After 5 years finally Drew jd Murphree alligator.

Any tips greatly appreciated - thanks y’all! Very stoked.

Wow congratulations on a tough draw!

Congrats!

wear a thermacell on a string around your neck, first suggestion!! those deer flies or whatever they are called are some biting %^%$$$
figure out a way to winch your boat over levys, i used a atv winch and it helps a lot
they will tell you to put your bait about knee high over the water. if you just want a gator, do this. if you see a big one in your unit, put it about 2.5-3 ft high. tie your bait up in something mesh like cheese cloth or a holey old sock so it will stay on the hook. we used leg quarters. hook it and tye it on real good to the hook at the house about 3 days before you go. put the bait in a good freezer ziploc and dump in a can of the cheapest canned fish you can find at the dollar store, usually jack mackeral, and put it in a coffee can and let it start to rot. put the lid on it for transport itll be rank and make you wanna puke. dont touch it or youll regret it for a few days. when you hang your bait then slip it outta the ziploc and pour the oil and liquid and fish out in the water under your set.
youll have plenty of time to kill, we sat and watched our baits to keep the small ones off until the bugs ran us out.

we have drawn 3 times and got 4 gators, 9'11" biggest and about 5 ft the smallest, the small ones are thick as the bugs. carry some slugs for the hogs, the levys are full of them

its fun but not real exciting, and if your succesful id have the guy next door skin it for you. they are fond of their hide

Thanks for the insight man! I’m gathering as much as I can and I’ll pass it on to the next.

Congratulations, that will be fun!

I just hit the youth hunt for the second draw. I don’t know a thing about alligator hunting. What kind of boat is best for this area? I have a flats cat.

flats cat wont be really easy to use, maybe call and ask them what unit the youth hunt is on and find out?
youth hunt we did we used an improvised dirt ramp and it was a narrow thick channel

During the orientation they will survey what kind of boats everyone is using and assign compartments as best possible related to what equipment they have. When we have taken a larger boat, we have also taken an aluminum canoe to tow for accessing individual compartments. People do often take a smaller boat or canoe in addition to their main boat to do this.