Mississippi’s giant gators match adrenalin rush of ‘Griz’

Canadians Eric Halfnights (holding head) and Dave Novak, both of British Columbia, enjoyed a Mississippi trophy gator hunt, helping catch this 12-foot, 600-pound-plus gator in the lower Pearl River near Pearlington. Novak called it the only hunt that matches the adrenalin rush of chasing grizzly bears.

A conversation over drinks aboard an 80-foot luxury fishing boat off British Columbia led to a Mississippi adventure that landed a Canadian big game hunter one of his most exciting trophies — a 12-foot alligator that weighed over 600 pounds. “That’s what makes this story so interesting, how we came about putting this deal together,” said Keith Goodin of Louisville, who invited two Canadian business clients for the 2012 alligator season. “One of my British Columbia friends hunts big game all over the world and has several record book trophies, including Boone & Crockett grizzlies, sheep and deer.

“One night on his boat, after we’d been halibut fishing, we got to talking about the TV show, Swamp People, and the big game hunter, Dave Novak, said he thought catching a big alligator would produce a nice trophy.”

Goodin told Novak, whose family owns one of the biggest timber mills in North America, that Mississippi has a draw hunt for alligators and that if Goodin or a friend got drawn, Novak and his friend Eric Halfnights should come and participate.

Goodin works for Taylor Machine Parts, one of the country’s largest manufacturers of lift trucks, in Louisville. His friend David Gully is Taylor’s west coast parts distributor and is also from Louisville. Goodin and Gully entered the drawing in several regions.

“Turns out Gully got drawn in the southwest coastal region,” Goodin said. “We called Novak and Halfnights and they were in. We arranged to rent a house in Bay St. Louis and they flew in and off we went.

“Gully and I went to the alligator training course and all that, but we really had no idea what we were doing but we got the equipment and borrowed some more and committed to the Jordan and lower Pearl Rivers.”

Regulations allow only resident Mississippi hunting or fishing license holders to enter the alligator drawing for a possession permit, but non-residents are allowed to buy alligator hunting licenses and participate in the hunt.

The four men, hunting in Goodin’s 18-foot Nitro boat, spent the first four days hunting in the Jordan River without much luck.

“We saw a lot of gators but all we caught was one 4½ footer that we released,” Goodin said. “We saw some bigger ones but we were rookies and we really had no clue. By the time we got to them they would go under and we’d lose them. I called some of my friends and one of them told me that big gators, if they went down, they would stay in the area and I should cast around the last spot I saw the gator and try to hook up.

“We decided after four days on the Jordan River, we’d move over to the lower Pearl and we did. That was the right move. We launched our boat at 3 p.m. near Pearlington on Sept. 13 and we were back at the dock by 6:30 with that big boy in the boat.”

Goodin said that as soon as they started motoring up the river, they saw alligators on the bank that would immediately dive into the water.

“After Hurricane Isaac, the river was still high and the grass was flooded,” Goodin said. “I noticed that the gators were laying up on the bank in that grass and as we came up the river, they would dive into deeper water. About 30 minutes in, I saw what I thought was a big one dive off the bank. I marked the spot and we pulled up and we decided to make a few casts.”

The water was only about four feet deep and Goodin guessed that if his friend’s advice was true, the gator would have moved off a few feet and gone to the bottom.

Gully was on the rod and he made the first casts.

“On about the third one, he hooked the gator on a 7-foot tuna stick with a Curado saltwater reel with 150-pound braid, and he handed the rod to Novak,” Goodin said. “The gator started running and Novak was scared the alligator was going to spool him. That reel didn’t hold a lot of line, but I had a bigger offshore rod and Penn reel and I was able to cast and get a second hook in him. I got his tail, which really helped.

“That gave us a little more control of the fight. When we got up to him, I was able to use that bigger rod — it was one of those big game types with rollers in the eyes — to lift up on his tail. After about 30 minutes, we got close and I was able to lift it up and raise its tail out of the water a bit. That’s when we got our first idea that we were really on a monster gator.”

The four men, two Mississippians and two Canadians living out their own episode of reality TV, didn’t get another look for an hour. That’s how long the giant lizard went down and stayed.

“We just kept on the pressure and buddy, those guys… heck all of us, we were really having some fun,” Goodin said. “We were so involved. It was so intense. I remember Novak saying he hadn’t felt that kind of excitement since he shot his record grizzly bear.

“We got him back up after about an hour, after he started tiring, and I told them to get the snare ready. Gully got the rope and the 4-foot piece of broom handle it was attached to, and when we got him up, the right rear leg came up in front of Gully and he snared it.”

For anyone who has never fought a big gator, it should be noted that they do not like any form of harassment. They hate getting hooked and reeled. They abhor being snared, especially if they have energy left. This one did.

“He immediately went nuts,” Goodin said. “Halfnights was back in the back with the video camera and we hollered at him to get up and grab the rope. He dropped the camera, and it was still running. The video is hilarious with the camera rolling around, but we couldn’t show it anywhere anyway. There were so many cuss words flying around. It is funny.

“But it was also intense. The alligator took off and when he did, it broke that expensive, borrowed rod I was holding. I don’t know if the rope got it or just the sheer power of the gator pulled it but it broke over the steering wheel of the boat.”

The power of the alligator, as strong as it was, was also wearing down. In its tiring state, it was no match for the two rods and the snare rope. Within 10 minutes the four men had the beast alongside the boat. Another snare was put around its head to keep it still and Gully ended the battle for good with a single shot from a .410 shotgun.

“Two hours, I guess, start to finish,” Goodin said. “We fell back, and celebrated, well as much as we could. We were pretty beat and we rested a few minutes before we started trying to get that thing in the boat. That probably took us about 15 to 20 minutes, stopping to take pictures as we went, but we managed to get it in. “We went back to the dock, took more pictures and then took it to the processor over in Pascagoula. They were going to do all that work for us. Novak was having the hide made into a belly rug and a European mount of the head for his trophy room.”

Excited?

“Let me tell you this, this is the greatest thing the (Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks) has done for hunters in this state,” Goodin said. “It is the most intense, exciting thing we got going.

“Novak, you have to understand, he has hunted grizzly and other big bears and he said that fighting that alligator is the only thing that comes close to the adrenalin rush of going up against the griz.”

Coming back?

“All we have to do is get drawn and both Novak and Halfnights have already said they’re in,” Goodin said. “You better believe we’ll be in that drawing and I’ll get everybody I know to enter, if that’s what it takes.”

And the gear?

“Yeah, I had to make that call, and tell my good buddy and fishing partner, Artie Cosby, that I had broken his big old rod,” Goodin said. “Artie, we go back a long way, fishing tournaments together and a lot of other stuff, and all he said was, ‘Man that must have been a big one to break that rod!’

“When I told him a veteran license trapper who saw him at the processor told me he was easily over 600 pounds, Artie said that it was OK by him, that the rod was worth that.”

My guess, it will be worth at least a few more halibut trips, for sure.

Click here to read about the recent catch of the state-record alligator.

About Bobby Cleveland 1343 Articles
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.

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