July 2, 2024 • 47 mins
Craving an insider’s peek into Florida's wild, untamed side? Join us for a riveting conversation with Justin, a seasoned guide from Plant City, who takes us through nearly two decades of exhilarating outdoor adventures. Raised on fishing trips with his grandfather and fueled by a passion for the great outdoors, Justin recounts his fascinating transition from a farming and fishing background to becoming a master of hog wrestling and gator lassoing. His knack for capturing wild boars with hog dogs, a tradition dating back to the Spaniards, has garnered him a loyal following and a successful career in guiding.
Ever wondered what it’s like to hunt wild hogs in Florida’s thick, swampy terrain? Prepare for a deep dive into the varied techniques Justin uses, from airboats and swamp buggies to the classic spot and stalk method. He shares the unique challenges of controlling Florida's hog population, their rapid reproduction, and their adaptability. And don’t miss Justin’s thrilling tales of lassoing alligators, a skill he honed from a young age on farms and ranches, likening the adrenaline rush to wrangling dinosaurs.
But it’s not all about the hunt; Justin sheds light on the behavior and characteristics of alligators, the intricacies of their nesting habits, and the fascinating science of temperature-dependent sex determination of their eggs. Wrapping up, we explore Justin's interactions with clients on fishing and hunting trips, the importance of safety during these adventure-filled outings, and how he connects with the outdoor community through his website, Wet and Salty Adventures. Whether you’re a seasoned hunter or a curious novice, this episode promises to captivate with wild stories and expert insights into Florida's rich outdoor life.
Check us out on Facebook and instagram Hunts On Outfitting, and also our YouTube page Hunts On Outfitting Podcast. Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
this is hunts on outfitting podcast.
I'm your host and rookie guide,ken mara.
I love everything hunting theoutdoors and all things
associated with it, from storiesto how to's.
You'll find it here.
Welcome to the podcast, allright, welcome to Hunts on
Outfitting podcast.
The only podcast brought to youby Hunts on Outfitting and by
(00:33):
Wills.
Where the hell did that load go?
Wild trucking it's theresomewhere.
Wills Crazy, wild, awesome andjust plain out of the ordinary
are words I would use todescribe today's podcast guest's
life.
To him, though, it's an ordinaryday in the life of a hog
wrestling, gator lassoing andairboat maneuvering.
(00:54):
Floridian, he is veryfascinating to listen to and has
some wild stories.
If you guys enjoy the podcastany, we just hope you share us
out.
That's it.
That's all.
This was a really fun one to do.
I hope you guys enjoy it.
Now let's get into it.
Yeah, justin, thanks so muchfor coming on the podcast.
(01:15):
You're a really interesting guy, just yeah, there's a lot of
stuff to get into.
Talking with you, youdefinitely look like you live in
the dream.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about yourself and where
you're from?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
All right.
So I'm from a town called PlantCity it's in kind of south
central Florida, it's kind ofworld renowned for strawberry
production.
It's the strawberry capital ofthe world.
More specifically, I'm from atown in Plant City called
Springhead.
I'm 41 years old, I've been aguide and an outfitter in
(01:47):
Florida for almost 20 years and,yeah, I spend seven days a week
on the woods and in the waterchasing things and running
things over and having a goodold time.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, so you're living your best life.
You might say.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Absolutely.
I just don't consider it work,man.
There's nothing I do.
You know, Skinning a deer or ahog or an alligator is about as
hard as I work, and it ain't ajob.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, yeah, I hear that.
So what do you?
I mean, how did you get startedin the outfitting?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So I have a fishing slash farming background.
As far as my relatives and myancestors and where I came from
and my grandfather was an avidfisherman, he was a tournament
bass fisherman.
He always did really well withbass.
So from a very um, I've been,like I said, hunting and fishing
and and I remember when I was akid, especially on Fridays, a
lot of times, uh, my mom, shewould leave for work and she
(02:55):
would drop me off to catch thebus at my grandparents' house.
Well, my grandpa would get theboat and he would come to the
front yard and he'd pick me upand we'd go fishing.
And this was back before thetime that your school would call
your house and say you weren'tthere.
Oh, so you could get away.
You know, so oh yeah, I used toskip school about, you know, two
Fridays a month just to gofishing.
So and it kind of started fromthere and I had a love for the
(03:18):
outdoors, you know, and huntingand fishing.
I just naturally took to it andyou know kind of.
You know, in high school I haddifferent jobs and I bagged
groceries at a grocery store atone point and I've done several
different things in my life andyou know I'd wake up in the
morning, hate the alarm clockbecause it took me to a job that
I hate to do with people, thatI hated to do it with.
(03:39):
And I had a buddy tell me onetime he said man, you know
you're real good at finding andcatching them hogs.
You know you should be able tomake a living doing it.
And that's when I startedreaching out to these different
ranches that guided hog huntsand majority of the ranches that
would do guided hog hunts ifyou came as a guide, most people
(03:59):
didn't bring their own dogs andthe fact that I had pretty good
dogs that would go find andhold up a hog for me, you know
that's I didn't have a problem,you know, finding work as far as
that goes, and then it justkind of exploded from there, you
know.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Oh, wow, so your your first introduction to guiding
you were.
You were right into with thehogs and all that you weren't
doing.
You know dove hunts or anythingright in with the with the wild
boar.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
No, it was.
Yeah, it was right, it wasright in, it was right in.
So that's something I've alwayshunted and I've always had hog
dogs since I was a kid andalways hunted off airboats,
hunted the bo him what I coulddo and I showed him you know
that my ability with the peopleuh is pretty good too, you know,
since humor, being able to showpeople a good time and things
(04:50):
like that you know it's uh, itall kind of worked out and it
worked out fast.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
That sounds like the coolest job interview I've ever
heard of.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Since we're on that subject, why don't you tell us a
bit about the dogs that you douse and how you did get started
with the hog dogs, Because Ijust find that really
fascinating just how they work.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Okay so hogs were originally introduced in Florida
by the Spaniards.
Okay so, 100 years ago, in daysof old, or several hundred
years ago in days of old, whatyou would do is they would take
their dogs, you know, which,just basically would guard the
yard, you know, just an old yarddog and they would go catch
(05:34):
these hogs and you wouldcastrate the boars, which, once
you castrate a boar, you know,he don't care nothing about the
sows, all he does is eat and getbig.
At that point, and everybodyhad a very specific mark.
You would mark the ear of thepig with, um, and, and in that
minute was your pig, you know,and if I just so happened to
kill a pig that was yours or hadyour mark, you know, then we
would split the meat, and that'skind of where it started.
(05:57):
And then, and the tradition,just you know, kept on from
there.
Um, now, as far as dogs, um, theoriginal hog dogs in Florida
stemmed from cattle, dogs.
So Florida was the first statein the in the 48 to have cows
and horses.
Juan Ponce de Leon brought cowsand horses to the West coast of
(06:18):
Florida in 1521.
And then, shortly thereafter, aman decided he needed dogs to
help work those cows.
So you know, basically we usewhat we call a cur dog, c-u-r,
and it's just a mixed up dog andyou know, I'm sure you've heard
of cur dogs, yeah, like a blackmouth cur.
Yeah, now black mouths are nowregistrable dogs, so they're
(06:40):
considered like a purebred typeof cur dog.
They're considered like apurebred type of curdog Um, but
you know, uh, a lot of timesthese cow dogs are a Catahoula
or a Catahoula leopard dog, um,and they, they mix them with a
little bit of curdog or a littlebit of bulldog or a little bit
of pit bull, you know, or youknow a terrier, if you want a
little more bite in them orsomething like that.
Um, pretty gritty dogs.
(07:02):
You know a lot of these, know alot of these, a lot of these
cow dogs and hog dogs.
I love watching them work.
That's, that's probably the myfavorite part about it, you know
, is having a good dog andwatching them do their job well
yeah, yeah, no, I love a workingdog uh, hounds, hounds aren't.
Hounds are used down here a lotin um, in the management areas
(07:23):
or the public hunting areas, youknow, uh, to run hogs, but, uh,
on private lands, there youknow they're not the main breed.
You know a lot of people aregoing to be using, like I said,
those Catahoulas, those leoparddogs, those cur dogs, um, or we,
or what we call a shotgun dogor a running gun dog, and that's
just like an old red nose or aterrier, a dog that when you see
(07:44):
him or you put a spotlight onhim, he catches him and that's
that.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Okay, yeah, yeah, that's neat.
And then I mean, how do you isit bred in these dogs to get the
boar, or they just, they justhad that that catch drive in on
their meat.
Dogs kind of thing, Uh, dogskind of thing, uh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So they, they have a lot of they have a lot of it, a
lot of it in them.
Now I've I've seen dogs comeout of really good stock as far
as the mother and the father andthe grandparents on both sides
be working dogs.
I've seen dogs come out and notwork out, uh, and then I've
seen dogs that didn't come fromanything and work very well.
I think the biggest thing,especially here in Florida, the
(08:27):
consistency is key.
Man Consistency is key becauseyou know you got a dog and if
he's not conditioned properlyyou don't use him properly.
You know it's going to affecthim in the woods and how he, how
he behaves and how he works.
And you know, I've never, I'venever been to Canada, but I can
imagine that the cold wouldprobably have sort of a same you
know issue.
And you know I've never, I'venever been to canada, but I can
imagine that the cold wouldprobably have sort of a same you
(08:48):
know issue.
You know if the dog wasn't usedto the cold, because out here,
you know, if you don't take adog out for six months and then
you take him, you're talkingwith the heat index and and, uh,
humidity you're 80 per 75, 80relative humidity, sometimes in
a and 110 with the heat indexyeah yeah, you know.
So it gets super, super warmdown here about 10 and a half
(09:10):
months out of the year yeah, sothe dogs.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
That's probably the biggest thing for us yeah, just
having them always in shape andready to go to deal with that
kind of weather, yeah, yeah, andyou know it's.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I tell people it doesn't matter, it doesn't
matter what kind of animalyou're hunting with a dog, and
it don't matter where in theworld you're doing it if you
don't take the animal.
You can't get mad at the animalwhen he doesn't do what you
want him to do.
Yeah, you know so.
Yeah, and that's, you can'tcatch him from the couch.
That's what I say, yeah yeah,no, that's very true.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Uh, so with I mean, how does it work on the hunt?
If you could explain that.
You know some of the guyslistening.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Absolutely so, uh, typically, um, uh, a hound.
If you're hunting with hounds,it would be sort of like you
would be hunting a big cat or abear, other than the fact that a
big cat and a bear can climb atree and a hog can't.
