Shannon Keith
News Editor
PINETOPS —
Christopher Rowland can now turn his attention to building an addition onto his Wiggins Crossroads residence.
“I want my living room back,” said his wife Amy. “It’s full of animals and even has a swan suspended from the ceiling.”
The living room is full of trophies because Chris, 40, and Amy, 39, go hunting and fishing every chance they get.
They have been to Newfoundland for caribou, Wyoming for elk, Oklahoma for deer and orxy and nearby Aurora for bear.
Their most recent trip was to Florida, between Palm Bay and Fort Pierce on Lake Switch Marsh hunting for alligators.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission only allows 19 permits per year for hunting on this particular lake.
This year, the state is offering 6,260 permits statewide, entitling a holder to kill two gators. Last year, hunters harvested 7,844. Gators as small as 18 inches can be taken, but most hunters want a trophy. The state record exceeds 14 feet.
Rowland’s permit costs $1,065.
The Rowlands hunted on this lake two years ago with a guide and bagged two gators, 10-foot, 5 inches long and 8-foot-9.
No guide this year and after three nights of hunting, they had nothing to show.
“We didn’t see as many gators this time,” Rowland said. “They told us it had been heavily poached. Poachers can sell gator hides for $30 per foot.
“We were starting to get a little frustrated.”
On the fourth night, just after dark, Rowland spotted a huge gator and shot it with his Matthew bow, 70-pound draw using a standard fishing rig.
Hunters are not allowed to use guns. Instead, they may use a pole, spear, bow and arrow, or rod and reel to catch the animal, then use a bang stick – a pole with an explosive charge on the end – to dispatch it point-blank before bringing it into a boat.
The monster was 11-foot, 11 inches long and weighed about 400 pounds. Later, around midnight, Rowland bagged an old male, 12-foot-1.
“The wildlife biologists told us he was over 65 years old,” Rowland said.
“His bumps (on his armor-like back) were all rubbed down.
Rowland gutted the gators and brought back two skulls, about 70 pounds of meat and hides he will tan and make a coat, vest, boots, belts, wallets and a gun holster for a friend and pocketbook for his wife. He will use the teeth for buttons.
“We worked hard to get them boys,” Rowland said, grinning.
