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Weekend at Randolph?s Landing on the Santee
  WeHuntSC.com - Alligator Eyes
   

This past weekend I was down on the Santee all weekend long and man was it hot!  I think the sun may hang a little closer to the earth down there because I sure did get burned.  Also, I think there are some different kinds of bugs down at Santee that we don?t have around Pageland.   Have you ever seen anything unique at Santee?

While I was down there I spent some time talking with the guys in the bait shop at Randolph?s landing about cat fishing, hunting, but mostly about alligator hunting.  I have no idea about hunting alligators so I had a lot of questions and they sure did give me some good information and they also told me some good stories.  From what I can tell, it sounded like fighting an alligator can be a tough, long battle.  It also sounded like you better know what you?re doing before you go. 

The crew in the bait shop started telling me about the regulations and process a person must go through just to be able to hunt alligators.  Some of the guy?s couldn?t agree about the exact process so I looked it up on SCDNR?s web site.  It turns out that there is a detailed process to it and there are several guidelines to follow.  In retrospect, I think the complexity of the rules may have been the reason for their disagreements (or maybe it was just because people are used to hearing lies in a bait shop), but they were all close. 

From DNR?s web site you can see that DNR divides the state up into 5 different ?units? with only 4 of the units having a gator season.  The units with gator season are the areas of South Carolina that are coastal or near large lakes.  SCDNR only issues 1,000 tags leaving each unit with 250 gator tags and those tags must be applied for.  The application fee is $10 and if you get selected there is a $100 alligator hunting permit so to alligator hunt you need to have your mind and billfold right!  Gator season runs for one month.  It starts on the 2nd Saturday in September and goes til the 2nd Saturday in October.  If you?d like to know more or see the rest of the guidelines for alligator hunting in SC, you can find information at SCNR?s site.

The "units" that SCDNR has in place for gator hunting

WeHuntSC.com - DNR's Map of the units

Back to the bait shop?the guys told me the story of last year?s biggest gator.  Randolph?s landing is located right beside the dam.  Just behind the dam is an area called the ?bar pits? where they say gators are frequently found.  The crew in the bait shop said that last year a guy caught a huge gator that was about 14 feet long.  They said that the man who caught the gator was fishing with his wife and was in a large john boat.  They said he had to fight the gator for some 4 hours to get the gator to shore.  They couldn?t remember the weight of the gator, but they said it was really heavy.  I wish I could have seen that one.  I bet it was a sight to see and to think of fighting something for 4 hours?he must have been tired.

On a side note, they said that there is a correlation with the distance (in inches) between an alligator?s eyes and the length of the gator.  For example, if there are 4 inches between the gator?s eyes, then the gator is 4-feet long, if there are 10 inches between the eyes equals a 10 foot gator, etc, etc.  I thought that was a neat trick to know, but it may be common to you!

The weekend at Randolph?s was a good one and was hot!  If you?re a gator hunter and you get some tags be sure to check out the bar pits and be sure to take a pic of whatever you get and post it to the site.  We may be down there again during gator season so if you?re planning a trip, let us know? we might come and film it. 

Also, the guys at the landing were nice enough to let me leave some stickers in the bait shop just in case you?re in the Santee area and would like some WeHuntSC.com stickers.

Regards,

Clint 
 


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