So a hog is going to do sort oflike um, I'm sure you've seen
bears or cats bait up, they'regoing to do the same thing.
(10:13):
A hog is going to a hog isgoing to find a big tree that's
blown over and he's going toback up underneath that root
ball where they can only get tohis face, you know, and he and
he's got his teeth up there towork with to protect himself.
Um, so, uh, a lot of timespeople will run them across the
road with the with the houndsand then shoot them crossing the
road.
Um, now, with the cur dogs,typically, you're either going
(10:37):
to have, um, a bayon dog whichjust basically will chase the
hog down, you know, andsometimes reach up and bite them
on the back hands and stop themand spin them around and stay
in their face and bark at themand basically let the hog know
hey, man, if you turn away fromme I'm going to bite you, you
know, if you don't give me yourfull attention, you're going to
get bit and he'll stay there andstay barking and then the hog
(11:00):
will be bait up.
And then you'll take a catchdog in there, a dog that don't
do a lot of barking, and he'llrun in there and typically catch
a hog by the ears.
Catching him by the ears it'sit's, it doesn't hurt him, you
know, um doesn't do any damageto the hog.
Now, some people, um, you, youseen that that uh video, that
dog I had in that video I put upthat bobtail dog.
(11:20):
Now he is uh, he's good aboutfinding them, but he doesn't do
a lot of baying, right?
Um, he'll only, he'll only barkat one about two times and then
he's like no, I'm gonna eat.
You you know.
So you know you either bay themand then catch them, or you
just have dogs that are realgritty and, um, they get pretty
smart.
You know dogs will get up andthey'll say, well, I might not,
can handle this hog by myself,and they'll bay them till they
(11:41):
get help or some of them realizewhen he's too big yep, yeah,
100, 100, 100 they will.
And I know dogs it'll try a hog,one or two once or twice, you
know.
By trial one I mean he'll tryto catch him and if that hog
throws him and that's whenthey're like all right, I need
to, I need to stand back andmake a little noise until
somebody gets here to help me.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's cool.
Uh, what way do you guysnormally hunt the hogs?
Are you guys on an airboat?
Are you just kind of spot andstalk walking?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Are you in a buggy, and we've got a lot of
management areas here, or WMAswildlife management areas which
are public hunting opportunities.
Some of them are 58,000 and60,000 acres apiece, I mean.
(12:30):
So there's quite a bit of landNow on public property.
They dictate when you can go,what you can use, stuff like
that.
But on private land here inFlorida're a wild hog is
considered domestic livestockand and it's the landowner's
property upon whose land theyoccur at the time.
That's what the rule book says.
(12:50):
So if they, if they're on yourland, they're your hog.
You can, you can do with themas you see fit.
So, um, now we don't do thehelicopter hunts like they do in
texas just because we don'thave we don't have um the big
open fields.
Yeah, it's just real thick here.
Um, yeah, so we don't have.
We don't have um the big openfields yeah, it's just real
thick here.
Um, yeah, so we don't have that.
But, um, airboats is.
Airboats are a fairly popularway to do it, but, um, not a lot
(13:14):
of people have airboats to doit with.
Um, you know, we got a lot ofairboats here in florida, but a
lot of high end like race styleboats and cruiser boats.
You know, like what I call acold beer boat.
Yeah, you just ride around andhang out with the buddies, drink
a few beers, um, so that's,that's real popular.
And then we do swamp buggyhunts as well down here.
And then spot and stalk is abig thing too, um, so it's, we
(13:39):
do a little bit of everythinghere.
You know, still hunting witharchery equipment.
You know, the cool thing is isthere's no size or bag limit on
hogs here in Florida and you canhunt them year round.
You can thermal hunt them atnight.
So there it's just an endlessopportunity.
Florida, because and because ofour non-native and invasive
species here in Florida, it's avery target, rich environment,
Tons of stuff to shoot at here.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, yeah, no, it looks like a lot of fun, uh,
with the hogs.
I mean, if everybody was outhunting them as much as you were
and all that, do you think youwould ever get ahead of how many
there seems to be?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
no really wow no, absolutely not, absolutely not
now.
Um.
So we're.
There's a lot of constructiongoing on in florida right now.
Um we have a lot of peoplemoving here from other states
now why they're moving here fromothers.
Yeah, yeah, why they're movinghere.
I'm not going to get into that,it's a whole another talk show.
But uh, they're moving here andand so there's a lot of
(14:34):
construction.
So it seems like they'rebecoming concentrated in the
areas that they like to frequent.
Excuse me, okay, um, so youknow, we're just losing natural
habitat for the hogs to be in.
So, like I said, you know nowthey're being concentrated in
areas.
But the thing about it is too,is that a hog don't need much.
You know, a hog can live in apile of bushes in a store
(14:57):
parking lot and be just fine.
They don't need a lot.
So it ain't like they need somany acres per hog to survive.
They're so adaptable lot, so itain't like they need so many
acres per hog to survive.
Um, so it just.
Yes, they're super adaptableand they're in.
Their gestation period is aboutfour months.
So, theoretically speaking,they could have right around
three litters a year.
You know, um, on average of of13 to 15 pigs.
(15:21):
Each time they they a litter,um, so they, they breed like
rats.
You know, there's a bunch ofthem now with the hogs too?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
with you know when?
If sows got her litter?
Uh, is there many animals thatlike?
Would you know?
Did they have a lot ofpredation on them?
Was there any animals thatwould like?
Oh, there's a, there's an easymeal.
Or, with the way the sows are,they're just like.
No, it's not worth it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Well, florida panthers and black bears will
prey upon them.
Bobcats, alligators, foxes,coyotes Now there's only a few
animals that can take pigs andreally don't need to worry about
the mom, and that's going to bethe Florida Panther and the
(16:09):
Black Bear and the Alligator.
That's it.
Other than that, everythingelse, because there's there is
not a coyote in the state ofFlorida or in the southeastern
US that won't say pissed offmama pig after them.
They're just extremely strong,extremely rough, extremely
resilient, you know.
So they can definitely takecare of their own for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
It's not an easy meal .
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Oh no, lord.
No, not an easy meal at all, Itell you.
I see bald eagles carry pigletsaway every once in a while, you
know.
But yeah, mama can once.
Once they're snatched up andgrabbed.
At that point mama can't helpthem.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
So yeah, yeah, pigs can't fly no, nope um, yeah,
that's really interesting, allthat dog stuff.
And then you know, I'm excitedto get to and, as well, I mean,
my buddy and I were watching avideo before we had you on here
you're, you're lassoing gators,you're lassoing dinosaurs,
basically that's yes nuts.
How did you get into that?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
well, um, so it's, it's kind of, it's kind of
interesting, like I said,starting off young, um, you know
, being on farms and ranches andstuff, and a lot of times here
(17:33):
in Florida these farms andranches have permits to remove
alligators or remove certaindepredation type animals,
animals causing a problem.
So it's out of necessity.
You know, I remember the veryfirst time that I jumped on an
alligator by myself, I playedbaseball, I played Little League
, yeah, and there was a ballrolling in the outfield and a
ball hit a piece of wood.
Well, that piece of wood openedits mouth and spun around.
It was an alligator and, yeah,it wasn't very big at the time.
(17:56):
You know, he was only aboutfour feet long.
But I'm like, know, he was onlyabout four feet long, but I'm
like, okay, well, you know, thisshould be pretty easy.
I've seen it on TV.
Let me, yeah, let me try it.
So I hopped on his back and gothim held down and, um, you know
, and like I said, I I hadwatched a lot of, uh, nature
shows in my life and I I waslike, well, I could probably do
this.
So that's kind of where itstarted.
And then, you know, I wasworking on a ranch and somebody
(18:18):
said well, we got a gator, itneeds to be.
You know, it's causing us aproblem, does anybody have any
experience?
And I was like well,technically, by definition, yes,
I have experience and I canhandle it.
So, you know, I did a lot ofcatching them by hand and then,
you know, I got to where I canthrow a rope pretty good, and so
I just started incorporatingthe rope in my gator catching
and the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That's crazy.
I think at my ball games themost exciting thing we had was a
squirrel would go on the fieldor a deer and you're catching
gators.
Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
So the Florida stories about you guys being a
little more wild than theaverage bunch definitely sounds
to be true if you're jumping ongators at the ball game.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Oh, yeah, it it does.
It happens a lot.
You know there there's been alot of times where you know I'm
driving and traffic's backed upand you don't know what's going
on.
And you finally get up thereand you know the sheriff's
department, there's a gatorlaying in the road and he just
decided, well, I'm just going tolay here because this pavement
or this asphalt is nice and warm, and I'm going to lay here.
So I asked the cop.
(19:21):
I'm like hey, ben, you knowwhat?
Like are you going to move him?
I don't really know about that,you know.
I'm like OK, well, can I movehim?
Are you qualified?
I'm like yeah, sure, you know,and then I'll just grab him and
pull him out of the road.
You know, I'll tell you a funnystory.
I had the police department callme one time and they had an
(19:44):
alligator that made its way ontosomebody's front porch, like
you'd see in the news.
The lady hears a knocking atthe door, a tapping, so she
opens the door and there's aneight-foot gator laying there.
So they called me and I grabbedthe gator by the tail and I
pulled it out into the yard andbefore I did I told the cops.
I said listen.
There was five police officersthere and I said listen.
(20:06):
I said if that gator bites me?
And they said you want us tohelp?
And I said no.
I said if that gator bites me,I don't want your help
whatsoever.
And I said keep your hands offyour guns.
So I jumped on the gator and hehissed and he thrashed around
but I had him pinned down and,like a couple of them, out of
instinct, kind of just restedtheir hand on their sidearm and
I said now you see, that's whatI'm talking about.
(20:27):
I said no.
I said I don't need y'allblowing me full of holes trying
to help me yeah, geez, that'sthat's wild, yeah, you guys.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, you guys lived the life.
So I mean, did you learn torope first on cattle or anything
?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
or you were just going out after gator for
learning how to rope.
No, it was roping cows.
That's where I originallylearned to rope.
And then, being on a boat, alot, I throw dock lines at, you
know, pillars and cleats andstuff like that, you know.
So, yeah, I operate a lot oflarge boats as well from time to
(21:09):
time, and sometimes it justmakes sense to throw the rope,
you know.
So I just kind of taught myselfwhen I was younger.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Then I mean, with the gators, is it quite difficult
to lasso them Because their head, their head's more in the water
normally, isn't it?
Or you just kind of wait tillthey stick up a bit?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It all depends on the gator itself, because certain
gators, gators are very they'repretty much all the same
creature.
