In April, I celebrated my birthday with a trip across the continent.  It began in Columbus GA with a visit to my old friend Ray Lynch and a bunch of nice folks at the Realtree Camo.  There are always exciting things going at Realtree and a visit with Ray was way overdue.  To see what’s happening with Realtree go to their website www.realtree.com and get acquainted with their newly designed www.advantage.com site. I will be writing a column on their website reviewing the latest in optics the new Plan, Pack and Be Prepared information section of our website.

The rest of my trip held some surprises so here’s a little of the story about what went down.

Most of my birthdays just blew right by and a week or two later they’re completely forgotten.  This year was my 50th, though, so I decided to try something new that would be two things:  Adventurous and Memorable!

I’ve hunted all over North America and I’ve always gotten the most enjoyment from going after big predators.  That was my first choice when I started thinking about a birthday trip, but unfortunately I was born in early April which is an “off time” for most hunting, except for turkey and wild boar.  I had been seriously weighing my options since around the first of the year, and in late January while exhibiting at the SCI Convention in Reno, NV. I found the adventure I was hoping for - Gators!  Big alligators in the wetlands of Florida that could be hunted whenever I was ready.

Good friends, Donny and Steve of H&H Gator Hunts set me up with the perfect situation for a birthday that would stand out for years to come.  We’d be pursuing an apex predator in the dead of night on its home turf.  Trying to harpoon the biggest gator we could find from an airboat, then pulling it in by hand to be dispatched with a bang stick seemed like a worthy challenge.  (To see video on the rest of Lennis’ gator hunt go to www.crookedhorn.com and be sure to check out www.hhgatorhunts.com

From the moment I finalized the plans with Donny and Steve, the hunt was never far from my mind and the excitement didn’t seem to wear off. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more excited I became. I have to admit there was a little apprehension too since I was going to do something completely unfamiliar in a place I’d never been, but I knew that Donny and Steve had all the knowledge and experience we’d need for the hunt to be safe and successful.

When the time came to depart from California, I was accompanied by my lifelong hunting partner and trusty videographer , Jeff Line. We flew to Atlanta for our meeting with Realtree and, again, they really rolled out the red carpet for us. It’s always a privilege to be considered a part of the Realtree family. They are light years ahead when it comes to marketing and they’ve been a tremendous help to Crooked Horn over the years.

Next stop was Palm Bay, Florida where we met Steve from H&H Gators. We didn’t waste any time getting things together for hunting that night. Steve had their airboat and all the gear we would need so we headed out to our hunting spot for my first alligator hunt!

Donny and Steve’s property is a dream come true for alligator hunters, but would be a nightmare if you were lost there in the dark! This particular spot was a water reservoir that covered about one square mile. It was full of both living and dead trees and was broken up into deeper channels and wide, shallow flats.

There were gators visible right when we pulled off the highway but Steve had us wait until it fully dark before launching the airboat into the murky water. When we slid off the bank into that first channel there were a dozen sets of red eyes reflected back to us from the headlamp Steve was wearing! It was a little spooky but also exciting as hell! I felt the tingle of adrenaline as we started moving down the channel in anticipation of finding a real bruiser. We worked our way around the channels and then out into the flats judging gator after gator trying to find the one I was looking for but we had no luck finding one. Steve did catch a small alligator with his hands which was pretty exciting! About 11pm the temperature started to drop and as the mercury went down so did our odds of getting a gator that night. They were still around but they were more watchful and seemed to disappear every time we got close. We finally gave up at about 3am and decided on a new approach for the next morning.

Hunting gators in the daylight is a lot harder because their eyes are only tiny bumps on the water, not glowing red like at night. We were going to rifle now instead of trying to use the harpoon and Donny had brought along a 300 Win Mag knowing it would pack plenty of punch for even the biggest swamp lizard! After a few practice shots, we headed out to make something happen! This was more like the hunting we’re accustomed to, lots of glassing, field judging, stalking and a within range shot on an animal that never knew we were there.

We split up to cover more ground and within a few minutes Donny had a nine-footer located for me. When he called to ask if I was interested I guess my grin must have given me away because Steve answered, “I think so” before I ever said a word! When we reached the levee where Donny was, he was glassing down the channel along the levee where my gator was. Throwing up my binoculars, I saw a set of eyes and nostrils on the water’s surface. I quickly figured out a way to get within about 35 yards of the gator while Donny explained that my best shot would be at a 45 degree angle toward the back of the skull.

Jeff and I started down the levee together like we have so many times before in so many other places. That’s the thing about hunting partners, when you’ve hunted together so much that you hardly need to talk to know what the other’s next move is going to be, it’s priceless. We got into position on top of the levee, Jeff with the camera and me with a steady rest on my MasterGuide backpack. One last check with Jeff to make sure he was on the gator and I locked my crosshairs on the gators’ eye. I squeezed off a shot and the water exploded, I could see a leg, then the tail and then everything was calm. I felt good about my shot and scanned the water for any sign of movement. There was none.

Donny and Steve were already uncoiling ropes with 5-inch treble hooks on them and we began tossing them out to the spot where he was when I shot him. After a couple dozen try’s we unloaded the airboat and started combing the area. After an hour it became evident that something was wrong. Jeff had reviewed the tape countless times and finally said, “It looks like you hit the water in front of his eye.” We all took a look and he was right. I had missed! Donny broke the silence by saying, “Let’s go find you another one.”

