MD. Man Traps And Kills 8-Foot Alligator
A local Maryland man found an almost 8-foot Alligator over the Father’s Day weekend in a pond off of Chesapeake Bay, caught said alligator using chicken breasts as bait, and
A local Maryland man found an almost 8-foot Alligator over the Father’s Day weekend in a pond off of Chesapeake Bay, caught said alligator using chicken breasts as bait, and shot it with a crossbow, putting the meat in the freezer, according to The Washington Post.
William Adams and his 14-year-old son Jake found that the alligator was causing a buzz in his hometown of Lusby, MD. State wildlife officials said it is likely that someone had been trying to raise the gator as a pet, then released it.
On Tuesday, Adams said he put to use lessons learned from a television show while trying to remove the alligator from his family’s favorite kayaking spot, a mission he accomplished on Father’s Day.
In early June, Adams said he and his son were kayaking near their home at Chesapeake Ranch Estates. Adams, an avid outdoorsman, said he and his son often go hunting, fishing and kayaking.
Usually they find a snakehead fish. This time, Adams said he and his son were fishing from kayaks when he drifted up to a pile of trees that had fallen into the water.
“I looked down and about a foot away was a big alligator head,” Adams recalled. “That’s all I could see.” He said he quietly rowed away and told his son they should get out of the water.
He returned and unsuccessfully tried to find the alligator in the three-foot-deep pond. He said he ordered some “hooks and lines off the Internet” that could hold up to 980 pounds, and on Saturday he went back to the pond. He set up lines with a hook and chicken breasts for bait, tying them in trees just above the water.
Adams, who works for a bathroom and kitchen renovation company, said he learned how to trap the gator from watching the History Channel’s “Swamp People,” a show that chronicles alligator-hunting season in the Louisiana swamps.
Adams said he baited the contraption and left it overnight because “that’s when alligators eat.” The next morning, on Father’s Day, Adams and his son went back to the pond.
“We went back first thing in the morning, and it was there on the lines,” Adams said. He said the alligator was thrashing, so he crept up on it, got about two feet away and shot it behind the skull with his crossbow.
“It was pretty scary,” Adams recalled, “especially because I don’t know anything about alligators.”
He said he, along with his son and a family friend, Steve Carson, dragged the gator out of the water, put it in his Dodge Dakota and showed a few friends.
Adams said the gator measured 7 feet, 6 inches, and estimated that it weighed 150 to 175 pounds. He plans to have a taxidermist stuff and mount the alligator in a trophy room at his house.