They're pretty similar, but,just like people, they have
different personalities.
Like, I have gators that I knowif I go in the enclosure I'm
going to have to keep my eye onthem because they are going to
come crawl right up my leg if Idon't watch them.
And then I have gators thatwon't, that won't come to me at
(21:49):
all.
So, um, it's a little bitharder to rope a gator facing
you.
So typically what you'll do isyou'll, you'll throw your loop
and you'll, and you'll throw itover his head, but you don't
pull your slack because he'sfacing you.
So you'll, you'll wait till heturns, you know, either left or
turns right, and he'll turn intothe loop.
And that's when you, that'swhen you get your slack and pull
(22:11):
your slack and you're tight onthem.
Um, you know, you, if you ropethem around the top and bottom
jaw, all the way around the neck, the rope needs to be back
behind the skull, on the neck,because if you have them from
just behind the eyes, forward,you're on the skull and the
(22:37):
skull slowly tapers forward.
So all they have to do isthrash one time and create a
little bit of slack in your lineand it'll pop off.
Now, if you have them ropedjust by the top jaw, it doesn't
matter, it's behind the teeth,it won't come off.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
You know, once it's tight, it's tight Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Do you have them break the rope a lot?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
No, no, hardly ever.
They don't bite.
Yeah, they're not able to bitethrough it or anything.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Well they're, they don't get a chance to.
Well, even if they do, theycan't.
So a gator, an alligator, has75 to 80 teeth in their mouth at
any given time.
Then they're born with thoseteeth.
Okay, now, kind of like a shark, an alligator will regenerate
teeth.
So if an alligator loses teeth,they regrow their teeth for,
yeah, the majority of theirlives.
(23:18):
They're going to average aroundto 3 000 teeth in a lifetime.
But their teeth are conical,they're cone shaped, they're
round and pointed.
They don't have teeth designedfor chewing or cutting.
Okay, so I have them bite myrope all the time.
It just doesn't hurt anything.
You know, if a gator bit youand let you go, even though they
have 2500 pounds per squareinch of bite force, if a gator
bit you on the arm and justopened his mouth right back up,
(23:40):
you would have small puncturewounds and that would be it and
it wouldn't even be a big deal.
Yeah, the problem is when theybite you and they thrash and
they tear around.
Okay, that's what, that's.
What's gonna hurt you is the isthe thrashing around.
So, yeah, that biting the rope,it doesn't hurt the rope at all
.
Their teeth have no serrationson them whatsoever, no sharp
(24:00):
edges okay, yeah, that'sinteresting.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I uh, I did not know that.
So the areas where you'remainly getting the gators, it's
on private land and you'rerelocating them, uh yeah, so,
yeah, so well, different,different areas for different
reasons.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
So my most recent videos, where I've been doing a
lot of the lassoing and therewas a gator that I had lassoed
and he was like 10 foot and Iwas in the pond standing behind
him yes, so that specific area,someone had the property and
they had gators on the propertyand they weren't doing what they
(24:40):
were supposed to be doing withthe gators.
You know, they kind of werebreaking the law, so they lost
access to the property.
Somebody new took the propertyover and now the gators have to
all be caught and they all haveto be documented.
We have to know what's there,how many are there, how big they
are male or female there, howmany are there, how big they are
(25:02):
male or female.
So on that piece of propertythere is probably.
I've caught 15 off thatproperty so far and I think we
got another 15 to go 15 or 20 togo.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
So what's the best way to tell how many gators are
there?
Do you guys kind of shine aspotlight at night on the lake
or the body of water or justwatch the shores?
I mean, is it difficult to tellhow many would be there?
Speaker 2 (25:24):
It is difficult, but it's not difficult.
So if you understand how gatorsthink and why they do what they
do, it will help you betterunderstand.
You know, maybe, how many is ina body of water.
So larger male gators, ormature male gators, they're not
tolerant of other male gators,okay.
(25:44):
So if you have a small pond andyou've got a gator in there
that's larger than nine feet, sofemale gators never, never,
really get bigger than nine feet.
So if you have a gator that'slarger than nine feet, all right
, you're going to know thatthat's a male, okay, okay.
And if there's gators there withhim that are under nine feet,
you're going to know typicallythose are going to be females
because he's not going to allowthose other males to hang out
(26:06):
there very long anyway, um, soyou're going to kind of get an
idea.
You know each female is goingto lay 30 to 50 eggs.
Uh, give or take a few, um,during the summertime.
Um, so it depends on the timeof year, like right now.
I know there's a bunch ofbabies out there.
I know three different femalesthat have nests and they got 10
(26:28):
to 15 babies on each nest thatare that are still alive.
They haven't been eaten yet.
So you kind of go through thereduring the day and you get a
head count on mature gators, andthen you go through there at
night and you and you get a headcount on mature gators, and
then you go through there atnight and you try to get a head
count on juveniles and kind ofput it together.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
So with the they lay that many eggs, how many of that
would survive, make it to amature size?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
So it all depends on who you ask.
So a good rule of thumb is 10%make it to adulthood.
So there, may excuse me, 10%make it to three foot in length,
and then one or two out of all,30 to 50 make it to adulthood.
So three to five will make itto three feet in length and one
or two will make it to adulthood.
(27:16):
Some people say 10% make it toadulthood.
So that female, like, like Isaid she'll, she'll build a nest
, um, she'll lay 30 to 50 golfball size elongated eggs in that
nest, and the nest is just amound of vegetation, mud, sticks
, grass, things like that, um,and then she'll lay the 30 to 50
eggs in there and then she'llcover it up.
(27:36):
Now she protects it, but theydon't incubate it.
They're cold-blooded reptiles.
So the natural compostingeffect of the vegetation will
create heat.
That's what incubates the eggs.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, and a pretty cool feature.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, and the temperature of the nest
determines if the eggs are boy,girl or a mixture of the two.
Really, yep, genetics play zerorole in it.
There is it's around a seven.
It's around a seven degreewindow, so 86 to 93 degrees
Fahrenheit.
If the nest temperature iswithin that and maintains you
have some male, some female thatare born.
If the nest temperature isabove 93 and maintains they're
(28:10):
all born as male.
If it's below 86 and maintainsthey're all born as female, oh
wow, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
So if someone had like an alligator farm, they
could completely control whetherthey had male or females 100%,
which we have a lot of here inFlorida.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
We we commercially farm gators here in Florida.
We don't allow commercialharvest.
You know a lot of people.
They see the swamp people inLouisiana, the show where
they're hanging baited hooksaround, yes, and then you know,
they asked me about it and Ijust let them know.
Well, they're commerciallyharvesting gators there.
We don't do that here.
Just like beef, pork or chicken, we have gators in Florida that
(28:46):
are bred, hatched, incubated orincubated, hatched and raised
in captivity for meat and skinproduction.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Right, yeah, just like a beef farm or something.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yep, exactly like that, Really cool beef farm or
something, yep, exactly likethat.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Really cool.
Speaking about the beef farms,you guys have a breed of cattle
there, the Florida CrackerCattle, and did?
I thought I heard this, so didthe name come from the guys, the
cowboys cracking their whipsaround the water holes?
And stuff to scare the gatorsout.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
It isn't to scare the gators, it's to drive cattle.
Yeah, the cracking of the whipsis to drive cattle, it's just
to drive them.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Okay, All right.
Yeah, Do many calves oranything?
Are they eaten by gators inFlorida?
Like would a typical rancherhave to worry about that?
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Typically no, but they do.
They will, you know.
So an alligator is a scavenger,more so than a hunter, and
they're a very opportunisticfeeder.
So the thing is, is alligators,if they were to reach a point
of hunger nearing starvation,they would attempt to take a
(29:51):
larger like a cow or something.
But there's so much food sourcedown here readily available.
But I've seen it happen.
You get these big ranches withcalves and if a calf eases down
into the water, it's nothing fora 12 or 14 foot gator to snatch
one up and take off with it.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, yeah, I suppose yeah Something that size.
Do you guys have many in yourarea that size?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah they're.
Oh yeah, that's, it's so.
You know, two and a halfmillion gators in the state of
Florida give or take.
You know.
Obviously it's hard to do anaccurate inventory on them, you
know, but if you get out thereand you sit quiet and you get
binoculars and you just startglass and ride with me, you know
(30:39):
and and I got, I consistentlyshow people 12 and 13 footers on
the gator sightseeing tours, um, but you know, certain times of
the year the hotter it gets,the harder they are to find,
because those bigger gatorsthey'll come up and get a breath
of air and then they'll go backto the bottom or they'll get
off in the shade, in a swampsomewhere.
Um, right now we're extremelylow, our water levels are
(31:00):
extremely low.
We're on a long drought rightnow, so we don't have a lot of
water.
And then the gators are.
I see them getting hit on theroad every day, crossing the
roads.
They're just, they're goingeverywhere they can to look for
some shade, look for some water.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Gee, okay, yeah, that'd be something to hit
That'd probably do a bit ofdamage to your vehicle.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Oh, you know, I've hit four or five in my life
myself, and it hasn't hurt myvehicle whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
So also, you do more than just you know the hog
hunting and the gator lassoing,you also do.
You know a lot of fishing aswell, airboat rides.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Yeah, you also do a lot of fishing as well.
Airboat rides, yeah.
So basically I have my owncompany and I work closely with
two or three other companiesthat are owned by friends of
mine, and we do anything andeverything together that you
would want to do outdoors inFlorida.
So another major thing for usis fossils and shark teeth.
(32:02):
So Florida is world-renownedfor fossils and shark teeth, so
that's a big industry for us.
People come here from around theworld to pan for shark's teeth
and dig for fossils and you know, florida has a very rich native
heritage, so a lot of peoplecome here to look for arrowheads
and things like that.
Um, we, like I said, we do alittle bit of everything you
(32:24):
know.
So I get people that want afreshwater fish we do that.
We saltwater fish.
I get people that want to comeprimitive camp we do that, you
know.
Um, I get people to come forphotography tours.
I get a lot, of a lot ofteachers that come um, and I'll
take groups of teachers out anddo educational trips and we'll
talk about the ecosystem, thewildlife, native species,
non-native species, the impactsthat each of those have on each
(32:47):
other and on the ecosystem, youknow, and then they'll take that
information back to theirclassroom, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, yeah.
What are the?
The primitive camping Like?
What consists of that?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
It all depends on how primitive you want to go.
So I have a group of gentlementhat like to hog hunt with me
and they like to camp weprimitive camp.