As I looked around I saw a pair of eyes off to my left and I asked Donny for his opinion. “It’s about an eight footer” he said, “Might be hard to get a shot with all those reeds along the bank.” I decided to go for it and Jeff and I headed out in that direction behind the levee. I finally found a place where I could see the gator well enough to get a shot. Jeff was having trouble getting set up and the gator must have seen him because he suddenly sank out of sight. We kept watching and he finally re-surfaced a little closer to shore leaving me no shot. We began slithering through the reeds and eventually I got to a place where I had a clear, 40 yard shot. This time I held the crosshairs on top of and slightly behind his eye and as I squeezed the trigger there was just a splash in the water and the gator turned on its side, kicked out its hind leg a couple times, tail splashed and slowly sank below the surface!

I focused on the spot where it had been seconds earlier, trying to judge the distance from several landmarks, then scrambled to my feet and headed down the shore. Within minutes I was tossing my big treble hook out over the spot where he went down and on my 3rd or 4th try I felt a slight tug in the line. I felt that familiar adrenaline surge as the hook bit into something on the bottom. I pulled on the rope expecting at least 150lbs. of dead weight, but instead the line came to me without much effort.

“Thought I had him”, I said to Donny, and with a smirk he said, “You do”, then he started to laugh. Sure enough as the rope came in a long, narrow shape began to take shape. As the gator’s head broke the surface I realized I had hit my mark. Just by chance I had hooked the gator in the side of its jaw and that explained why it had pulled in so easily. Gators are so streamlined that they offer almost no resistance when moving forward through the water and after examining him up close I was glad this one was definitely dead!

Alligators are true apex predators and for the most part the only thing they ever have to worry about is a bigger gator. Their jaw strength is astonishing at 1200lbs. per square inch and when you combine that with the “death roll”, an incredibly violent twisting they do after they’ve latched on to something, a good sized gator can rip an arm or a leg off a person as easily as we could tear a wing off a quail!

Photos and filming came next and a heartfelt thanks for Donny and Steve. I can’t say enough about their operation and if you’re looking for a thrilling hunting experience you should check out what they have to offer at www.hhgatorhunts.com.

Jeff and I had had a great hunt but we weren’t done yet by any means! We headed to Jupiter, Florida to meet Robert Arrington, host of the popular, long-running, sport-fishing show “Reel Adventures” and also a new hunting adventure show called “Respect Outdoors”.  We hooked up with Robert and his friend, Kevin Weldon, a successful country singer who now hosts his own show called “Posted Places”. Kevin has a couple CD’s out that are all about the comical misadventures of two hunters we can all relate to. It was obvious they had already made plans for us as we headed out to Lake Okeechobee for some up close time with gators and a good old fashioned fish fry.

We spent the afternoon and evening watching the kids chase armadillos, eating the best fish you’ve ever tasted and enjoying a huge bonfire. In Florida they have a wood call “lighter knot” that all it takes is a single match to ignite any size piece. This wood is formed when a certain type of pine tree is struck by lightning and dies very quickly. In fact, the sap becomes so volatile its sawdust is used to make dynamite. We were entertained by Kevin Weldon as he put on one of the best performances I’d seen in a long time.

Robert took us to Lee Lightsee’s Out West Farms where Lee raises about 7,000 gators at a time. Lee also runs a wild pig hunting operation on his place and his hunters are successful nearly 2,000 times a year! We wanted to get a look at some really big gators and we weren’t disappointed. Lee uses wild alligators as his breeding stock and some of them are enormous! Even though they’re fed regularly, they live in a natural habitat and Lee’s crews harvest the eggs from natural nests.

As we sat talking a truck with an enclosed trailer pulled up and a sturdy looking guy, probably in his 50’s, got out and gave us a friendly wave. His name was Bumpy and we were a bit surprised when he told us he had a trailer load of gators to drop off for Lee’s breeding ponds. He explained that he had caught the gators earlier that morning in a slough using a deep sea fishing pole, 200lb. test line, and a treble hook. Once he got them to the shore, he would jump on their backs, duct tape their mouths closed, and then drag them into the trailer until he had a full load. To keep them from eating each other they have to be kept in ponds with similar sized gators and when we got to the right pond the gate was locked.

Having no key posed a problem so we decided to try to lift the gators over the 6 ft. chain link fence that surrounded the pond. Everything was going well until we were lifting the biggest gator of the bunch. This one managed to snag his duct tape on the fence and pull it off. Once his mouth was free, the fight was on. Gators can have quite an attitude and after it realized it wasn’t going to get to any of us, it turned on the chain link fence.

The bite that gator took out of that fence was over a foot wide and had compressed the metal down to less than 6 inches! Once it had a bite it went into a death roll and I can’t begin to describe what that wad of wire looked like when it finally stopped! In about 5 seconds, that gator had crushed and twisted that chain link into something two strong men with pliers and pry bars couldn’t have done in half an hour. The death roll is an automatic, instinctive reaction if the gator latches onto something. This is how it tears up its prey and feeds on them.

Needless to say, we were glad to get the gators unloaded and put away with all our body parts still attached. We were also glad to have had the opportunity to learn so much about these magnificent predators. What they’re capable of, how perfectly adapted they are, how they hunt, and how they can be hunted are things we took with us that will serve us well the next chance we get to hunt the southern swamps!

Even though this adventure is now only a memory, the thing that will keep it alive in our hearts are the people we shared it with. Friends, old and new, that will continue to be a part of lives, and whose faces and names will always remind us of the good times we shared. Ray Lynch and everyone at Realtree, Steve Smith and Donny Hampton, Kevin Weldon, Robert Arrington, and all the other folks who helped make my 50th birthday adventure one I’ll never forget. Thanks everybody. Let’s do it again soon!