BIG CATCH:
Doddridge man bags 10-foot alligator.
Carroll Reneau of Doddridge, Ark., harvested a 10-foot, 2-inch long alligator Sept. 22.
The alligator Reneau harvested at 3:30 a.m. Sept. 22 was 650 pounds, but he is still thinking about the gator that didn’t show up that night.
“I feel pretty good about it. I wish I got the other gator,” said Reneau. He (other gator) went into hiding,” said Reneau.
For weeks prior to the hunt, Reneau had been watching a 14-foot-long alligator and hoping to harvest it.
Reneau won the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission lottery and hunted Mercer Bayou Sept. 21, but he was unable to find the bigger gator and opted to return to the river Sept. 22.
The 10-foot gator put up a fight, said Reneau, a superintendent for a local construction company.
“It was an adrenaline rush,” he said. “From the time we harpooned him and shot him, it took about 45 minutes,” said Reneau, who used a 12-gauge shotgun to kill the gator.
“Once everyone in the boat heard the gunshot, you could see the relief on everyone’s face and they knew he was down,” he said.
Reneau had a crew who assisted him on the hunt that included his brother, Micheal; his son Grady, 16; and his nephew Brayden, 15. His wife, Tammy and his 5-year-old daughter Carol Anne encouraged the hunters.
“Tammy worried about the dangers in hunting alligators,” he said.
But Reneau was well prepared.
“We had rehearsals to know what to do. We practiced several scenarios,” he said.
“Hunting in the dark adds a level of intensity. It can be unnerving hunting at night,” said Reneau.
He will try to win the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission hunting lottery next year.
The 14-foot alligator used the rainy weather to obscure his location on this particular weekend.
Reneau has spent an estimated 100 hours tracking and documenting this particular gator in Mercer Bayou.
“He is pretty brave… letting us know it’s his territory. You see him at the slough. He bows his back up and displays himself, to let us know it’s his territory,” Reneau said.