drowned himself," Wells said. "We believe he just dove underneath the water and got tangled up in a stump, and gators have to come up for air every 15 minutes, so we were pretty sure he was dead, but we still weren't sure."

"Once we figured out he was dead and he wasn't going to get us," Haltom said, "we started diving down and feeling on him and we realized he was big. We could stand on top of him and we were head and shoulders above the water. That's when we knew he had to be a big guy.

"The scales kind of change. On his belly there's big, slick scales, or tiles, and as you get toward their mouth it gets into some softer leather, and we got to feeling around and thought, 'OK, this is his mouth.' But when we got to tying him up, we realized it wasn't his mouth — it was his leg."

They broke a 400-pound test rope before realizing that "a truck and a rope wouldn't do it," eventually enlisting the help of a tractor and some chains to finally get the gator out of the water. Next it was off to ranch headquarters to clean him up, hang him for a measurement by Texas Parks and Wildlife, then place him in the bed of a truck filled with ice for the trip to the taxidermist for a full life-size mount.

"You couldn't tell what we had in the bed of the truck because we had a ton of ice on him," Haltom said. "We went and cleaned Brookshire Brothers out. We had 400 pounds of ice on him."

"I get excited right now just thinking about it," Haltom said. "When I reached down there and grabbed that claw and we got to looking at each other, we were jumping around, high-fiving, and we were actually saying the words, 'state record.'"

The gator wound up weighing in at 13 feet, 101/2 inches long and 880 pounds. And while they don't know yet whether their gator is an official state record — "Until I see it on a piece of paper from Parks and Wildlife, I'm just going to say it's a potential," Haltom said — the guys had some heavy celebrating to take care of over the weekend.

"We immediately drove to Houston and went to Beeville to go dove hunting and celebrate," Haltom said. "And we were tired puppies, let me tell you.

"It's going to be in the record books. We just don't know if it's going to be the state (hook-and-line) record."

"Not knowing what we were getting into when we were walking into the water, it was an adrenaline rush," Wells said, "and when we finally figured out how big it was, you just can't even describe the feeling."

Although Haltom said the four set the baits together and worked to get the gator out, Bass will be written down as the hunter. Once the mount is done, the guys intend to donate it to a museum or find some place to display it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
643

643

Posted
Posted

Thats for sure a big one BUT wont be a record, Tillman Hophair(sp)? caught a 13'6" gator in the Texaco ditches in the early 90s? The reason I know this is I did a lifesize mount on the gator and to top the mount off was a full bodied Whitetail in the mouth of the gator. I have no idea on the weight but was 13' 6" without a dought. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
VP

VP

Posted
Posted

OMG.....I wouldn't want to be in an aluminum boat in the water w/that one swimming

up next to boat. Talk about adrenaline rush!!!!  Congrats to those guys.....they are

certainly alot braver than most of us.  Could you imagine even swimming in the same

area?!?!  AGAIN, WOW!!!! :o :o :o

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Member Statistics

    45,977
    Total Members
    1,837
    Most Online
    cfbswami
    Newest Member
    cfbswami
    Joined


  • Posts

    • Reagan
      America lost. The Kangaroo Court won.

      By Reagan · Posted

      BOOM!!
    • Mr. Buddy Garrity
      Road to Omaha

      By Mr. Buddy Garrity · Posted

      We'll see. I don't trust us. 
    • PhatMack19
      Road to Omaha

      By PhatMack19 · Posted

      Starting pitching has been shaky the last few weeks due to some injuries outside of Hagen Smith.  He goes tomorrow, so y’all should be fine 
    • tvc184
      West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin leaves Democratic Party, registers as independent

      By tvc184 · Posted

      Manchin may get it but any mention of the radical left that wanted to get rid of the filibuster and end almost 220 years of history because the Democrats are mad?  The House and Senate are obviously different legislative bodies with entirely different election processes and rules for a reason. The House can vote on laws with a simple majority vote. The Senate put rules in place that it would make it much tougher to pass laws. Laws should be difficult to pass. The Senate is often the holdup of the right and left. It takes 60 votes to break the filibuster so any law will almost certainly require agreement at least in part, from opposing sides of an issue. Because they can’t get laws passed, the radical left is like a baby having a tantrum and wants to change over 200 years of history and make it potentially ridiculously easy to pass laws. I have seen current poll maps and it is possible for the Republicans to sweep into complete power in November but by the tiniest margin. That would possibly mean that a single vote margin in both houses could enact what you might call the radical right laws. There would be nothing that the Democrats could do to stop any legislation whatsoever if the left (they are all radical, minus Manchin) got their filibuster rule changed.  That is where the current filibuster comes into play as any new law would require several Democrats to agree with the majority Republicans and vice versa.  Do you want the potential for your radical right to have free rein as the radical left wants by killing the filibuster or is the radical left just as (if not more) dangerous? Let’s see if we have a history in this area? Oh yeah, the Democrats changed the rules in the Senate to allow federal judges to not have to overcome the filibuster. Obama was not getting his federal judge nominations passed and being angry, they changed the rules instead of nominating more moderate justices. They were warned that it would come back to bite them. They didn’t care and chose the nuclear option to change the rules. Oops! Any guess how Trump got all of his Supreme Court nominees passed against strong Democrat opposition? The Democrats got rid of the filibuster for federal judges after another tantrum   So when you are so worried about the radical right, are you equally concerned in what the radical left is always doing by changing rules and history which were put into place just for situations like we are in? So while Manchin gets it, what about his other 50 colleagues (49 + Harris)?  What concerns you more, Abbott and Paxton or the Democrats who want to make it to where if the Republicans do take over, they can go wild… at least in your mind? 
    • Separation Scientist
      Bridgeland vs Tomball

      By Separation Scientist · Posted

      MODS please remove that ISD twitter link! I had no idea it would copy the whole posting. I only highlighted the portion about the venue change. Sorry about that!

  • Topics

×
×
  • Create New...