Final Saturday, Sept. 10, was a day for large alligators in South Carolina’s Santee-Cooper Lakes Complicated. Two separate teams of hunters every pulled a large, 13-foot gator out of the lakes that afternoon.
The primary outsized alligator was taken by Daniel Cunningham, of Laurens County, South Carolina, who was searching along with his buddies Michael Wilson, Rick Jones, Houston Motes, and Russell Lusti. The group put their boat in at Harry’s Fish Camp, which is situated on Lake Marion.
“It was opening day [of alligator season] and we began proper at midday,” Cunningham informed Carolina Sportsman. “We rode across the lake a bit, noticed a few gators. Sat ready on a pair however didn’t have any luck. After some time, we noticed an excellent one and really acquired a hook into him, however it got here off.”
The group of hunters then weathered a thunderstorm on the lake and acquired soaked within the course of.
“Within the midst of that storm, we noticed the large gator,” Cunningham stated. “After we acquired near him, he went down. He got here again up, we acquired somewhat nearer and he went again down once more. We sat tight for about half-hour, and he got here again up.”
This gave Cunningham a possibility to forged a big hook into the gator. A fierce battle started that dragged on for hours.
“It felt like an entire night, however it was about two hours,” stated Cunningham.
The hunters dispatched the gator and took it again to Harry’s Fish Camp for processing. The gator measured 13 toes, 4 inches in size, however it wasn’t weighed as a result of the hunters had two extra gator tags they usually wished to get again to searching. The meat and conceal will probably be processed, and a head mount of the huge reptile will probably be made.
“I used to be simply in the proper time and the proper place and had a whole lot of assist,” Cunningham stated.
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That very same day, alligator hunters Jeff Hobday and Paul Burdick headed out on Lake Moultrie, which is linked to Lake Marion by a canal. Collectively, the 2 lakes are often known as the Santee-Cooper Lakes Complicated. Identified for nice fishing (and now big gators), the lakes are a part of the Santee and Cooper River methods.
Particulars of Hobday’s and Burdick’s hunt are restricted. However in response to ABC-15 Information in Myrtle Seashore, the pair caught an enormous, 13.5-foot, 825-pound alligator.
“Now we have caught a pair 10-to-11 footers prior to now, ” Hobday informed the native information station. “More often than not they weigh round 400-pounds. This was the most important one I’ve ever caught by far.”
They took the gator to 301 Deer & Wild Hog Processing and Taxidermy to be weighed and measured.
“The tail and jaw meat (are) essentially the most usable,” Hobday stated. “The meat from the physique has a whole lot of fats so we took it to get processed and we’re having the cranium eliminated and bleached.”
