Recently, gator hunters Kyle Oleen and Vern Ward set out to fill their Washington County tag and bag their first gator of the season. On a secret stretch of Choctawhatchee River, the men spent several hours on the hunt with no luck. After setting out a deer lung with a spike in it and waiting on a hungry gator, one finally took the bait. As they slowly raised the reptile to the surface, Kyle managed to get a throw hook into it and the fight was on! Once they got the gator back to the boat, Vern got the harpoon in it, but in the thrashing fight the gator not only bent, bit and broke the harpoon, it broke the 2000 lb. tensile strength hook line that Kyle had him with. Feeling defeated, they knew for sure that gator was gone.
After a while, they noticed bubbles (likely from the gator) and Kyle began throwing another hook line. After several throws he caught the tag end of the original broken hook line and wrangled the gator back to the boat where Vern hit him with the bang stick. By all rights this gator should have been the one that got away, but sometimes amidst all the buffoonery of a hunt, a glimmer of hope comes through and it results in a filled tag.
Kyle’s favorite way to prepare gator meat is to tenderize it, smear on the Crystal hot sauce then bread and fry. Other times he will smoke it, but either way is delicious. Kyle, once a bull rider in his younger days, is an avid outdoorsman and loves the thrill and challenge of the gator hunt. Vern, a retired Army Veteran and school teacher, may not be a man of large stature, but make no mistake…he’s a badass! When team Kyle and Vern hit the water on a hunt, those gators best beware!
~ Capt. Randy “C-note” Cnota