So what we'll do is there's alot of our bodies of water that
up to the high water mark.
It's considered public land,sovereign land.
You know public use land.
So you can camp around thebanks of a lot of our lakes here
(33:21):
in Florida for free.
So we'll take the boat andwe'll take the dogs and we'll go
set up a camp.
And you know, if you want to gosemi-primitive, we can.
At the end of the day we go upto the shower house at the fish
camp and you can have a hotshower.
And you know we can go to arestaurant and have a hot meal.
(33:43):
And if you want to go fullprimitive, we can take a bar of
soap, put it in the bottom of apantyhose, tie it to your belt
loop so you don't lose it in theriver and we can bathe right
there in the river with thealligators.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
So it vastly varies in what you want to do.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Absolutely it.
So it vastly varies in what youwant to do.
Absolutely it does.
That's cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
And then you do a lot of airboat rides as well, right
, yeah, yeah, yeah, tons ofairboat rides.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
You know I just can't handle the workload myself on
all the different boats.
So two of my cousins are mastercaptains, just like myself.
My best friend's a mastercaptain, um, and we all have the
same certifications as far asairboats and stuff.
So, um, you know, I I got one,my best friend, he'll do, uh,
(34:30):
he'll do, near shore fishing.
My cousin does offshore fishing, my other cousin does, um,
inshore and flats fishing.
You know I'll do the freshwaterfishing and the airboat stuff.
So we just we kind of help eachother out, you know, and it's,
it's um, it's a, it's a prettygood business and it's year
round.
You know we stay busy 52 weeksa year.
Um, you know it, it could be,it could be busier.
(34:53):
It's just hard to find, it'sjust hard to keep good help
around.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys got a lot on the go and
then also you spent some timedoing you said a bit with some
stuff, with Carbon TV and radio.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah, so a good friend of mine.
I took a woman out on a tripand it was actually a
bachelorette group and theywanted to go see dolphins out in
the Gulf of Mexico or in TampaBay in the Gulf of Mexico.
So I took them out and I didn'tknow it, but her boyfriend at
the time was into the TV and theradio so she was texting him
(35:34):
pictures and videos and she waslike, hey, I think this guy's
okay, I think he would work.
Uh, you know, you need to talkto him.
I think y'all, y'all could worktogether.
So when I got back to the doc,he was waiting on me.
He introduced himself, um goodfriend of mine now, vince Noble,
and um, he was like, hey, man,you know, we're doing uh like
(35:54):
for you to come out and sitaround and and, um, you know,
talk to us.
I was like okay, so did thatwith him a few times.
And then he was also involvedin radio and had been for a
while.
So I started um, takingSaturday mornings off and go to
the radio station, or I would doa call in, you know, and, uh, I
would talk over the talk, overthe phone, you know, and we'd do
(36:15):
a live radio deal there likethat.
We talk about fishing andhunting where stuff was biting,
when it was biting.
You know stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, yeah, that's really cool.
So it was a local Florida radiostation, was it?
Yes, yeah, yeah yeah.
Yeah, that's really neat.
You never know who you'retaking out, I guess note.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I guess no, absolutely not, absolutely not.
You know I've, I have, I havetaken out newscasters before you
know state.
You know that did semi-local,you know statewide kind of radio
or news, news broadcast andstuff and kind of get roped into
a little bit of that.
So, like you said, you neverknow who who you take out.
You know I get a lot of, uh,sports people, um, I get a lot
of different people like thatthat come out and go with me and
(37:03):
stuff and baseball players andso on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
You know yeah, in, in general, when somebody is
coming out with you for thefirst time, what would you
recommend, whether, like, I meanit's kind of broad question but
with your fishing or, you know,with the hog hunts and stuff
like like what to wear, what toexpect, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Okay, so the first question.
We'll kind of touch on a coupleof different things.
So the first thing, let's saywe're talking about fishing,
whether it's freshwater orsaltwater, so something that
helps me do real well and helps,you know, I retain 85% of my
business as return customers andsomething that helps me with
(37:42):
that is right out of the gate, Ifind out what you're wanting to
do and what your expectationsare.
You know, like if you called meright now and you said, hey,
man, you know I don't reallywant to go offshore but I want
to catch grouper, and I'm goingto say, hey, man, it's too hot
right now.
You know that water surface isreal hot.
Them grouper ain't way up inthese, way up in these flats.
I said, so, we're not going todo that, but this is some other
(38:02):
options.
So I'm going to ask you do youwant to fill the freezer or you
want to fish for fun?
And then, whether you tell me Iwant to catch food, or whether
you say, you know, I got to geton a plane in the morning or day
after tomorrow, so I don'treally want to keep anything
that's going to kind of uh, helpme figure out which direction
to go at that point?
Um, typically, when it comes tothe fishing, you don't have to
(38:24):
bring anything.
You know, uh, I have a licensethat covers your fishing license
when you're on the boat, so youjust show up with whatever
drinks you want for the day,whatever snacks you want for the
day, um, and you and your groupand we go fishing, you know,
and, um, now, if it's hoghunting, it's a little different
.
Yes, you know, if we're, ifwe're, if we're dog hunting, you
know, it's kind of, it's kindof funny to me.
(38:45):
You know, I I get people thatare avid hunters but they've
never dog hunted for hogs, orthey're from up north or out
west, and they show up, you know, and they're putting war paint
on their face and they're'respraying no-scent stuff all over
them.
I'm like no, no, no, no, no.
I said you can stop all that,bud.
Yeah, you can stop all that.
I said this whole curdog righthere is about to go put some
teeth on something.
You can stink as bad as youwant, buddy, it ain't going to
(39:07):
save them hogs today.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, you're not going to stink all day.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Yeah, what I tell people, um is especially with,
uh, with the airboats and stuff,um, it's very important that
you follow the rules on theairboat, because airboats can be
very dangerous.
You know, there's no brakes,there's no reverse Um, and the
biggest thing is people dropstuff and it goes through the
propeller and it can destroy apropeller, which can destroy and
sink a boat.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Um thought of that.
Yeah, Wow.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yep, so there's a, there's a lot to it, but it's
really not that complicated.
You know, um, it's, it's justpeople get out there on the
airboat and 99.9% of people arejust in awe of everything.
They love it.
They love everything about it.
Um, I do get a small, small,small percentage of people that
are like man, that's, that's waylouder than I thought it was
(40:04):
going to be.
And, and you know, like um, Ieven had somebody uh left a
review, not on my company, butfor a friend of mine's airboat
company the other day and itsaid you know, we were expecting
a nice calm ride through the,through the Florida wilderness,
but it was anything but that.
You know, it's like a rollercoaster and it really isn't like
that.
But those airboats, they, theydo drift a lot Like they drift
sideways, like a car would drifta corner.
Um, and obviously it's anairboat, so it's loud, you know
(40:26):
yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah, I mean, uh, how , how do you stop them?
Actually, I've kind of wonderedthat.
I just see guys kind of sort ofthrottle down.
Is that?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
is that the brakes, brakes so you can have a brake
put on a boat and it's basicallyjust a metal bar in the back
that when you push a separatepedal it falls into the water
and it creates a little bit ofdrag is all it does.
Yeah, um, now, on land a boat'sgonna stop pretty quick, all
right.
In in deeper water a boat'sgonna stop pretty, it will slide
(40:58):
to a stop, you know, um, prettyquick, because the weight of
the engine pulls the back of theboat down into the water.
Um, shallow water is when theydon't stop so quick.
But the thing about it is isyou just have you with an
airboat.
You cannot, you cannot payattention to what's happening
now.
You have to pay attention towhat's happening now and, even
(41:18):
more importantly, you have topay attention to what's
happening now.
You have to pay attention towhat's happening now and, even
more importantly, you have topay attention to what's about to
happen.
You know you can't look rightin front of the boat.
You need to be lookingeverywhere at all times.
You know you got to be veryaware of your surroundings.
You know, in our river systemsthey flow and the water level
changes because the tidalmovement, sometimes every hour,
(41:41):
so you might come around acorner that's three feet deep
right now and if you come aroundthat same corner tomorrow, it
might be three inches deep.
So you know it may.
The boat may slide a lot moreand and stuff like that.
You know, like I said, you justgot to anticipate what's coming
, um, and you can spin the boataround.
You can 180 the boat, spin itaround and give it throttle and
stop it in its tracks if youwant to.
Honestly, a big thing thatscrews people up is speed.
(42:02):
Almost a hundred percent of ourairboat accidents down here,
speed is a determining factorbecause, at the end of the day,
there's no such thing as tooslow on an airboat, but there is
such a thing as too fast.
Yeah, so, and the problem is isyou have to have extra throttle
to get the boats to turn and togo the direction you're turning
them.
(42:22):
So if you were to be goingstraight at full throttle, you
can't turn the boat and get itdo what you wanted to do if you
don't have extra gas.
You know what I mean to make itgo that way.
Yeah, we uh, actually uh, thisthis last sunday, um, we had a.
We have wrecks all the timepersonal boats, mostly private
boats, but we had a gentleman, aguy, die a fatality.
(42:44):
He was driving his boat and hewrecked, fell off the boat, hit
some tree logs and stuff and itkilled him.
But the next boat that wasright there grabbed him and said
, you know, they kind of sprunginto action and they did what
you would expect they put him onthe front of the boat.
One boy starts doing CPR andthe other guy gets in the
driver's seat and is driving himback.
(43:04):
Well, he kind of was worriedabout getting him back and
trying to get him to, you know,to emergency services before he
died on him and he was drivingtoo fast and he wrecked that
boat.
So the doing cpr oh yeah, theboy doing cpr on the guy that
was already dead flew off theboat and broke his back, hit a
tree and broke his back holythink it cursed boat.
(43:28):
No, that's why yeah, it's, uh,yeah, and and it goes, and it
goes, and it goes, it goes onthat whole.
You know the river changes andthat's another.
There's logs and stuff thatroll down the river.
The river, like I said, changesovernight.
Day by day the river willchange.
You might be on a straightawayand it's wide open, say, and
tomorrow there might be a bigold cypress log or oak log that
(43:49):
has rolled down the river andgot caught on the bottom and now
there's a hazard, justsubsurface, that you can't see.
That would bust a hole in thebottom of your boat, you know.
So complacency is a big problem, man, you know, and you know
it's just you get the guys thatcome out here and I hate to say
this because I'm a guy, so Idon't want to crap on my own too
(44:11):
much, but you get guys and thenyou get a few cold beers and
that testosterone mixed withI'll do what I want attitude.
You know it's a recipe fordisaster.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, I can see that.
