A Little Helping Hand

By Sr. Agent Richard Purvis

During the opening days of the 2003 alligator hunting season, Cadet Joe Arnaud and I were assigned to work in the Bayou Penchant area of western Terrebonne Parish. This area is mainly freshwater bayous and marshes, the perfect area for hunters and trappers. We were detailed to work commercial and sport fish, boating safety and, of course, alligator hunters.

During the course of the morning we were traveling down one of the major bayous in the area and saw a vessel parked on the bank down a side, dead-in bayou. We decided to turn around and conduct a routine game and license check of what we were sure was just another alligator hunter. As we approached the vessel we saw that the sole occupant was an elderly gentleman who had an alligator on the line.

Now for those of you who are unfamiliar, alligator hunting does not entail setting up a blind and hunting in the traditional sense like deer or duck hunting. Alligator hunters set up long poles that are staked into the ground. They tie a heavy cord to the pole with about 20 or 25 feet of slack. They tie the other end to a hook that is about 4 inches long. They put bait on the hook, usually chicken, the stinkier the better. The bait is suspended about 3 feet above the water. Along comes Mr. Alligator, he swallows the bait and is hooked in the belly. Mr. Alligator then swims up under the floating marsh or hides on the bank until the hunter comes back to get him. It’s like every other type of hunting in the sense that you never really know what you are going to get. Now back to the story.

After we pulled up to the gentleman’s boat, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Boy am I glad to see you.” You see this elderly hunter had been struggling with this alligator for several minutes. For some reason he could not seem to get the alligator to “come up”. I just thought the gator had gotten itself wrapped up in some brush, no problem. Cadet Arnaud and I kind of chuckled and said, “Hold on pop, we’ll give you a hand.” We took hold of the line and gave a good tug. It must have been wrapped up on a log because it didn’t budge. We put a little more muscle into it and I felt it give. Something was coming up. As that thing’s head broke the water we all started high steppin’. We were all on the business end of an 11 -foot alligator that was not happy about having a hook in its belly.

Joe and I struggled with that monster for about 10 minutes ourselves our hunter, Mr. Arthur Bailey of Avoca Island, gave him a .30 carbine headache.  Mr. Bailey thanked us for our help after we helped him load ol’ Big Boy up. There’s no telling how long Mr. Bailey would have struggled with this alligator if we had not shown up. There’s one thing for sure, he was not about to let it go.