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GATOR HUNTERS SCORE!
That was just part of the excitement of the midnight to almost daylight fight the gator hunters experienced the final night of the second state-sanctioned alligator hunt in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. They eventually landed the 12 foot-six inch reptile that weighed 480 lbs. The hunters included Charlie and Jesse Latham, twin brothers from the West Bend community near Coffeeville, and brothers Eric and Stephen Creigler. Stephen Creigler, referred to as "Preacher" by the Lathams because he used to preach at the Coffeeville Church of Christ, was one of the 100 tag winners in the lottery for the inaugural alligator season. Charlie Latham's wife, DeAnna, went along to record the hunt on a camcorder. The hunters used a borrowed 24-foot Seafox fishing boat and deep sea rod and reels with huge treble hooks to troll for gators. Hunters were not permitted to use bait. They hunted four out of the six night-two weekend season. They caught and released a seven and a half footer, two seven footers and a six footer but kept looking for one over 10 feet. What they were hunting for "On the last night of the second weekend we finally found what we thought we were looking for," Jesse Latham said. They tried and failed to snag the big gator four times but on the fifth attempt, around 12:20 a.m., they were successful. The gator stayed on the river bottom for 42 minutes. "I didn't know they could stay down that long," Latham said. "We thought we might have hooked a stump." But then the gator surfaced and they knew it was no stump. The fight was on and lasted for about two hours. When the gator surfaced near the boat, they got two more hooks in him. "We tried to fly gaff him but that was a bad idea. The gaff did not even scratch the underside and only enraged him into a roll, breaking all lines off." Latham said they were disheartened and were tying on new hooks when the gator surfaced about 30 yards away. "Eric, the only one who had his hook tied back on, threw blindly at the large wake the gator was making and much to our surprise he hooked it dead center in the back and the fight was on again. It lasted about another hour and a half." Just made him mad They managed to get the gator back to the side of the boat again and Charlie Latham got a noose around its neck. Stephen Creigler tried to shoot the gator with the authorized 44 magnum bang stick (long guns and hand guns were not permitted). But after three attempts to fire the stick by hitting the gator on the head, they realized it was not going to fire. All they had done was make the gator, which they now realized was very big, very mad. The gator submerged and started pulling the boat down the Mobile River. "When he surfaced he must have realized his fate and he headed straight for the boat. When he got within four or five feet from the bow he lunged and bit down on the fiberglass hull, causing it to list hard to the port side, which is where we were all standing except for DeAnna who was filming the adventure." That really got their attention. DeAnna threw down the camcorder and ran to the back of the boat. The four hunters somehow subdued the gator and made it let go of the side of the boat but the attack left several dime-size teeth marks in the fiberglass. Jesse Latham searched under the seat for some fresh shells and reloaded the bang stick. After two shoots to the head they thought the worse was over. Most expendable "Charlie was declared the most expendable and given the task of taping the gator's big jaws. I told him to use his left hand so if it got bitten off he'd still have his good right hand," Jesse deadpanned. The tag had to be placed in the reptile's tail and that was a dangerous job. Even though the gator was dead, the huge tail kept thrashing about and could have hurt somebody if it had hit them. "The state needs to change where the tag goes," Jesse said. Getting the nearly 500-lb. gator in the boat was a challenge. They rigged ropes and a homemade pulley system to the T-top of the boat and finally got the gator aboard and headed for the landing to weigh in, just before the 6 a.m. deadline. Just shy of state record The gator was just shy of the state record of 12 feet, 10 inches but ranked in the top three killed during the season. Jesse said the group learned a lot of things during the hunt. He said they were lucky that they had a larger boat. A smaller one could have been overturned by the gator's attack or as they tried to load it.
"I've been skydiving and gator hunting ranks right up there with that. I'd go again but next time we'll know to be better prepared. There are some big gators out there."
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