Off Duty, Sports, Hunting, Fishing - Navy Times

Snagging gators

It is part archery, part fishing and part old-time whaling. It’s dirty, dark and dangerous. It’s up close and kick-ass adrenaline pumping. It’s alligator hunting without power tools, and one of the best in the business at the game has been Marine Lt. Col. Mark Mackey.

Mackey, a Wisconsin native and avid hunter and fisherman, realized his recent tour with U.S. Southern Command would land him in the middle of high adventure in south Florida’s vast tangle of freshwater swamps and marshes.

“This kind of hunting isn’t for the faint of heart,” Mackey said.

“The swamp is a different place at night, especially when you’re not necessarily at the top of the food chain,” he added. “Harvesting a big gator is a thrill. The odds are so stacked against you; it’s a real accomplishment.”

Mackey has taken several of these prehistoric reptiles, but his biggest, and possibly the capstone to his alligator hunting career, was the 11½-foot, 700-pound beast he collected in late August, just before transferring to Okinawa.

Fishing for dinosaurs

Alligators sink like a rock once killed. That is why Florida’s gator-hunting regulations require hunters to have their quarry secured to a line before using a firearm to administer a coup de grace. Hunters typically have to seek out and stealthily close in on a gator to get it attached to a line.

Hunting takes place at night. Mackey uses a spotlight to first locate the alligator’s shining red eyes, then switches to smaller LED lights to minimize chances of spooking the reptile as he maneuvers closer in his 12-foot jon boat.

“I prefer archery tackle when possible, but it requires that you be very close, 5 to 6 yards ideally, for the shot. Even then, I have problems with them rolling over on the fiberglass fish arrow and snapping it or breaking the Dacron line,” Mackey said. “Hitting a gator in the head or armored back with an arrow, or anything for that matter, does no good and only educates the animal. Shot placement must be precise. I’ve also harpooned a handful with a breakaway harpoon point attached to a buoy rig, but that also requires you to be real close to them — not always easy.”

One of his most successful techniques involves using a heavy-duty saltwater fishing rod rigged with 40-pound test line and a 10/0 or 12/0 weighted treble hook. He basically casts the hook and snags the gator.

“It allows you be a little farther away and you really get a fight out of a several-hundred-pound animal on such light line,” he said.

Once he has successfully arrowed or snagged the gator, it usually heads to deep water, which can mean hauling the hunt boat through rocky or brushy areas on an Okeechobee version of a Nantucket sleigh ride.

The fight can last for hours. If Mackey can reel the gator in close enough, he almost always tries to get a harpoon point or two in for insurance in case the rod and line break.

Murphy’s law works in the swamp, too, he observed. “The longer you fight them, the better the chance of a line breaking, a hook coming out or a harpoon point working loose. You also don’t want a gator, especially a big one, thrashing right next to the boat,” he said. “The key is to wear a gator down, almost like a fish, and then bring him next to the boat for the bangstick shot [in which he discharges a firearm cartridge by contact]. Most fights last 1½ to two hours, but I have battled some larger gators for four-plus hours.”

Bull gator bites the dust

In his late-August hunt, Mackey hit the swamps, armed with a new technique he had researched: playing baby alligator sounds on a portable CD player.

“In theory, it’s just like ringing the dinner bell for them. I couldn’t believe the reaction of some of the gators; almost like having them on a rope,” he said.

In a risky proposition, Mackey worked the call on foot from a flooded bank while his brother Eric and a friend waited at the boat. He passed on several small gators and had close calls with a few larger ones, but his goal was a 9-footer or better.

“Finally, just after midnight and five hours of hunting, I had a good gator come to within feet of me as it responded to the call. Without even casting, I stretched the rod out over its back, put the 12/0 treble hook on its opposite side and reared back with my saltwater rod.

“The gator exploded from the shallows, heading for deeper water with my hook anchored in its side.” Mackey quickly climbed into his boat and chased the gator into the open water.

The battle seesawed over the next couple of hours as the guys fought the alligator and the heavy current. Finally, they got close enough to insert two harpoon points with tethered buoys. Coaxing the big bull to the boat, Mackey finished him with a .357 hollow point at the end of a bangstick.

Once the fight was over, the exhausted, mosquito-covered trio dragged the beast to shore and hauled him up the bank.

“Only then did we fully realize the gargantuan size of the animal,” Mackey said. “What a way to end my gator-hunting career.”

Related reading on gator hunting:

• Not ‘plain crazy,’ Marine insists

• What’s it taste like?

• Where to get your gator