We knew he was a monster by how far apart his eyes were from 400 yards away, glowing like two coals in the October night. The 17' Triton slowly but silently slipped through the cove toward them, keeping the light focused intently. No one dared breathe a sound, although you could feel the energy and anticipation from everyone in the boat. As we closed the gap, it became more and more obvious we were not sneaking up on a lizard, but a full-blown, straight-out-of-mythology dragon. I began to wonder how that little crossbow was going to fare against something that could flip over the boat with one swipe of its tail, and crush a man's body with one bite.

We glided within 10 yards of the gator, and were stopped by the massive Lillypad jungle he was resting in. This was as close as we were going to get...now or never. I pulled up the crossbow, instinctivelyy held a touch high for drop of the heavy fishing arrow, squeezed the trigger and... thwack! The water exploded with tail, head lillypads and mud. The next thing I saw was the trailing buoy being ripped out of the boat. The chase was on. I could not help but think back to the classical scene in "Jaws" when Capt. Quint got the first barrel in the giant shark. Except this was freshwater, it was a gator, and it was no movie.

After a game of tug and war (and pray), Capt. Jordan was able to get the monster close enough to the boat for a second arrow to be put into him. This allowed us to put more pressure on him, and to insure success even if the first arrow pulled loose due to the battle at hand. We heard the jagged scutes on his massive back rake against the hull of the aluminum boat as he passed under us, I looked at the depth finder, and saw that it was only 5' deep. He was close enough to touch! The Capt. told me to shoot blindly down the line of the first string, and hope for the best, that we HAD to get another arrow in him if we ever wanted to see this gator. I did as I was told, and was rewarded by seeing another buoy fly out of the boat. There was no way of knowing my second shot had landed almost squarely between his eyes!

After two floats were on him, we were able to bring him to the side of the boat and dispatch him, but not before he amazed us by rocketing out of the water with 1/2 of his body out of the water and swimming in the position for about 5 yards. It reminded me of the breaching scene from "The Hunt for Red October". Probably the most spectacular display of nature I have ever encountered in 20 years as an outdoorsman.  When we finally pulled him up onto shore, and with the help of a backhoe, we were able to load him onto a flatbed trailer. He was measured at 12'4" and weighed 600lb. A true monster and a gator of a lifetime.

Testimony:
"Capt. Jordan and crew were amazing. They got our party within shooting range of many legal gators, and some over 10' long. We saw some even bigger, 3-4 that would claim the new State Record. We saw over 50 Gators on each outing, these guys really know where the gators are, and they have the special equipment to get to them like no one else can. Because of their expertise I was able to harvest a 12'4" monster of a gator. A true trophy anywhere in the USA."