By James Lofton, President of HSCF
For years, my friend John McClain and I had talked about hunting alligators. It was an adventure that had long intrigued us, and after more than a decade of applying for the Texas alligator draw hunt—11 years for me, 10 for John—we were finally selected for the 2024 Guadalupe Delta Wildlife Management Area alligator hunt.
The morning of the first day of the hunt, we arrived at the Guadalupe Delta Wildlife Management Area, joining seven other hunters who had also been lucky enough to secure a spot in this draw hunt from more than 1700 applicants. As we gathered for the orientation, the WMA manager informed us that the area was home to a healthy population of alligators, making it one of the prime spots along the Texas Gulf Coast, and that, on average, alligators harvested in the area measured 8-9 feet long. While we knew we would be happy just to fill each of our tags, there was also an unspoken hope that maybe, just maybe, we could surpass that average.
Now John and I being good southern boys, have watched numerous episodes of Swamp People over the years and felt confident that gave us an upper hand over the big lizards. But just in case the boys in Louisiana didn’t reveal all we needed to know, I consulted friends in HSCF who had successfully hunted alligators in the past, and they provided us with essential tips on what to look for and how to set our lines. One key strategy stood out: if you want a big gator, focus on deep water and hang your baited hooks 18-24 inches above the surface—just high enough that only a large alligator can reach it.
Armed with that advice, along with the invaluable tool of satellite imagery and a hunter’s intuition, John and I began exploring the winding bayous within the WMA. The anticipation was high, and less than an hour into our search, our preparation and game plan paid off. As we eased up a narrow but deep finger of a bayou, John quietly said: “Look at that alligator on your left.”
Laying on a bed of matted-down reeds, the creature lay basking in the sun, motionless, staring at us as we slowly floated past him less than 20 feet away. It was our first alligator sighting of the trip, and our hearts raced with excitement. But being novices, and with the whole hunt still ahead of us, we asked ourselves, “Is he big enough?” and weren’t sure if we should try to take him or press on in search of more. I decided that an alligator in the boat was better than an unfilled tag, so I picked up the bowfishing setup and told John to circle back around. We estimated him to be at least 9 feet, and it would be an easy shot if he continued to hold tight.
As we came back down the bayou, just before I could see him clearly, he crawled back into the dark water and disappeared. While we somewhat regretted the lost opportunity with the bow, that moment of hesitation turned out to be a blessing from above.
Knowing there was a good-sized alligator in this area, we decided to place John’s hook and line in this section of bayou. We found a tree with a big limb extending over the water that looked perfect. Taking a length of 900 lb test line, we tied it off to the tree, then on the serious end put a 10/0 hook with a chicken quarter that had sat in the sun just the proper amount of time. We then secured a bamboo pole to the limb to extend the baited line away from the edge of the bayou and suspend the bait at the perfect height with a clothes pin.
One line set, it was time to keep exploring. I’ve always loved boating up creeks and rivers and the feeling of adventure, not knowing what you would see around the next bend, encountering animals and fish. Speaking of fish – one thing we had noticed was that this area was full of gar. Big gar! But we were there to hunt alligators, not to bowfish for gar (but maybe another time).
We had not gone far when we spotted a small alligator, probably 6-7ft. We knew he was not one we wanted to take so we just enjoyed the encounter with him. He approached the boat and eerily stared at us. I tossed him a piece of beef lung and, at first, ignored it. Finally, however, he grabbed it, swimming around and looking like a proud dog with a big bone in its mouth.
We moved on to other areas, pushing our way through several more bayous, at times laying down flat in the boat avoiding overhanging limbs, pushing the boat over submerged logs, and knowing that if we got stranded back here, it wouldn’t be good. We passed a few of the other hunters as we explored the bayous and decided we needed to head towards areas further away from the boat launch.
Looking at the map, I picked the furthest boundary of the refuge, and off we went. This bayou appeared to be one of the major watersheds coming into Mission Lake. It was by far the largest bayou so far. We explored up it as far as we could go. Checking out each fork that carved into the WMA. We spotted lots of birds and one wild hog, but no more alligators.
We went back to the main bayou, a few hundred yards from where it entered Mission Lake. I saw a tree that would be a good anchor point to mount a line and told John that I had a good feeling about this spot, and it reminded me of numerous scenes from Swamp People where they were pulling up gators. So, we proceeded to set my hook and line up, however I was going to use beef spleen as my bait.
The sun was setting as we made our way out of the swampy delta that first evening, leaving two lines hanging in what we felt were perfect locations. We were eager to see what the next morning would bring.
