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Woods Harvests<br />
State Record<br />
Monster Gator<br />
on Yazoo River MICHAEL GILES<br />
Don Woods made a long cast and felt a<br />
thump on the end of his rod as he retrieved his<br />
gator lure back toward the boat. Woods, from<br />
Oxford, snapped the rod back with all the<br />
strength he could muster and drove the steel<br />
hooks deep into an alligator. The alligator dove<br />
for the bottom and started pulling the boat<br />
across the Yazoo River like a mini submarine.<br />
“It was obvious that this was no ordinary<br />
gator,” said Woods. “Our team was familiar<br />
with the Yazoo River and some of the holes<br />
that alligators like to use so we cruised down<br />
the river before dark hoping to locate a large<br />
gator. I was hunting with my cousin Will<br />
Thomas, along with Tanner White and Joey<br />
Clark, and we saw several 8-foot and 10-foot<br />
gators but none we wanted to hunt so we kept<br />
searching.”<br />
Woods and team were hunting on the<br />
opening day of the Mississippi alligator season<br />
on the Yazoo River, in the west central alligator<br />
zone, when they hooked up with a massive<br />
alligator.<br />
Chaos ensued as the enraged gator came<br />
up snapping and slashing the water as it tried<br />
to free itself from Woods’ line. Suddenly the<br />
gator dove down and put it into high gear like<br />
a torpedo, tearing up reels and breaking rods<br />
in the process.<br />
Alas, this alligator wouldn’t go down<br />
without a massive battle with the team. Several<br />
times two of the hunters had the Yazoo leviathan<br />
on their rods at the same time but each time he<br />
mangled their gear and escaped.<br />
“We almost quit several times,” Woods said.<br />
“Will said he didn’t know if we had enough<br />
equipment left to land the big gator after he’d<br />
stripped the gears out of a reel and broken<br />
several of our rods.”<br />
“It was really a blur after we hooked up<br />
with the gator around 10pm that Friday night.<br />
We’ve caught a lot of 10-foot to 12-foot-long<br />
alligators but this one beat them all.”<br />
“Surreal is what it was,” said Woods. “But it<br />
was a lot of fun in the end.”<br />
With most of their equipment torn up and<br />
muscles aching from the struggle with the<br />
massive gator, they had to dig deep and resist<br />
the desire to quit and go home for the night.<br />
“We caught him several times only to lose him<br />
before we could land him,” Woods said. “But<br />
we stayed close and let the boat drift in the area<br />
where he was at until we saw him again. We<br />
actually drifted by him and Tanner and me<br />
both started casting and working the bottom<br />
trying to hook him again.”<br />
“Wham!” Woods’ rod snapped down as the<br />
gator felt the sting of the steel treble hook once<br />
again. The tired angler suddenly had a surge of<br />
adrenalin as he battled this prehistoric reptile.<br />
“It was about 2:30 a.m. when I caught him the<br />
last time and he dragged us across the river<br />
again,” said Woods. “About 30 minutes later,<br />
the alligator finally surfaced and Tanner cast<br />
past him and hooked him and we had two<br />
lines on him.”<br />
Although the gator was wearing down, he<br />
was still causing mayhem for the tired anglers<br />
as it fought wildly after spotting the boat. This<br />
time the massive beast came up snapping at<br />
them as they tried to control him and bring<br />
him alongside the 14-foot aluminum boat.<br />
It was nip and tuck for sure and one<br />
mistake could’ve meant serious injury or even<br />
death. The hard part of the battle was getting<br />
control of the gator and then wearing him<br />
down enough to hold him close to the boat<br />
long enough to make a killing shot.<br />
“It seemed like it took forever to get the<br />
noose around the gator’s head,” Woods said.<br />
“He was fighting hard and his head was almost<br />
too wide to get the noose around him, but we<br />
finally did.”<br />
Woods had a PVC pipe with a line on it<br />
that allowed him to finally slip the line around<br />
the alligator’s head so that they could secure<br />
him and hold him long enough to put him<br />
down. Alligator hunting rules state that<br />
alligators must be hooked securely before they<br />
can be shot so that they won’t sink and be lost.<br />
If they are not hooked securely then more<br />
alligators might be harvested than tags that<br />
were prescribed for the special hunting season<br />
which provides a way to control the gator<br />
population without harvesting too many.<br />
Nothing beats tenacity and perseverance<br />
and Woods, and the team finally wore the<br />
gator down and held him steady just long<br />
enough for them to dispatch the beast.<br />
“Boom!” As Woods pulled the trigger the<br />
shotgun roared, and the leviathan was finally<br />
finished.<br />
46 FALL 2023
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