Yeah, Justin, do you have astory of a real memorable hunt,
whether it be hog or gator, thatcomes to mind that you'd like
to tell?
Let's see here.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Man, I have a bunch, I have a ton of them.
But, um, I'll tell you the, thevery uh gator hunt that I went
on, that was, that was um,second to none, um, it was just
phenomenal gator hunt.
And I took a boy on it from uhmiddle of alabama and he come
(44:59):
down and and, uh, he said, man,I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
jump on a gator and I'm gonnawrestle a gator, and obviously I
won't let somebody jump a gatorwithout having tape on its
mouth.
You know, um, I do thatsometimes, you know.
But, um, he came down and wegot a gator caught, we got a
gator killed and and he wastalking all tough and everything
, and I said, uh, I said, allright, now, now get over it.
(45:23):
I said, straddle that gator.
I said, put your legs on eachside of my set and I want you to
, you know, grab his head andpick his head up for a picture.
And my, my friend, uh, the othercaptain, he was on the back of
the boat.
Well, that boy put his feet oneach side of the gator and I
picked that gator's tail up andshook it real quick and he dove
out of the boat Head first, doveright into the water.
(45:46):
Yep, dove right into the water,so that was a pretty funny time
right there.
You know, I've just man, I'vehad a lot of really, really fun
experiences over the year.
You know.
I've been real fortunate, um,and I've met a lot of really
cool people in my life, you know, and um, so, yeah, I could talk
(46:09):
for days about cool huntingstories, yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah, no, it sounds like you.
Uh, yeah, you definitely, youdefinitely live each day to the
fullest and have a lot of fundoing it.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, absolutely Love it.
Love everything about it.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Justin, it's been great talking to you.
Why don't you say, like your,your outfitting business that
you have?
Speaker 2 (46:27):
All right.
So my personal website is a wetand salty adventures and wet and
saltycom W E T, dash N, dash Sa l t y dot com, and that's my
personal website.
And I'm on all the main socialmedia platforms tiktok and
facebook and facebook businessand and all that kind of cool
(46:48):
stuff.
And you know, and even like Itell people, even if you're not
interested in hunting or fishingwith me, if I can help you out,
call or call or message me,email, text me anytime day or
night, I answer the phone andand, um, if I can help you out
or call or message me, email,text me any time day or night, I
answer the phone and if I canhelp you out or point you in any
right direction, you know I dothat for a lot of people.
They come to Florida and theydidn't budget in for a fishing
trip, so I'll tell them wherethey can go for free or you know
(47:09):
kind of what to do and where togo.
You know, the biggest thing forme is I want to expose people,
especially young people, to theoutdoors and to the wildlife.
You know hunting and fishing,and that way we can continue
forth with it.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, yeah, no, exactly, justin.
I want to thank you again forcoming on the podcast.
You've been a lot of fun andinteresting to listen to.
I really appreciate it and hopea lot of people go out and
check out Red Sight and ifthey're in Florida they hit you
up.
Is there any chance you'regoing to be in Florida at the
end of this year?
It's not in plans currently,but you never know.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Well, I have a gator tag with your name on it, yeah
sounds good.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
I'll see what's going on.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
All right, I'll send you some dates.
Man, it was a pleasure talkingto y'all fellas, I appreciate it
.
Yeah, thanks again.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Really, yeah, appreciate it as well.
this is hunts on outfitting podcast.
I'm your host and rookie guide,ken mara.
I love everything hunting theoutdoors and all things
associated with it, from storiesto how to's.
You'll find it here.
Welcome to the podcast, allright, welcome to Hunts on
Outfitting podcast.
The only podcast brought to youby Hunts on Outfitting and by
(00:33):
Wills.
Where the hell did that load go?
Wild trucking it's theresomewhere.
Wills Crazy, wild, awesome andjust plain out of the ordinary
are words I would use todescribe today's podcast guest's
life.
To him, though, it's an ordinaryday in the life of a hog
wrestling, gator lassoing andairboat maneuvering.
(00:54):
Floridian, he is veryfascinating to listen to and has
some wild stories.
If you guys enjoy the podcastany, we just hope you share us
out.
That's it.
That's all.
This was a really fun one to do.
I hope you guys enjoy it.
Now let's get into it.
Yeah, justin, thanks so muchfor coming on the podcast.
(01:15):
You're a really interesting guy, just yeah, there's a lot of
stuff to get into.
Talking with you, youdefinitely look like you live in
the dream.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about yourself and where
you're from?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
All right.
So I'm from a town called PlantCity it's in kind of south
central Florida, it's kind ofworld renowned for strawberry
production.
It's the strawberry capital ofthe world.
More specifically, I'm from atown in Plant City called
Springhead.
I'm 41 years old, I've been aguide and an outfitter in
(01:47):
Florida for almost 20 years and,yeah, I spend seven days a week
on the woods and in the waterchasing things and running
things over and having a goodold time.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, so you're living your best life.
You might say.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Absolutely.
I just don't consider it work,man.
There's nothing I do.
You know, Skinning a deer or ahog or an alligator is about as
hard as I work, and it ain't ajob.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, yeah, I hear that.
So what do you?
I mean, how did you get startedin the outfitting?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So I have a fishing slash farming background.
As far as my relatives and myancestors and where I came from
and my grandfather was an avidfisherman, he was a tournament
bass fisherman.
He always did really well withbass.
So from a very um, I've been,like I said, hunting and fishing
and and I remember when I was akid, especially on Fridays, a
lot of times, uh, my mom, shewould leave for work and she
(02:55):
would drop me off to catch thebus at my grandparents' house.
Well, my grandpa would get theboat and he would come to the
front yard and he'd pick me upand we'd go fishing.
And this was back before thetime that your school would call
your house and say you weren'tthere.
Oh, so you could get away.
You know, so oh yeah, I used toskip school about, you know, two
Fridays a month just to gofishing.
So and it kind of started fromthere and I had a love for the
(03:18):
outdoors, you know, and huntingand fishing.
I just naturally took to it andyou know kind of.
You know, in high school I haddifferent jobs and I bagged
groceries at a grocery store atone point and I've done several
different things in my life andyou know I'd wake up in the
morning, hate the alarm clockbecause it took me to a job that
I hate to do with people, thatI hated to do it with.
(03:39):
And I had a buddy tell me onetime he said man, you know
you're real good at finding andcatching them hogs.
You know you should be able tomake a living doing it.
And that's when I startedreaching out to these different
ranches that guided hog huntsand majority of the ranches that
would do guided hog hunts ifyou came as a guide, most people
(03:59):
didn't bring their own dogs andthe fact that I had pretty good
dogs that would go find andhold up a hog for me, you know
that's I didn't have a problem,you know, finding work as far as
that goes, and then it justkind of exploded from there, you
know.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Oh, wow, so your your first introduction to guiding
you were.
You were right into with thehogs and all that you weren't
doing.
You know dove hunts or anythingright in with the with the wild
boar.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
No, it was.
Yeah, it was right, it wasright in, it was right in.
So that's something I've alwayshunted and I've always had hog
dogs since I was a kid andalways hunted off airboats,
hunted the bo him what I coulddo and I showed him you know
that my ability with the peopleuh is pretty good too, you know,
since humor, being able to showpeople a good time and things
(04:50):
like that you know it's uh, itall kind of worked out and it
worked out fast.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
That sounds like the coolest job interview I've ever
heard of.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Since we're on that subject, why don't you tell us a
bit about the dogs that you douse and how you did get started
with the hog dogs, Because Ijust find that really
fascinating just how they work.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Okay so hogs were originally introduced in Florida
by the Spaniards.
Okay so, 100 years ago, in daysof old, or several hundred
years ago in days of old, whatyou would do is they would take
their dogs, you know, which,just basically would guard the
yard, you know, just an old yarddog and they would go catch
(05:34):
these hogs and you wouldcastrate the boars, which, once
you castrate a boar, you know,he don't care nothing about the
sows, all he does is eat and getbig.
At that point, and everybodyhad a very specific mark.
You would mark the ear of thepig with, um, and, and in that
minute was your pig, you know,and if I just so happened to
kill a pig that was yours or hadyour mark, you know, then we
would split the meat, and that'skind of where it started.
(05:57):
And then, and the tradition,just you know, kept on from
there.
Um, now, as far as dogs, um, theoriginal hog dogs in Florida
stemmed from cattle, dogs.
So Florida was the first statein the in the 48 to have cows
and horses.
Juan Ponce de Leon brought cowsand horses to the West coast of
(06:18):
Florida in 1521.
And then, shortly thereafter, aman decided he needed dogs to
help work those cows.
So you know, basically we usewhat we call a cur dog, c-u-r,
and it's just a mixed up dog andyou know, I'm sure you've heard
of cur dogs, yeah, like a blackmouth cur.
Yeah, now black mouths are nowregistrable dogs, so they're
(06:40):
considered like a purebred typeof cur dog.
They're considered like apurebred type of curdog Um, but
you know, uh, a lot of timesthese cow dogs are a Catahoula
or a Catahoula leopard dog, um,and they, they mix them with a
little bit of curdog or a littlebit of bulldog or a little bit
of pit bull, you know, or youknow a terrier, if you want a
little more bite in them orsomething like that.
Um, pretty gritty dogs.
(07:02):
You know a lot of these, know alot of these, a lot of these
cow dogs and hog dogs.
I love watching them work.
That's, that's probably the myfavorite part about it, you know
, is having a good dog andwatching them do their job well
yeah, yeah, no, I love a workingdog uh, hounds, hounds aren't.
Hounds are used down here a lotin um, in the management areas
(07:23):
or the public hunting areas, youknow, uh, to run hogs, but, uh,
on private lands, there youknow they're not the main breed.
You know a lot of people aregoing to be using, like I said,
those Catahoulas, those leoparddogs, those cur dogs, um, or we,
or what we call a shotgun dogor a running gun dog, and that's
just like an old red nose or aterrier, a dog that when you see
(07:44):
him or you put a spotlight onhim, he catches him and that's
that.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Okay, yeah, yeah, that's neat.
And then I mean, how do you isit bred in these dogs to get the
boar, or they just, they justhad that that catch drive in on
their meat.
Dogs kind of thing, Uh, dogskind of thing, uh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So they, they have a lot of they have a lot of it, a
lot of it in them.
Now I've I've seen dogs comeout of really good stock as far
as the mother and the father andthe grandparents on both sides
be working dogs.
I've seen dogs come out and notwork out, uh, and then I've
seen dogs that didn't come fromanything and work very well.