As the morning sun crept over the horizon, we returned to the WMA brimming with confidence. We just knew that by the end of the day, we’d be putting at least one alligator in the boat. While we were making our way toward John’s line, I reached back to check the fuel tank. Now, most of you don’t know about the many adventures John and I have shared over the decades of hunting together, but if you did, you’d understand that while we each have more than 40 years of experience boating, fishing, and hunting, there’s always some sort of “challenge” that presents itself, usually self-inflicted. This time, that challenge came in the form of a rookie mistake—realizing we hadn’t checked the fuel level the night before when we left. To our dismay, we only had a couple of gallons of fuel left in the tank. A little anxious, we calculated that we could at least make it to John’s line and back to the launch before going to town for more fuel. Just a minor snag in the day’s plans, but we weren’t going to let it spoil the morning.
We entered the bayou where John’s line was set, and as we came around a bend in the bayou, our spirits lifted when we saw that John’s bait was down and the line was tight. We just knew we had the gator we had spotted the day before. With growing excitement, I eased the boat up to the overhanging limb where the line was tied. John grabbed the rope and began pulling slowly, each tug bringing us closer to our prize.
That’s when John discovered something neither of us had truly anticipated—the raw, explosive power of an alligator, even while in water, is something you must experience to believe. As he brought the gator close to the surface, it saw the boat and reacted with a burst of speed that left us both in awe. The gator took off, thrashing with such force that John, gripping tightly to the line, was left with a serious rope burn as it shot back into the depths of the bayou.
We regrouped, John put on the gloves we had brought for just such an occasion, and after several intense sessions of tug-of-war with this giant, John finally managed to pull the beast’s head up to the surface where I was finally able to see him. My eyes grew wide with excitement at the sight. But before I could get a shot into him, the gator splashed away, once again jerking the line right out of John’s hand. I turned to John with a big Texas grin and said, “That beast is not yesterday’s alligator. This one is huge!”
With a whole new level of excitement, I pulled the boat around again and up to the line, and John—showing his characteristic Never Quit attitude— pulled and pulled, bringing the gator’s head back to the surface. This time, I was ready. With the gator in clear view, I quickly put a .410 slug just behind the head, taking the fight out of him once and for all. The smile on our faces couldn’t have been bigger as we realized we’d just harvested a true giant.
I’m sure all the other hunters in the refuge heard our yells of victory and high-fives echoing through the bayou as we celebrated this unbelievable gator. But after the excitement died down, reality set in—how in the world were we going to get this massive gator into the boat? The question hung heavily in the air as we looked down at the enormous creature, knowing we had our work cut out for us.
With much grunting, groaning, and some creative problem-solving, we finally managed to wrestle the gator into our 16-foot boat. That’s when the sheer size of this beast really hit us. He stretched across most of the boat, filling the bottom completely. It had taken about 45 minutes from when we grabbed the line until we finally had our first alligator in the boat. Exhausted, exhilarated, and grinning from ear to ear, we knew this was a moment we’d never forget.
Having to head back to town for gas was no longer going to be a wasted time. As we headed towards the boat launch with John’s alligator, we passed some of the other hunters. Everyone marveled at the size of the big reptile in the boat. When we stopped at the WMA office to check in our harvest, they gave it the official measurement. 12 ft 1 inch and an estimated weight of 500 pounds!!! It surpassed the largest taken the previous year by 7 inches and, by all accounts, was a HUGE alligator. We took lots of pictures then headed to Taylors Taxidermy in Port Lavaca to skin and process this animal.
With a full tank of fuel, we headed back to the Guadalupe Delta WMA, hoping my line would also have an alligator on it. We quickly launched the boat, throwing the supplies in it again and headed for the far side of the WMA. As we entered Mission Lake, we saw one of the other hunters several hundred yards away waving at us. Thinking he was having boat problems, we turned his direction. He looked absolutely exhausted, and we could see he was holding onto something in the water. As we got closer, we could see he, too, had an alligator. Being by himself and in a smaller boat, he had been unable to pull it in and had been dragging it as he drove the boat. John and I helped him get the 9.5 ft alligator into the boat, much to his relief. Turns out, he caught this alligator in the fork of the bayou just down from where we caught John’s. It was likely the one we saw the first day. While a nice gator, we were much happier with the one we caught.
Back on our way again, the sun now shining brightly, we approached the bayou where my line was placed. I pointed out an alligator swimming in the open water. Then another near the mouth of the bayou. Over the next 200 yards we counted 7 alligators that we estimated were 8-10 ft long. We had not seen a single alligator here the day before, but it was beginning to look like we certainly were in a good spot. As we neared the location of my line, I excitedly said, “My bait is down!”.
We slowly approached the tree and saw the line pulled up towards the bank, which was covered in reeds and brush. There, glinting in a ray of sunlight through the brush, I could see the scaly shoulder of an alligator. I pointed it out to John, saying I think this one is pretty big, too. He then was able to see the belly and said, “James – that’s another giant!” As I started to grab the line, I told John to grab the shotgun. Then it hit me. Remember I said John and I always have some “challenges” on our adventures.
