James A. “Trey” Fisher III of Kannapolis made the most of his first trip to Florida to hunt gators.
The bowhunter bagged a 419-pound alligator on Aug. 16 at Lake Pierce in Lake Wales, Fla. The gator was 11 feet, 2 inches long and took an hour and a half to land him after he was shot.
Fisher also got an 8-foot, 7-inch gator on the hunt.
His father, James Fisher, said it was the first time his 29-year-old son had been to Florida since he was about 9 years old and the first time he’d ever gone gator hunting. Trey is a seasoned outdoorsman, though, and he’s hunted from Canada to the Gulf Coast, mostly animals like deer and elk.
James Fisher said Florida has a four-week gator season and applicants get a permit for seven days to hunt the nocturnal animals. Hunters can only use bows/arrows or spears, and no daytime hunting is allowed.
Trey met up with someone who had a 14-foot johnboat and that’s what they were in, using 600-pound line attached to the arrow, when he shot the big gator. His father said some of the other hunters later said it was the biggest gator they’d ever seen pulled from the lake.
Trey skinned and processed the meat himself for the freezer. They deep fried some already ó and guess what it tastes like? “Very similar to chicken,” James Fisher said, “and maybe fish. It turned out great.”