Gator Hunting

I went gator hunting with my friend the other day for the first time. Being already involved in all sorts of hunting, I was anxious to add another animal to my hunting list. I told a couple of my friends I was going and one of them, a hunter himself, made a remark that showed his disapproval towards hunting of gators. Coming from a hunter, I was quite surprised... maybe I could expect this from a "tree hugger" but not him. His reasoning was that gators are often taken for trophy more than they are for meat and also, the way that gators are hunted make it an unfair advantage. I told him to hold off on his argument... I knew nothing about gator hunting and I was not going to/nor have I to this day made an argument on a subject that I have no clue about. So with his disapproval and voiced opinion, I went gator hunting. After we finished gator hunting, killing two gators.... I was ready for my rebuttal. First, we saw some big gators but we were out for meat. Some people are not fans of gator meat but I love it... and the basic rule is: the bigger the gator, the tougher the meat. Because of this, we were looking for moderate sized gators... nothing that could be considered trophy size. So the misconception that gator hunting is all for trophy was eliminated. Next was the unfair hunting tactics.... although I see where my friend was coming from, I do not agree. We are hunting on the alligators home territory without baiting and such... we come on a loud air boat and they are fully aware of us coming. Not to mention that alligators can stay under water for a very long time, make them very hard to spot. If anything, the alligators have the upper advantage. Some may disagree with my points but after going gator hunting, this is what I came up with and this is what I believe. Hopefully I will enjoy many more gator hunts in the future because it was a lot of fun.

After seeing the New Hunting Property....

After seeing the new hunting property, I came back to Fort Myers with a bitter taste in my mouth. I have to admit that I could not help but get my hopes up. I imagined a property that is 124 acres large would have at least half open land and half hardwoods and hopefully more hardwoods if I got lucky. What I found myself in was 124 acres of open land. What my Uncle had bought for hunting looked more suitable for pasture than it was for hunting. All the properties next door were covered in hardwoods. Our property was the sore looking thumb out of the entire area, being the most open. The only thing that it had that made me hope of killing a deer was a thin, little oak hammock that ran through the middle of the property to the edge on both sides. The property is surrounded by hardwoods on all sides except that which leads to the road. The only pleasing thing that I saw was a nice little hunting cabin that we could stay in if we ever did decide to hunt on the property. I went walking around to check out for any hunting tracks. Considering that hogs are overpopulating Florida, I thought I would at least see some hog tracks.... I did not see any. I saw a couple of deer tracks but nothing that amazed me. The property seems too open for any kind of animal to feel safe to travel on during the day. Hopefully with some food plots and some well-placed feeders, we can draw some hogs and deer onto the property.... thus actually earning the label of a hunting property rather than some pasture land.

New Hunting Property

My Uncle informed me about a week ago that he has purchased some new hunting property in Land O' Lakes (about a 30 minute drive from where I live). The hunting property is 153 acres large and backs up to water-well field. I am pretty excited to come home this weekend and check the property out. Up until this point, we have hunted on a piece of land, through a hunting club that my Uncle is in. It is a nice piece of property but it wasn't our piece of property, limiting the number of people we could take hunting and also what we did on the land. Now, with this new property, I am anxious to see what the property holds. I am hoping there will be a lot of game animals.... I mean it does back up to the water-well property that has never been hunted on. Right now it is bow hunting season so I am hoping to be lucky enough to make a first time kill on the property. Right now I am making the property out to be worse than what I think, that way I am not disapointed. I have so many plans and hopes for this new property... I hope it meets my high hopes, and not my low expectations.

Burmese Pythons in Florida

A recent Issue brought up in South Florida is the issue of Burmese Pythons. Just recently, the large population of Burmese pythons in South Florida has gained much publicity. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) blames this on the irresponsible pet owners who let their pet Burmese pythons out into the wild after becoming too big for the pet owners to keep. Because of this, the FWC has issued hunters with hunting permits, to lawfully and legally hunt Burmese pythons. Some argue that they want the total population of Burmese pythons to be eliminated but I think differently. I believe that with this new invasive species populating South Florida, more people will want to hunt these snakes. I believe that with this new animal, more people will buy licenses and therefor raising more money for FWC. Yeah they are a little out of control right now, but look at it as a business opportunity.