SC last season gator hunting. We had only seen a few small 9ft gators in this area and it was the first night and just getting dark. I was told in the Southern Zone the biggest they had killed was under 10 and closer to 9 ft. We saw a few 8-9 footers and we circled this cove but could see 4 gators so we cruised in. They all had their noses shoved into the alligator grass on the banks making judging them difficult. To make matters worse another gator we hadn't been able to judge jumped off an embankment at about eye level and me being in the front seat of a 18' what I would call jon boat looking rig he head butted the boat and just about knocked me into the water. Suffice to say when we saw these 4 gators my nerves where a little jumpy.
We spot light the first three and they are a no. We see the last one and he only has one eye. We cruise in to check him out and the guide is lined up behind me with the spotlight. I have a 250lb.s crossbow with a harpoon tip on it. " Not yet" he says " still can't tell". Well we kill the motor but are being pushed a little to fast and in only seconds we cruise right over him. The guide looks directly down and yells "Holy &^%" or something to that affect to which I let loose with the harpoon tip. It shoots straight out into the alligator grass and the guide says" did you see that monster, he must have been going 100 MPH"
Well slight setback he wasn't it was the arrow/harpoon tip bouncing off his noggin. We circled back two more times but he was wise to us and would just submerge. The last time we setup 10 ft from him and waited in the dark without saying a word for him to resurface. Then out of nowhere he charges from the grass and hits the boat and scares the life out of me.
We figure he is pretty spooked so we bug out and check some more. I wound up coming across the one on the bank again and this time he is pointed away. I got him as he was charging the water/boat and all I saw where jaws and teeth at 5 ft in a very exciting fight I wouldn't have changed for anything. He was just shy of 11 ft and the biggest for the guide in Southern Zone. He has taken 13+ ft gators out of other zones and traps for the state year round. I still wonder about the one eyed gator and how big he would have been.
