Message #65265

[TexasJ]

HHHmmm.  I heard that a 13' gator was killed but I didn't catch that much detail.  Matter of fact, I think I heard it was killed by Game Wardens because it was a threat due to it living in a small drainage canal.  I don't know if it was the same gator or not.  I knew some guys who were bow fishing for gar and saw that big gator and because the boat was so small and the body of water was also narrow, they were real afraid.  I doubt there were more than one 13' gators in the bayou, but I always heard talk about him.  I'm trying to think if I remember right because I want to say that I read a article somewhere that came out after the harvest season was opened to all countys a few years ago.  The article said that there were more 13'+ gators killed in that one seson than ever before.  The reason was because people always knew where the big gators were, it just wasn't legal to harvest them.  Most of the big gators were killed in the Trinity River, which stretches all the way up to Dallas.  Those countys were not opened to the new gator season.  Because the Armand Bayou gator was an attraction to kayakers and other folks, then its defaintly a misfortune.  I don't think that gator was really hurting anybody and since so many people knew about him, its too bad he's gone.  The rest of Texas doesn't need to worry though, there are still plenty of <13' gators out there.  I've heard of one at the mouth of Dickinson Bayou, I've heard of one in the Wallisville project (in a duck hole by my buddys house), and I've seen one at the only private damn on the Nueces River at the Pasiano Ranch in Three Rivers.  My buddy Brad (who is a TPWD biologist) was telling us that they are about to start drawing gator hunts from Choke Canyon and the next State record has a great chance of coming from there because the biolost are bragging already about them knowing where the monster gators are.  So there's plenty of big gators everywhere, Gator fest in Anahuac is a good example of that.