I think the biggest thing,especially here in Florida, the
(08:27):
consistency is key.
Man Consistency is key becauseyou know you got a dog and if
he's not conditioned properlyyou don't use him properly.
You know it's going to affecthim in the woods and how he, how
he behaves and how he works.
And you know, I've never, I'venever been to Canada, but I can
imagine that the cold wouldprobably have sort of a same you
know issue.
And you know I've never, I'venever been to canada, but I can
imagine that the cold wouldprobably have sort of a same you
(08:48):
know issue.
You know if the dog wasn't usedto the cold, because out here,
you know, if you don't take adog out for six months and then
you take him, you're talkingwith the heat index and and, uh,
humidity you're 80 per 75, 80relative humidity, sometimes in
a and 110 with the heat indexyeah yeah, you know.
So it gets super, super warmdown here about 10 and a half
(09:10):
months out of the year yeah, sothe dogs.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
That's probably the biggest thing for us yeah, just
having them always in shape andready to go to deal with that
kind of weather, yeah, yeah, andyou know it's.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I tell people it doesn't matter, it doesn't
matter what kind of animalyou're hunting with a dog, and
it don't matter where in theworld you're doing it if you
don't take the animal.
You can't get mad at the animalwhen he doesn't do what you
want him to do.
Yeah, you know so.
Yeah, and that's, you can'tcatch him from the couch.
That's what I say, yeah yeah,no, that's very true.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Uh, so with I mean, how does it work on the hunt?
If you could explain that.
You know some of the guyslistening.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Absolutely so, uh, typically, um, uh, a hound.
If you're hunting with hounds,it would be sort of like you
would be hunting a big cat or abear, other than the fact that a
big cat and a bear can climb atree and a hog can't.
So a hog is going to do sort oflike um, I'm sure you've seen
bears or cats bait up, they'regoing to do the same thing.
(10:13):
A hog is going to a hog isgoing to find a big tree that's
blown over and he's going toback up underneath that root
ball where they can only get tohis face, you know, and he and
he's got his teeth up there towork with to protect himself.
Um, so, uh, a lot of timespeople will run them across the
road with the with the houndsand then shoot them crossing the
road.
Um, now, with the cur dogs,typically, you're either going
(10:37):
to have, um, a bayon dog whichjust basically will chase the
hog down, you know, andsometimes reach up and bite them
on the back hands and stop themand spin them around and stay
in their face and bark at themand basically let the hog know
hey, man, if you turn away fromme I'm going to bite you, you
know, if you don't give me yourfull attention, you're going to
get bit and he'll stay there andstay barking and then the hog
(11:00):
will be bait up.
And then you'll take a catchdog in there, a dog that don't
do a lot of barking, and he'llrun in there and typically catch
a hog by the ears.
Catching him by the ears it'sit's, it doesn't hurt him, you
know, um doesn't do any damageto the hog.
Now, some people, um, you, youseen that that uh video, that
dog I had in that video I put upthat bobtail dog.
(11:20):
Now he is uh, he's good aboutfinding them, but he doesn't do
a lot of baying, right?
Um, he'll only, he'll only barkat one about two times and then
he's like no, I'm gonna eat.
You you know.
So you know you either bay themand then catch them, or you
just have dogs that are realgritty and, um, they get pretty
smart.
You know dogs will get up andthey'll say, well, I might not,
can handle this hog by myself,and they'll bay them till they
(11:41):
get help or some of them realizewhen he's too big yep, yeah,
100, 100, 100 they will.
And I know dogs it'll try a hog,one or two once or twice, you
know.
By trial one I mean he'll tryto catch him and if that hog
throws him and that's whenthey're like all right, I need
to, I need to stand back andmake a little noise until
somebody gets here to help me.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's cool.
Uh, what way do you guysnormally hunt the hogs?
Are you guys on an airboat?
Are you just kind of spot andstalk walking?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Are you in a buggy, and we've got a lot of
management areas here, or WMAswildlife management areas which
are public hunting opportunities.
Some of them are 58,000 and60,000 acres apiece, I mean.
(12:30):
So there's quite a bit of landNow on public property.
They dictate when you can go,what you can use, stuff like
that.
But on private land here inFlorida're a wild hog is
considered domestic livestockand and it's the landowner's
property upon whose land theyoccur at the time.
That's what the rule book says.
(12:50):
So if they, if they're on yourland, they're your hog.
You can, you can do with themas you see fit.
So, um, now we don't do thehelicopter hunts like they do in
texas just because we don'thave we don't have um the big
open fields.
Yeah, it's just real thick here.
Um, yeah, so we don't have.
We don't have um the big openfields yeah, it's just real
thick here.
Um, yeah, so we don't have that.
But, um, airboats is.
Airboats are a fairly popularway to do it, but, um, not a lot
(13:14):
of people have airboats to doit with.
Um, you know, we got a lot ofairboats here in florida, but a
lot of high end like race styleboats and cruiser boats.
You know, like what I call acold beer boat.
Yeah, you just ride around andhang out with the buddies, drink
a few beers, um, so that's,that's real popular.
And then we do swamp buggyhunts as well down here.
And then spot and stalk is abig thing too, um, so it's, we
(13:39):
do a little bit of everythinghere.
You know, still hunting witharchery equipment.
You know, the cool thing is isthere's no size or bag limit on
hogs here in Florida and you canhunt them year round.
You can thermal hunt them atnight.
So there it's just an endlessopportunity.
Florida, because and because ofour non-native and invasive
species here in Florida, it's avery target, rich environment,
Tons of stuff to shoot at here.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, yeah, no, it looks like a lot of fun, uh,
with the hogs.
I mean, if everybody was outhunting them as much as you were
and all that, do you think youwould ever get ahead of how many
there seems to be?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
no really wow no, absolutely not, absolutely not
now.
Um.
So we're.
There's a lot of constructiongoing on in florida right now.
Um we have a lot of peoplemoving here from other states
now why they're moving here fromothers.
Yeah, yeah, why they're movinghere.
I'm not going to get into that,it's a whole another talk show.
But uh, they're moving here andand so there's a lot of
(14:34):
construction.
So it seems like they'rebecoming concentrated in the
areas that they like to frequent.
Excuse me, okay, um, so youknow, we're just losing natural
habitat for the hogs to be in.
So, like I said, you know nowthey're being concentrated in
areas.
But the thing about it is too,is that a hog don't need much.
You know, a hog can live in apile of bushes in a store
(14:57):
parking lot and be just fine.
They don't need a lot.
So it ain't like they need somany acres per hog to survive.
They're so adaptable lot, so itain't like they need so many
acres per hog to survive.
Um, so it just.
Yes, they're super adaptableand they're in.
Their gestation period is aboutfour months.
So, theoretically speaking,they could have right around
three litters a year.
You know, um, on average of of13 to 15 pigs.
(15:21):
Each time they they a litter,um, so they, they breed like
rats.
You know, there's a bunch ofthem now with the hogs too?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
with you know when?
If sows got her litter?
Uh, is there many animals thatlike?
Would you know?
Did they have a lot ofpredation on them?
Was there any animals thatwould like?
Oh, there's a, there's an easymeal.
Or, with the way the sows are,they're just like.
No, it's not worth it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Well, florida panthers and black bears will
prey upon them.
Bobcats, alligators, foxes,coyotes Now there's only a few
animals that can take pigs andreally don't need to worry about
the mom, and that's going to bethe Florida Panther and the
(16:09):
Black Bear and the Alligator.
That's it.
Other than that, everythingelse, because there's there is
not a coyote in the state ofFlorida or in the southeastern
US that won't say pissed offmama pig after them.
They're just extremely strong,extremely rough, extremely
resilient, you know.
So they can definitely takecare of their own for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
It's not an easy meal .
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Oh no, lord.
No, not an easy meal at all, Itell you.
I see bald eagles carry pigletsaway every once in a while, you
know.
But yeah, mama can once.
Once they're snatched up andgrabbed.
At that point mama can't helpthem.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
So yeah, yeah, pigs can't fly no, nope um, yeah,
that's really interesting, allthat dog stuff.
And then you know, I'm excitedto get to and, as well, I mean,
my buddy and I were watching avideo before we had you on here
you're, you're lassoing gators,you're lassoing dinosaurs,
basically that's yes nuts.
How did you get into that?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
well, um, so it's, it's kind of, it's kind of
interesting, like I said,starting off young, um, you know
, being on farms and ranches andstuff, and a lot of times here
(17:33):
in Florida these farms andranches have permits to remove
alligators or remove certaindepredation type animals,
animals causing a problem.
So it's out of necessity.
You know, I remember the veryfirst time that I jumped on an
alligator by myself, I playedbaseball, I played Little League
, yeah, and there was a ballrolling in the outfield and a
ball hit a piece of wood.
Well, that piece of wood openedits mouth and spun around.
It was an alligator and, yeah,it wasn't very big at the time.
(17:56):
You know, he was only aboutfour feet long.
But I'm like, know, he was onlyabout four feet long, but I'm
like, okay, well, you know, thisshould be pretty easy.
I've seen it on TV.
Let me, yeah, let me try it.
So I hopped on his back and gothim held down and, um, you know
, and like I said, I I hadwatched a lot of, uh, nature
shows in my life and I I waslike, well, I could probably do
this.
So that's kind of where itstarted.
And then, you know, I wasworking on a ranch and somebody
(18:18):
said well, we got a gator, itneeds to be.
You know, it's causing us aproblem, does anybody have any
experience?
And I was like well,technically, by definition, yes,
I have experience and I canhandle it.
So, you know, I did a lot ofcatching them by hand and then,
you know, I got to where I canthrow a rope pretty good, and so
I just started incorporatingthe rope in my gator catching
and the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That's crazy.
I think at my ball games themost exciting thing we had was a
squirrel would go on the fieldor a deer and you're catching
gators.
Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
So the Florida stories about you guys being a
little more wild than theaverage bunch definitely sounds
to be true if you're jumping ongators at the ball game.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Oh, yeah, it it does.
It happens a lot.
You know there there's been alot of times where you know I'm
driving and traffic's backed upand you don't know what's going
on.
And you finally get up thereand you know the sheriff's
department, there's a gatorlaying in the road and he just
decided, well, I'm just going tolay here because this pavement
or this asphalt is nice and warm, and I'm going to lay here.
So I asked the cop.
(19:21):
I'm like hey, ben, you knowwhat?
Like are you going to move him?
I don't really know about that,you know.
I'm like OK, well, can I movehim?
Are you qualified?
I'm like yeah, sure, you know,and then I'll just grab him and
pull him out of the road.
