This weekend's alligator hunt

[cj45lc]

Those are some great pics, thanks for sharing them

[jwmaier1215]

Sweet pictures! Not much of a hunter, but love being out on the rivers up here in Indiana catfishin'. I think it'd be awesome to ride along for a day out in the Bayou doing some gator hunting. BTW, gator tastes soooo yummy!

[Longshot270]

Originally Posted by jwmaier1215

Sweet pictures! Not much of a hunter, but love being out on the rivers up here in Indiana catfishin'. I think it'd be awesome to ride along for a day out in the Bayou doing some gator hunting. BTW, gator tastes soooo yummy!

I've never had it but that's what I've heard.

[jwmaier1215]

Originally Posted by Longshot270

I've never had it but that's what I've heard.

I know people apply the analogy to everything, but it tastes like chicken. It's a chewy meat, kind of tough. But yeah, tastes like a rubbery chicken. However, I enjoyed it. I had some when I was down in Florida this past summer (Clearwater). It's kind of expensive though and I've thought about ordering some gator meat online, but like I said it's kind of expensive.

[Longshot270]

Meat usually gets its flavor from the fats it contains, even then the majority of that is coming from your sense of smell. If you plug your nose, even the most delicious steak tastes pretty plain. Most things taste like chicken just because the fats in white meat are usually pretty similar. It does get over applied but there is still some truth behind it.

I didn't really want to catch a gator for food anyway. All of the fish in the lake have warning signs that you can't eat them because of toxin levels. The toxins they list, like mercury, build up in the fatty tissues of the fish. Turtles eat dead fish and alligators eat turtles. The toxins are only going to get more concentrated the further up you go in the food chain but somehow the gators are magically safe to eat.

[Jackpine]

Don't gators (and crocs) eat pretty much anything they can get in their mouth that was once alive and moving about? My understanding is they aren't too "picky" and will happily eat carrion.

Funny, isn't it how "bottom feeders" like lobster and crab taste so delicious. I guess gators might fall into that category too.

- Jack

[jwmaier1215]

About like a catfish. I have never used live bait, only stink bait. I mean what on earth would find stink bait "tasty?" that stuff smells to high heavan.

From my understanding (I love the show "Swamp People" on the History channel, they bait limb lines with rotten chicken, rotten carp, rotten anything to catch gators. Gators are kind of amazing/weird. IIRC turning a gator on it's back like paralyzes it for a few minutes and like 3 wraps of electrical tape and keep it's mouth shut. I heard somewhere that a 5-year old can keep a gators mouth clamped shut, but not even the worlds strongest man can open the gators jaws. They have so much strength and power too. I don't see how they don't pull more fishermen overboard when they have ahold of the other end of the line. It's like playing tug-of-war with a 800 pound monster.