JD Murphree

My buddies and I have been selected for the alligator hunt at JD Murphree. We have a 16" jon boat with a 25 outboards. My questions is what all do I need to bring to hunt.

We can use bows and I have one bow that is 65lb and one is 45lb. What is the best reel, line, arrow, and float setup? Can I use my sights and QAD arrow rest or do I need to completely change it?

For the hook and line what would be the best setup and bait. We will be given cane poles, but what will I secure the line to. Do I need stakes or are there trees to tie off on. Do I tie 300lb rope to a leader or tie the rope directly to the hook? What hooks do I need?

Does hook and line mean I can use a fishing pole and weighted treble hook to snag one as well? I have my shark rig with 80 lb test. Will that be enough? Would my surf rods with 45lb braid work too or will the 10 ft pole be to long and get in the way?

Also, shotgun is the only means of dispatching the gator. Will a 410 with the disc load be enough or do I need to bring the 12 with slugs. It states non-toxic is preferred but not prohibited.

I know that's a lot of questions but this is our first time gator hunting so any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

PM me if needed.

congrates on the draw hunt...
ya need a bigger boat ... Be safe if ya have ta wrestle a big-en...
All i know bout gator hunten is what seen on t.v. show... Stay Safe... Looking forward ta hearing results... Theirs a few in here been, they will be more helpfull...

Read the regs carefully, but when we did it you could not use a bow AND a pole line. You had to choose one. We chose to go pole lines left overnight.

If it's the same type of poles, they are big long calcutta poles. We sank them in the bank. Then, we used a clothes pin to pin the main line (nylon rope) to the tip. We either tied the main line to a tree, or drove a big stake in the ground and tied to that. Coming off the main line we used doubled up trotline string as the leader going to our big J-hook. We used stinky chicken thighs as bait, leave them out a couple days before hand to get nice and ripe. We used a 12-ga with slugs to dispatch our gators, worked like a charm.

It is more like fishing than hunting. Once your lines are set all you can do is wait. One of our gators hit in the first two hours, the second took overnight. We went 2 for 3, caught two 9.5 footers and had alot of fun doing it. Good luck.

What did you do with gators once ya'll caught them?

We used a 20ga with bird shot on ours. Worked just fine. A 410 with bird shot would probably suffice as well.

A bow would certainly be challenging. Your odds will decrease dramatically, given the short time frame of the hunt.

Your boat size is fine.

You can skin your own gators there, and there is also a couple guys up the road that you can pay to skin for you. They charge somewhere around $10/ft. They will remove and salt the hide for you to keep, and also cut up the meat for you.

Awesome. Thanks for the help guys.

A few more questions.

What size hooks did you bring? that say 9/0 and I've seen 7/0-5/0?

Did ya'll use waders, hip waders, or just boots?

Any info on the compartments you allowed to hunt?

We used 12/0 hooks, ordered from netsandmore.com.

They will assign you a compartment based on the kind of boat you have. Smaller boats may be given areas where you have to cross a levee, which really isnt too bad because they all have rollers on them. Bigger boats will be assigned areas in the main bayou.

Well just got an email saying the gator hunt has been canceled.