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## THROBINROD (May 23, 2004)

I am in posession of 2 alligator permits for the upcoming season. What are your favorite baits to use on lines?


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## miller mania (Aug 26, 2005)

*bait*

i can gave you the numbers for one of my exwife's lol . use a fresh die chicken


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## steverino (Mar 8, 2006)

*bait?*

I've never got drawn but my buddies have and they used chicken. Get a fresh killed whole one at one of the oriental markets.

Miller- if you used my ex for bait after a few minutes she would rise from the murky waters with a new pair of alligator high heel shoes and a nice alligator purse!!!!! LMVVFAO in the free world!!!!!!!!!


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## Gator gar (Sep 21, 2007)

Turkey wings, out of the meat case.


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## Fishin' Soldier (Dec 25, 2007)

Whole chicken, bamboo stick, v-notch 2x4.Hang the chicken about a foot out of the water. This keeps the turtles away. When gator bites the chicken the slack comes out of the rubberband and the gator is free to eat. After he swims off the is hook in the belly and it is tied off to a tee post hammered into ground. Good luck post some pics! We have a 12'4" bleached skull in my mothers den.


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## tokavi (May 6, 2006)

Chicken quarters work best.


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## monark (May 12, 2005)

Black bird or starling. Don't ask me how I know. :smile:


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## TheAnt (Jul 1, 2008)

My daughter has a yorkie...


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## THROBINROD (May 23, 2004)

TheAnt, 

I know for a fact that gators look at dogs as CANDY. I was watching 2 gators feeding on a dead cow that had gotten sucked into the trash racks of a pumping facility on the colorado river. A dog came down to the bank on the other side of the river and both gators left thier 1500# snack and made a beeline toward the dog. Luckily the dog got away before getting the big chomp.


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## M16 (May 28, 2008)

Here's my can't miss method. First I go buy a small dressed chicken for each permit. Do this about three days before you plan to use them. Put the whole chicken in the microwave for around ten or so minutes. You want the chicken's juices flowing. I then but my hooks in the chicken. After that I get in the spices section in the kitchen and spice it up with a lot of cayenne pepper and a good dose of Tony Chachere's. I have an old cooler that I use as a ********** cooler. Put the chickens in the cooler and set them in the sun until you get ready to use them.

The set I use it to take two t-posts and drive or push them in the ground. The back one goes down four feet or so depending on how soft the ground is. The front one has about four feet sticking up. Go to the lumberyard and get an 8 or 10 foot 2X2. Tie the 2X2 to the back t-post at the bottom. Then wire the 2X2 to the front post where your bait will be a foot or so above the water. The 2X2 should be at around a 45 degree angle. When the bait is at the height you want then take a roll of masking tape and wrap the line and 2X2 several times. The line goes under the 2X2 not on top. You want the line to cut the tape when the gator grabs the bait. Tie your line to the deepest driven post. I usually use about 40 feet unless it is a spot where the gator can get hung up.

Be sure the water is a couple of feet deep below the bait as a gator usually comes from underneath to make the grab.

The reason for the spicy chicken is that gators have a good sense of smell. You really want the chicken to drip. As the tide moves it lays a scent trail. The gator will lock on to the scent trail and follow it right to your bait. Pour the dripping from your cooler in the water by your bait.

Here is a picture of my biggest which went 12 feet. This was the first one that I ever caught that was on the bank and not in the water. I was following the rope into some waist high marsh grass when all I saw was teeth and one hell of a hissing sound. I had a 12 gauge with slugs but didn't want to mess up the skull. So I handed my wife the shotgun and told her to cover him while I went to my buggy the get my .22 pistol. I hadn't taken a step when she blasted him.

I had been after him for three years. And before you call that statement BS and that you can't tell one from another. Take a close look at the eye. He had been caught by someone else three years earlier and got hooked in the eye. I found him in a small canal while fishing with a pile of rope wrapped around his head. He eventually lost the rope but always had the hook in his eye. I saw him on a regular basis in a canal on my ranch in Calhoun county. It took three years to catch him. I would slip up to a bait and would see him under it but he would never bite. I finally caught him in the big canal.


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## justinsfa (Mar 28, 2009)

U can also use a clothes pin attached to the cane pole to hold your line up.... less resistance and it wont ruin your cane when it gets grabbed....

Oh, and yes, chicken works best.... a really smelly one from the Texas heat...

Make sure to take VERY good care of the hide and have a destination already picked out.... You can find some places that do wallets and boots and such ahead of time.

This will help you tremendously if you are a first timer.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_1011.pdf

Its got alot of good info and tips on skinning and processing and tagging and catching...


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## Josh5 (Jun 27, 2007)

Cow lung. Three days in a closed five gallon bucket. Works fantastically. The air tubes don't decay as quick, and will stay on your hook better.

Problem with chicken is that as it rots, if falls off the bone....no good. 

You want that bait stinking as much as possible. We would then also splash that extra juice from the bucket around the area, up on the bushes etc for the wind to carry the scent, also some juice in the water.


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## Sniper John (Dec 11, 2006)

I have always used fresh beef heart and out of 15 different alligator hunt, never have I been skunked. Rotten chicken does seem to be the most popular with what I see others using but I have stayed with what I was taught. A chunk of fresh beef heart a little bigger than your fist. Keep it fresh in a plastic bag on ice until you use it and it will drip blood all night.


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## Sniper John (Dec 11, 2006)

Of course the Cajuns will tell you. the best tried and true ********** of the old days was a live kitten hooked through the back. hwell:

But seriously, if you set your line where you know a gator is. Near a den, near a slide, where you see one in the evening. It really does not matter which bait you use.


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## llred (Jun 30, 2008)

we used to use beef hearts or a whole chicken. Let it sit out in sun for a day. Used the same method with the cane pole and T-post.


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## chad (Sep 7, 2006)

M16, that is a very nice lizard you got there.

After reading this thread I want to go alligator hunt now. Sounds like fun.


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## grandpa cracker (Apr 7, 2006)

Whatever you do , don`t ask Amos Moses. He just might get an attitude about it.


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## goatchze (Aug 1, 2006)

For a fact, Egrets make great **************.

I know, I know, they're protected...but you try explaining to an 87 year old man that he's not doing something right!


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## turbosdad (Oct 31, 2008)

We started with beef parts, mostly liver. We would buy it from the meat market on the way down Friday afternoon...We had reasonable luck. We switched to chicken and again had reasonable luck....but we noticed that we always had better luck Saturday night than Friday.

We started buying chickens in half on Wednesday. We would place them in a 5 gallon bucket, hammer the lid on, bunjie the bucket in the bed of the pickup. By Friday night when we uncorked that baby we had ********* extraordinaire. Seriously, we would hook up 75% of the time and lines. We wore gloves and **** near burned our clothes if you got any on you, BUT I am telling you gators LOVE rotten meat!!! When they killl something naturally, they will take it and keep it til it rots, then eat it.

I have heard those white bayou birds make good bait too.....but that's illegal:biggrin:

By the way we took most of ours from a boat, and always let the new guy pull it up.


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## deadeye68 (Jan 19, 2007)

Tie your bait about 3' above the water line, the higher the bait the bigger the gator.


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