Batch
09-18-2010, 02:05 PM
Or more correctly titled "Gator Hunting in The Everglades region.
Gator hunting in the everglades is allowed as a specialty hunt. It is open to residents and non-residents. You will apply for hunts in the areas you want and will only be able to hunt in your designated area. You MUST ENTER AND EXIT from designated areas in ALL of the everglades region hunts.
Most of the everglades region is off limits to hunting. All of Everglades National Park and all of the Western Everglades is off limits. The Western Everglades mostly Big Cypress Park is really the only place where you could hike.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/bigcypress/gatorhunt.jpg
The areas open to hunting are marshland and sawgrass. Trying to walk through this is going to be a nightmare to say the least. Sawgrass will cut your skin. During the day around gator season the average heat index will be around 100. Humidity will be in the 90s and it storms nearly every single day. Lightning is a given. At night is when you can legally hunt alligators and being in the sawgrass when night falls amplifies the misery.
Simply said you will be eaten alive by mosquitoes. The water is filled with snakes, gators and snapping turtles.
So people hunt most of this region by airboat or some other type of boat. But, mostly by airboat. Before airboats became common. Most folks that hunted gators used small plywood skiffs. They would take the skiff in by a motor boat and then use the skiff and a push pole to get into the back country. A team led by Alexander Graham Bell invented the first airboat. The first airboat registered in Florida was in 1920. Though they didn't really become common until around 1950.
Some of the Storm Water Treatment Areas (STA) do not allow boats or at least no boats with motors. You must access these areas only through a single gate that is opened a half hour before legal hunting time and is closed once the last hunter has signed out. These areas are only open to certain groups at certain times and are otherwise closed areas.
I prefer hunting the STAs because they have large gators in a tighter confined area than you find in places accessible by airboat. It allows me to use stealth on skittish gators that have had early season pressure put on them. I really prefer STA 1 West which is the triangular area labeled 407 and 408.
Gator hunting in the everglades is allowed as a specialty hunt. It is open to residents and non-residents. You will apply for hunts in the areas you want and will only be able to hunt in your designated area. You MUST ENTER AND EXIT from designated areas in ALL of the everglades region hunts.
Most of the everglades region is off limits to hunting. All of Everglades National Park and all of the Western Everglades is off limits. The Western Everglades mostly Big Cypress Park is really the only place where you could hike.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/bigcypress/gatorhunt.jpg
The areas open to hunting are marshland and sawgrass. Trying to walk through this is going to be a nightmare to say the least. Sawgrass will cut your skin. During the day around gator season the average heat index will be around 100. Humidity will be in the 90s and it storms nearly every single day. Lightning is a given. At night is when you can legally hunt alligators and being in the sawgrass when night falls amplifies the misery.
Simply said you will be eaten alive by mosquitoes. The water is filled with snakes, gators and snapping turtles.
So people hunt most of this region by airboat or some other type of boat. But, mostly by airboat. Before airboats became common. Most folks that hunted gators used small plywood skiffs. They would take the skiff in by a motor boat and then use the skiff and a push pole to get into the back country. A team led by Alexander Graham Bell invented the first airboat. The first airboat registered in Florida was in 1920. Though they didn't really become common until around 1950.
Some of the Storm Water Treatment Areas (STA) do not allow boats or at least no boats with motors. You must access these areas only through a single gate that is opened a half hour before legal hunting time and is closed once the last hunter has signed out. These areas are only open to certain groups at certain times and are otherwise closed areas.
I prefer hunting the STAs because they have large gators in a tighter confined area than you find in places accessible by airboat. It allows me to use stealth on skittish gators that have had early season pressure put on them. I really prefer STA 1 West which is the triangular area labeled 407 and 408.