I looked frantically around the boat and asked John – “did you load the shotgun?” He replied, “No, didn’t you?”. I couldn’t believe it. Here we go again. When we headed to town the first time, we loaded all the gear in the bed of the truck, but being careful with my weapons, I had put the shotgun in the back seat. Neither of us even thought about it till now. We have another giant gator and no way to dispatch it once we fought it to submission. Neither of us was eager to try to do so with our pocketknives, so off we went, back to the boat launch. At least we knew we had one on the line.
The round trip took an hour. When we made it back to my line, we saw that it was still pulled tight towards the bank, but he had gone back into the water with the line wrapped around a tree on the bank. Because of all the brush in and near the water, there was only a small opening barely big enough to get the front of the boat into. John navigated the boat into the small area; I laid down across the front of the boat and, while pushing the brush out of the way, reached down and grabbed the line.
When I pulled up – the water under the boat exploded, and the front of the boat shook violently as the alligator smacked it so hard I was certain it had dented the boat. We had a problem. Almost all the slack in the line had been taken up when he went onto the bank and back in around the tree. I had almost no slack to work him up, and due to all the brush, there was no room to pull him up on the side of the boat, leaving him trapped under the boat, which was getting him very agitated. I attempted to pull him up several more times with no luck. We backed off to figure out a better plan.
We had a bouy for the bowfishing rig. We could cut the line where it’s anchored, tie on the bouy, and hope it didn’t get tangled in the brush as it went around the tree – too risky. We could cut the tree and lift the line over it, getting the slack we need – no saw or machete. We knew from the last one that cutting the line and trying to just hold on was not a good plan with the strength of these animals. The only option I could see was cut the line where it was tied to the tree and quickly, very quickly, retie it much closer to the bank to give more slack and get him into open water where we could work him.
We positioned ourselves, reviewed the plan several times, and decided to give it a go. If he felt the slack and began to pull the line, we would be out of luck, but hopefully, we would be faster than him. I nodded at John, he cut the line, and I quickly took out the slack tying it off about 10 ft closer to the bank. The alligator had started to pull the slack but, fortunately did so slowly, giving us time to get it tied off again.
Once again – I laid down on the front of the boat and pushed through the brush to grab the line. Thankfully, we now had enough room to get away from the brush. It was my turn to play the same tug-of-war game that I watched John participate in earlier. After much give and take, I lifted the old gator’s head to the surface, where John was able to deliver a knockout punch with the 410 slug. I let out a good Texas Aggie “Whoooooop!”, gave John a high five, and sit down to take a break. We had done it. Taking not just one but two giant alligators!
Before we started reaching all over a potential man-eater to wrestle him into the boat, we wanted that mouth of massive teeth taped shut. Remember earlier when I said that small gator gave us an eerie look? It was nothing compared to looking into the eyes of a giant that could literally rip an arm off. Now, taping the mouth shut on a really big gator requires sticking your body right next to his head in order to reach around it. It’s a little unnerving, and when we saw his eyes move to stare at us, we quickly agreed another slug to the back of the head for insurance was a good idea.
Seeing as how we were now experts, having brought in one of the biggest alligators taken on the WMA, the loading of the second one went a little easier, but regardless of how many times you do it, loading a 500 lb alligator is tough. We just stared at him and at each other in disbelief. Our guess was that this one might be a bit smaller, but not by much.
We stopped at the WMA headquarters to check him in. A couple of others had been brought in, but nothing like the two John and I had taken. The WMA manager put the tape on him as we made our guesses. Amazingly – this second alligator was also exactly 12 feet 1 inch! The experience was surreal. These two gators were nearly carbon copies of each other, both perfect specimens with no missing limbs or toes, which is a rarity in alligators this size.
For two first-time gator hunters, it was an achievement that surpassed all expectations.
Reflecting on the hunt, it wasn’t just about the thrill of the harvest. The preparation, the camaraderie, and the respect for the wild are what made this adventure so memorable. The advice from experienced friends, our own instincts, and a bit of luck came together to create a day we’ll never forget.
John and I left the delta with not only the satisfaction of success but also a deep appreciation for the landscapes and creatures that make Texas such a unique place for outdoor pursuits. I’d also like to recognize the Texas Draw Hunt program and the many WMA managers and workers who care for these places where the wild things roam, and we get to enjoy great adventures.
And PS – Did you know you can get Poison Ivy while fishing for alligators from a boat? It is a rare thing, but I assure you it can and does happen. Turns out the bushes I was pushing away while grabbing the line on the bank weren’t just bushes. It’s easy to miss that kind of thing when you are focused on alligators.