You know, I'll tell you a funnystory.
I had the police department callme one time and they had an
(19:44):
alligator that made its way ontosomebody's front porch, like
you'd see in the news.
The lady hears a knocking atthe door, a tapping, so she
opens the door and there's aneight-foot gator laying there.
So they called me and I grabbedthe gator by the tail and I
pulled it out into the yard andbefore I did I told the cops.
I said listen.
There was five police officersthere and I said listen.
(20:06):
I said if that gator bites me?
And they said you want us tohelp?
And I said no.
I said if that gator bites me,I don't want your help
whatsoever.
And I said keep your hands offyour guns.
So I jumped on the gator and hehissed and he thrashed around
but I had him pinned down and,like a couple of them, out of
instinct, kind of just restedtheir hand on their sidearm and
I said now you see, that's whatI'm talking about.
(20:27):
I said no.
I said I don't need y'allblowing me full of holes trying
to help me yeah, geez, that'sthat's wild, yeah, you guys.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, you guys lived the life.
So I mean, did you learn torope first on cattle or anything
?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
or you were just going out after gator for
learning how to rope.
No, it was roping cows.
That's where I originallylearned to rope.
And then, being on a boat, alot, I throw dock lines at, you
know, pillars and cleats andstuff like that, you know.
So, yeah, I operate a lot oflarge boats as well from time to
(21:09):
time, and sometimes it justmakes sense to throw the rope,
you know.
So I just kind of taught myselfwhen I was younger.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Then I mean, with the gators, is it quite difficult
to lasso them Because their head, their head's more in the water
normally, isn't it?
Or you just kind of wait tillthey stick up a bit?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It all depends on the gator itself, because certain
gators, gators are very they'repretty much all the same
creature.
They're pretty similar, but,just like people, they have
different personalities.
Like, I have gators that I knowif I go in the enclosure I'm
going to have to keep my eye onthem because they are going to
come crawl right up my leg if Idon't watch them.
And then I have gators thatwon't, that won't come to me at
(21:49):
all.
So, um, it's a little bitharder to rope a gator facing
you.
So typically what you'll do isyou'll, you'll throw your loop
and you'll, and you'll throw itover his head, but you don't
pull your slack because he'sfacing you.
So you'll, you'll wait till heturns, you know, either left or
turns right, and he'll turn intothe loop.
And that's when you, that'swhen you get your slack and pull
(22:11):
your slack and you're tight onthem.
Um, you know, you, if you ropethem around the top and bottom
jaw, all the way around the neck, the rope needs to be back
behind the skull, on the neck,because if you have them from
just behind the eyes, forward,you're on the skull and the
(22:37):
skull slowly tapers forward.
So all they have to do isthrash one time and create a
little bit of slack in your lineand it'll pop off.
Now, if you have them ropedjust by the top jaw, it doesn't
matter, it's behind the teeth,it won't come off.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
You know, once it's tight, it's tight Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Do you have them break the rope a lot?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
No, no, hardly ever.
They don't bite.
Yeah, they're not able to bitethrough it or anything.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Well they're, they don't get a chance to.
Well, even if they do, theycan't.
So a gator, an alligator, has75 to 80 teeth in their mouth at
any given time.
Then they're born with thoseteeth.
Okay, now, kind of like a shark, an alligator will regenerate
teeth.
So if an alligator loses teeth,they regrow their teeth for,
yeah, the majority of theirlives.
(23:18):
They're going to average aroundto 3 000 teeth in a lifetime.
But their teeth are conical,they're cone shaped, they're
round and pointed.
They don't have teeth designedfor chewing or cutting.
Okay, so I have them bite myrope all the time.
It just doesn't hurt anything.
You know, if a gator bit youand let you go, even though they
have 2500 pounds per squareinch of bite force, if a gator
bit you on the arm and justopened his mouth right back up,
(23:40):
you would have small puncturewounds and that would be it and
it wouldn't even be a big deal.
Yeah, the problem is when theybite you and they thrash and
they tear around.
Okay, that's what, that's.
What's gonna hurt you is the isthe thrashing around.
So, yeah, that biting the rope,it doesn't hurt the rope at all
.
Their teeth have no serrationson them whatsoever, no sharp
(24:00):
edges okay, yeah, that'sinteresting.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I uh, I did not know that.
So the areas where you'remainly getting the gators, it's
on private land and you'rerelocating them, uh yeah, so,
yeah, so well, different,different areas for different
reasons.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
So my most recent videos, where I've been doing a
lot of the lassoing and therewas a gator that I had lassoed
and he was like 10 foot and Iwas in the pond standing behind
him yes, so that specific area,someone had the property and
they had gators on the propertyand they weren't doing what they
(24:40):
were supposed to be doing withthe gators.
You know, they kind of werebreaking the law, so they lost
access to the property.
Somebody new took the propertyover and now the gators have to
all be caught and they all haveto be documented.
We have to know what's there,how many are there, how big they
are male or female there, howmany are there, how big they are
(25:02):
male or female.
So on that piece of propertythere is probably.
I've caught 15 off thatproperty so far and I think we
got another 15 to go 15 or 20 togo.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
So what's the best way to tell how many gators are
there?
Do you guys kind of shine aspotlight at night on the lake
or the body of water or justwatch the shores?
I mean, is it difficult to tellhow many would be there?
Speaker 2 (25:24):
It is difficult, but it's not difficult.
So if you understand how gatorsthink and why they do what they
do, it will help you betterunderstand.
You know, maybe, how many is ina body of water.
So larger male gators, ormature male gators, they're not
tolerant of other male gators,okay.
(25:44):
So if you have a small pond andyou've got a gator in there
that's larger than nine feet, sofemale gators never, never,
really get bigger than nine feet.
So if you have a gator that'slarger than nine feet, all right
, you're going to know thatthat's a male, okay, okay.
And if there's gators there withhim that are under nine feet,
you're going to know typicallythose are going to be females
because he's not going to allowthose other males to hang out
(26:06):
there very long anyway, um, soyou're going to kind of get an
idea.
You know each female is goingto lay 30 to 50 eggs.
Uh, give or take a few, um,during the summertime.
Um, so it depends on the timeof year, like right now.
I know there's a bunch ofbabies out there.
I know three different femalesthat have nests and they got 10
(26:28):
to 15 babies on each nest thatare that are still alive.
They haven't been eaten yet.
So you kind of go through thereduring the day and you get a
head count on mature gators, andthen you go through there at
night and you and you get a headcount on mature gators, and
then you go through there atnight and you try to get a head
count on juveniles and kind ofput it together.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
So with the they lay that many eggs, how many of that
would survive, make it to amature size?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
So it all depends on who you ask.
So a good rule of thumb is 10%make it to adulthood.
So there, may excuse me, 10%make it to three foot in length,
and then one or two out of all,30 to 50 make it to adulthood.
So three to five will make itto three feet in length and one
or two will make it to adulthood.
(27:16):
Some people say 10% make it toadulthood.
So that female, like, like Isaid she'll, she'll build a nest
, um, she'll lay 30 to 50 golfball size elongated eggs in that
nest, and the nest is just amound of vegetation, mud, sticks
, grass, things like that, um,and then she'll lay the 30 to 50
eggs in there and then she'llcover it up.
(27:36):
Now she protects it, but theydon't incubate it.
They're cold-blooded reptiles.
So the natural compostingeffect of the vegetation will
create heat.
That's what incubates the eggs.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, and a pretty cool feature.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, and the temperature of the nest
determines if the eggs are boy,girl or a mixture of the two.
Really, yep, genetics play zerorole in it.
There is it's around a seven.
It's around a seven degreewindow, so 86 to 93 degrees
Fahrenheit.
If the nest temperature iswithin that and maintains you
have some male, some female thatare born.
If the nest temperature isabove 93 and maintains they're
(28:10):
all born as male.
If it's below 86 and maintainsthey're all born as female, oh
wow, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
So if someone had like an alligator farm, they
could completely control whetherthey had male or females 100%,
which we have a lot of here inFlorida.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
We we commercially farm gators here in Florida.
We don't allow commercialharvest.
You know a lot of people.
They see the swamp people inLouisiana, the show where
they're hanging baited hooksaround, yes, and then you know,
they asked me about it and Ijust let them know.
Well, they're commerciallyharvesting gators there.
We don't do that here.
Just like beef, pork or chicken, we have gators in Florida that
(28:46):
are bred, hatched, incubated orincubated, hatched and raised
in captivity for meat and skinproduction.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Right, yeah, just like a beef farm or something.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yep, exactly like that, Really cool beef farm or
something, yep, exactly likethat.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Really cool.
Speaking about the beef farms,you guys have a breed of cattle
there, the Florida CrackerCattle, and did?
I thought I heard this, so didthe name come from the guys, the
cowboys cracking their whipsaround the water holes?
And stuff to scare the gatorsout.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
It isn't to scare the gators, it's to drive cattle.
Yeah, the cracking of the whipsis to drive cattle, it's just
to drive them.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Okay, All right.
Yeah, Do many calves oranything?
Are they eaten by gators inFlorida?
Like would a typical rancherhave to worry about that?
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Typically no, but they do.
They will, you know.
So an alligator is a scavenger,more so than a hunter, and
they're a very opportunisticfeeder.
So the thing is, is alligators,if they were to reach a point
of hunger nearing starvation,they would attempt to take a
(29:51):
larger like a cow or something.
But there's so much food sourcedown here readily available.
But I've seen it happen.
You get these big ranches withcalves and if a calf eases down
into the water, it's nothing fora 12 or 14 foot gator to snatch
one up and take off with it.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, yeah, I suppose yeah Something that size.
Do you guys have many in yourarea that size?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah they're.
Oh yeah, that's, it's so.
You know, two and a halfmillion gators in the state of
Florida give or take.
You know.
Obviously it's hard to do anaccurate inventory on them, you
know, but if you get out thereand you sit quiet and you get
binoculars and you just startglass and ride with me, you know
(30:39):
and and I got, I consistentlyshow people 12 and 13 footers on
the gator sightseeing tours, um, but you know, certain times of
the year the hotter it gets,the harder they are to find,
because those bigger gatorsthey'll come up and get a breath
of air and then they'll go backto the bottom or they'll get
off in the shade, in a swampsomewhere.
Um, right now we're extremelylow, our water levels are
(31:00):
extremely low.
We're on a long drought rightnow, so we don't have a lot of
water.
And then the gators are.
I see them getting hit on theroad every day, crossing the
roads.
