Off the Web...
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There are hunters who go a lifetime dreaming of that
big kill. Then there's Simon Hughes, who helped nab
a beast of an animal on an East Texas hunt -- while
still in the first grade. The 5-year-old boy from
Goodrich was part of a hunting crew that recently
killed an 800-pound, 12-foot-6-inch alligator that
has wildlife experts shaking their heads.
The reptile, whose size is at a state record level,
is now at the taxidermist waiting to be mounted.
Simon's family, meanwhile, is fielding calls from
CNN and Good Morning America to feature his exploits.
Simon learned to drive all-terrain vehicles and shoot
firearms when he was only 4. So he was primed and ready
to go on an alligator hunt this past weekend with his
father, Scott Hughes, a sixth-generation rancher, and
hunting guide Chuck Cotton.
Simon had a new junior-sized .410-gauge shotgun. His
first gun had been too big, having a recoil that opened
a small cut below one eye after he fired it.
Neither his father nor mother worry about Simon using
firearms, because he has been taught gun safety since
he was big enough to walk and stand in a deer blind.
"That's the way it is in rural areas," Scott Hughes said.
"We don't think of guns as playthings or something used
in videogames."
By the time of the alligator hunt, Simon could shoot
clay pigeons.
Polk County Sheriff Kenneth Hammack, a former Texas
Ranger, has been bird hunting with Simon and said he
shoots pretty well for his age. "Of course, you always
keep an eye on children," said Hammack, "but he's
learned a lot from his father."
Scott had obtained a state permit to kill two of the
40 alligators populating his 5,000-acre spread near
Lake Livingston because he knew something "real big
was out there" and driving small alligators from the
swampy areas and into his stock ponds.
State law requires alligators be caught on a baited
hook or shot with a bow and arrow. So they baited a
hook on Saturday with some "smelly armadillo roadkill,"
which apparently alligators adore.
When they returned the next day, the line was taut.
Something had been snared and was resting beneath the
dark 4-foot-deep waters.
"Never afraid for a second"
The hunters soon discovered their catch was an
alligator. They attached it to an all-terrain
vehicle with a sturdy line, but the gator proved
so strong it almost dragged their vehicle into the
water.
Finally, the animal, after thrashing and rolling,
surfaced a second time, and Simon, poised 5 feet
away, fired the first and what proved to be fatal
shot. Cotton, just to be sure, fired one more shot
at the giant reptile, which had managed to rip the
hook out of its mouth.
Simon said he screamed "holy moly" when he saw the
catch of the day. "I was never afraid for a second,"
he said of the gator, which is 20 times his size.
Taxidermist Stephen Moye said the head of the 12-foot-
6-inch reptile weighs 104 pounds by itself.
A state wildlife biologist estimated the gator's
weight at more than 800 pounds. Finding an alligator
of such size is rare, state officials said. Although
the record length for a Texas alligator exceeds Simon's
kill by 1 foot and 8 inches, the record weight for a
gator killed on state property is only 690 pounds,
records showed.
Simon, meanwhile, has shown pictures of the gator to
his classmates in Goodrich, near Lake Livingston, but
that won't be nearly as impressive as when he can bring
the mounted head to show-and-tell and display its
ferocious 12-inch bite.
"My friends were proud of me, and I was proud of myself,"
Simon said of the photos that show him standing alongside
the monstrous gator. "It's humongous!"
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A well-loved boy, I should say.
Ronin
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