Really BIG gator??

[gumpokc]

I believe your right.

and 90% of the problems could be delt with easier, if people who didnt have anything to do with it would keep their traps shut, get out of the way, and quit trying to use the situations for personal political gain.

or at least thats how i see it.

Keep the faith, hopefully it's resolved soon.

will send some prayers that way, I think we could all use a few extra

[MacD37]

Originally posted by skeet
Hey Val is this picture for real? Supposed to be a 23 footer killed by the Game Wardens in Lake Istapoka. Tell me it ain't for real!!

I don't know where Lake Istapoka is but this gator was killed by the Texas parks, and wildlife in the back yard of a residence near Houston, Texas! It was not 23' long, but was 13' long. The man you see in the picture is a TPW officer, and the machine is a Kabota backhoe! A 12, or 14" gator is not uncommon down there. Even as far north as Dallas/Fort Worth, the lakes are full of these old boys. Early this spring someon killed a 14 footer in White Rock Lake, north east of Dallas, and the game wardens are still looking for who ever did it! The fine for poaching a gator in Texas, is $5000, and/or prison time ! All the rivers, and lakes in the eastern 1/3 (about 200 miles accross, and 500 miles south to north) of Texas, and all along the Gulf coast, have gators, so it is quite common to see them here!

23 feet is big for a salt water Croc, and would be a record! The largest gator I've heard about was taken in the Achafalia Basin in lousianna, about ten years ago, and it was just under 16 feet!

The picture has been going around for some time, and has been said to have been taken everywhere, but the picture actually comes from the Texas, parks, and wildlife!

[Valigator]

Here is a 13'6

ME, Jimmy and Chaffee

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL11/...4/72019090.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL11/...4/72018979.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL11/...4/72019022.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL11/...4/71048000.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL11/...4/71047984.jpg

Take my word for it, nobody in the state of Florida, has gotten a bigger gator than us....thats why I am the "VALIGATOR"

[Valigator]

Istapoka has some huge gators in it....but it is a cluster**** when it comes to thinning out the population...this in fact the last week I have decided I am going to apply to the state to be a Nuisance hunter....if they dont screw with me...quite frankly I anint getting out of bed for less than a 9 footer....if I can make an agreement with the state with that in the contract...I'll apply, otherwise its not worth the gas....

[gumpokc]

Hey VAl, you may have answered this before, but what exactly do you do with the gators after you catch them?

[Valigator]

belts, daytimers, purses...furniture...from the big boys
one of my biggest buyers are motorcycle seat and accessory business's...........interior design companies...

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL11/...6/77554932.jpg


http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL11/...6/39383847.jpg

[gumpokc]

Niiiiice, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way but...you got waaaaay more balls than I do, chasing after gators in nothing but an airboat!

[Valigator]

Hey I got way more room to move around than a few hunters I have seen this season, plus I can cover alot more territory. I saw two young kids in a jon boat the other night...and plenty of small boats out there. Not to mention smaller airboats that would tip over with even a 9 footer in them...we have one especially designed to carry the weight and the people and the gear...and the gators.....so I feel pretty safe in this one...

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL11/.../187442509.jpg

[gumpokc]

Tell ya what, I'll donate my share of gators to you

[Nulle]

Go for it dear = I sure like my job as its hunting year round lol
The state and Feds have the strings and hoops but there is ways around that with time.

[Contenderizer]

I have sent a copy of this photo to the PETA headquarters in Washington, DC and they have confirmed that it is authentic. According to their spokesperson, the gator was last heard saying "don't taze me bro" when it met its final, gory, end. As you know, PETA never gets their facts wrong. They plan to sue somebody.

[Valigator]

That one had me fallin out of my chair...good one...

[DON WALKUP]

the smithsonian has a 25' specimen (stuffed, of course) of a nile crocidile...

peter hathaway capstick killed a 22' croc in africa. it's in one of his books. he described it as being "waist high to me when lying flat on the ground" (after he shot it with a .375 H&H)

there are regular reports of 15-20 foot sea-going crocs from "down under".

alligator mississippiensis regularly reach 8-10', 10' and larger are not as common but can be found.

there are reports of alligators being found in waterways as far north as oklahoma now.

i read a report from a florida state fish and game biologist who said "i don't believe the alligator was as endangered as thought. it made a recovery much too fast. a matter of 6-8 years. i think it was able to seclude itself well enough"

where the photograph may not be of a "real 23 footer" it still tells us these leviathans exist and do get bigger than we might imagine.

i have a book named "eyelids in the morning" about crocodiles in lake rudolph, africa. if you can get it, look at the size of some of them! it even shows some of the remains of victims of croc attacks.

[Valigator]

Which one<

Eyelids of Morning: The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men (Paperback - Aug 1990)
9 Used & new from $8.99




2.
Eyelids of Morning by A. Graham and P. Beard (Paperback - Aug 1, 1990)
20 Used & new from $10.90

Other Editions: Hardcover, Paperback




3.
Eyelids of Morning: The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men by Alistair Graham and Peter Beard (Hardcover - 1973)
2 Used & new from $39.50




4.
Eyelids of Morning The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men by Lake rudolf (Hardcover - 1973)
1 Used & new from $10.00

[Valigator]

we got one 10'6

one 10'2" this weekend....