They're just, they're goingeverywhere they can to look for
some shade, look for some water.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Gee, okay, yeah, that'd be something to hit
That'd probably do a bit ofdamage to your vehicle.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Oh, you know, I've hit four or five in my life
myself, and it hasn't hurt myvehicle whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
So also, you do more than just you know the hog
hunting and the gator lassoing,you also do.
You know a lot of fishing aswell, airboat rides.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Yeah, you also do a lot of fishing as well.
Airboat rides, yeah.
So basically I have my owncompany and I work closely with
two or three other companiesthat are owned by friends of
mine, and we do anything andeverything together that you
would want to do outdoors inFlorida.
So another major thing for usis fossils and shark teeth.
(32:02):
So Florida is world-renownedfor fossils and shark teeth, so
that's a big industry for us.
People come here from around theworld to pan for shark's teeth
and dig for fossils and you know, florida has a very rich native
heritage, so a lot of peoplecome here to look for arrowheads
and things like that.
Um, we, like I said, we do alittle bit of everything you
(32:24):
know.
So I get people that want afreshwater fish we do that.
We saltwater fish.
I get people that want to comeprimitive camp we do that, you
know.
Um, I get people to come forphotography tours.
I get a lot, of a lot ofteachers that come um, and I'll
take groups of teachers out anddo educational trips and we'll
talk about the ecosystem, thewildlife, native species,
non-native species, the impactsthat each of those have on each
(32:47):
other and on the ecosystem, youknow, and then they'll take that
information back to theirclassroom, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, yeah.
What are the?
The primitive camping Like?
What consists of that?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
It all depends on how primitive you want to go.
So I have a group of gentlementhat like to hog hunt with me
and they like to camp weprimitive camp.
So what we'll do is there's alot of our bodies of water that
up to the high water mark.
It's considered public land,sovereign land.
You know public use land.
So you can camp around thebanks of a lot of our lakes here
(33:21):
in Florida for free.
So we'll take the boat andwe'll take the dogs and we'll go
set up a camp.
And you know, if you want to gosemi-primitive, we can.
At the end of the day we go upto the shower house at the fish
camp and you can have a hotshower.
And you know we can go to arestaurant and have a hot meal.
(33:43):
And if you want to go fullprimitive, we can take a bar of
soap, put it in the bottom of apantyhose, tie it to your belt
loop so you don't lose it in theriver and we can bathe right
there in the river with thealligators.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
So it vastly varies in what you want to do.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Absolutely it.
So it vastly varies in what youwant to do.
Absolutely it does.
That's cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
And then you do a lot of airboat rides as well, right
, yeah, yeah, yeah, tons ofairboat rides.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
You know I just can't handle the workload myself on
all the different boats.
So two of my cousins are mastercaptains, just like myself.
My best friend's a mastercaptain, um, and we all have the
same certifications as far asairboats and stuff.
So, um, you know, I I got one,my best friend, he'll do, uh,
(34:30):
he'll do, near shore fishing.
My cousin does offshore fishing, my other cousin does, um,
inshore and flats fishing.
You know I'll do the freshwaterfishing and the airboat stuff.
So we just we kind of help eachother out, you know, and it's,
it's um, it's a, it's a prettygood business and it's year
round.
You know we stay busy 52 weeksa year.
Um, you know it, it could be,it could be busier.
(34:53):
It's just hard to find, it'sjust hard to keep good help
around.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys got a lot on the go and
then also you spent some timedoing you said a bit with some
stuff, with Carbon TV and radio.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah, so a good friend of mine.
I took a woman out on a tripand it was actually a
bachelorette group and theywanted to go see dolphins out in
the Gulf of Mexico or in TampaBay in the Gulf of Mexico.
So I took them out and I didn'tknow it, but her boyfriend at
the time was into the TV and theradio so she was texting him
(35:34):
pictures and videos and she waslike, hey, I think this guy's
okay, I think he would work.
Uh, you know, you need to talkto him.
I think y'all, y'all could worktogether.
So when I got back to the doc,he was waiting on me.
He introduced himself, um goodfriend of mine now, vince Noble,
and um, he was like, hey, man,you know, we're doing uh like
(35:54):
for you to come out and sitaround and and, um, you know,
talk to us.
I was like okay, so did thatwith him a few times.
And then he was also involvedin radio and had been for a
while.
So I started um, takingSaturday mornings off and go to
the radio station, or I would doa call in, you know, and, uh, I
would talk over the talk, overthe phone, you know, and we'd do
(36:15):
a live radio deal there likethat.
We talk about fishing andhunting where stuff was biting,
when it was biting.
You know stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, yeah, that's really cool.
So it was a local Florida radiostation, was it?
Yes, yeah, yeah yeah.
Yeah, that's really neat.
You never know who you'retaking out, I guess note.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I guess no, absolutely not, absolutely not.
You know I've, I have, I havetaken out newscasters before you
know state.
You know that did semi-local,you know statewide kind of radio
or news, news broadcast andstuff and kind of get roped into
a little bit of that.
So, like you said, you neverknow who who you take out.
You know I get a lot of, uh,sports people, um, I get a lot
of different people like thatthat come out and go with me and
(37:03):
stuff and baseball players andso on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
You know yeah, in, in general, when somebody is
coming out with you for thefirst time, what would you
recommend, whether, like, I meanit's kind of broad question but
with your fishing or, you know,with the hog hunts and stuff
like like what to wear, what toexpect, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Okay, so the first question.
We'll kind of touch on a coupleof different things.
So the first thing, let's saywe're talking about fishing,
whether it's freshwater orsaltwater, so something that
helps me do real well and helps,you know, I retain 85% of my
business as return customers andsomething that helps me with
(37:42):
that is right out of the gate, Ifind out what you're wanting to
do and what your expectationsare.
You know, like if you called meright now and you said, hey,
man, you know I don't reallywant to go offshore but I want
to catch grouper, and I'm goingto say, hey, man, it's too hot
right now.
You know that water surface isreal hot.
Them grouper ain't way up inthese, way up in these flats.
I said, so, we're not going todo that, but this is some other
(38:02):
options.
So I'm going to ask you do youwant to fill the freezer or you
want to fish for fun?
And then, whether you tell me Iwant to catch food, or whether
you say, you know, I got to geton a plane in the morning or day
after tomorrow, so I don'treally want to keep anything
that's going to kind of uh, helpme figure out which direction
to go at that point?
Um, typically, when it comes tothe fishing, you don't have to
(38:24):
bring anything.
You know, uh, I have a licensethat covers your fishing license
when you're on the boat, so youjust show up with whatever
drinks you want for the day,whatever snacks you want for the
day, um, and you and your groupand we go fishing, you know,
and, um, now, if it's hoghunting, it's a little different
.
Yes, you know, if we're, ifwe're, if we're dog hunting, you
know, it's kind of, it's kindof funny to me.
(38:45):
You know, I I get people thatare avid hunters but they've
never dog hunted for hogs, orthey're from up north or out
west, and they show up, you know, and they're putting war paint
on their face and they're'respraying no-scent stuff all over
them.
I'm like no, no, no, no, no.
I said you can stop all that,bud.
Yeah, you can stop all that.
I said this whole curdog righthere is about to go put some
teeth on something.
You can stink as bad as youwant, buddy, it ain't going to
(39:07):
save them hogs today.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, you're not going to stink all day.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Yeah, what I tell people, um is especially with,
uh, with the airboats and stuff,um, it's very important that
you follow the rules on theairboat, because airboats can be
very dangerous.
You know, there's no brakes,there's no reverse Um, and the
biggest thing is people dropstuff and it goes through the
propeller and it can destroy apropeller, which can destroy and
sink a boat.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Um thought of that.
Yeah, Wow.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yep, so there's a, there's a lot to it, but it's
really not that complicated.
You know, um, it's, it's justpeople get out there on the
airboat and 99.9% of people arejust in awe of everything.
They love it.
They love everything about it.
Um, I do get a small, small,small percentage of people that
are like man, that's, that's waylouder than I thought it was
(40:04):
going to be.
And, and you know, like um, Ieven had somebody uh left a
review, not on my company, butfor a friend of mine's airboat
company the other day and itsaid you know, we were expecting
a nice calm ride through the,through the Florida wilderness,
but it was anything but that.
You know, it's like a rollercoaster and it really isn't like
that.
But those airboats, they, theydo drift a lot Like they drift
sideways, like a car would drifta corner.
Um, and obviously it's anairboat, so it's loud, you know
(40:26):
yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah, I mean, uh, how , how do you stop them?
Actually, I've kind of wonderedthat.
I just see guys kind of sort ofthrottle down.
Is that?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
is that the brakes, brakes so you can have a brake
put on a boat and it's basicallyjust a metal bar in the back
that when you push a separatepedal it falls into the water
and it creates a little bit ofdrag is all it does.
Yeah, um, now, on land a boat'sgonna stop pretty quick, all
right.
In in deeper water a boat'sgonna stop pretty, it will slide
(40:58):
to a stop, you know, um, prettyquick, because the weight of
the engine pulls the back of theboat down into the water.
Um, shallow water is when theydon't stop so quick.
But the thing about it is isyou just have you with an
airboat.
You cannot, you cannot payattention to what's happening
now.
You have to pay attention towhat's happening now and, even
(41:18):
more importantly, you have topay attention to what's
happening now.
You have to pay attention towhat's happening now and, even
more importantly, you have topay attention to what's about to
happen.
You know you can't look rightin front of the boat.
You need to be lookingeverywhere at all times.
You know you got to be veryaware of your surroundings.
You know, in our river systemsthey flow and the water level
changes because the tidalmovement, sometimes every hour,
(41:41):
so you might come around acorner that's three feet deep
right now and if you come aroundthat same corner tomorrow, it
might be three inches deep.
So you know it may.
The boat may slide a lot moreand and stuff like that.
You know, like I said, you justgot to anticipate what's coming
, um, and you can spin the boataround.
You can 180 the boat, spin itaround and give it throttle and
stop it in its tracks if youwant to.
Honestly, a big thing thatscrews people up is speed.
(42:02):
Almost a hundred percent of ourairboat accidents down here,
speed is a determining factorbecause, at the end of the day,
there's no such thing as tooslow on an airboat, but there is
such a thing as too fast.
Yeah, so, and the problem is isyou have to have extra throttle
to get the boats to turn and togo the direction you're turning
them.
(42:22):
So if you were to be goingstraight at full throttle, you
can't turn the boat and get itdo what you wanted to do if you
don't have extra gas.
You know what I mean to make itgo that way.
Yeah, we uh, actually uh, thisthis last sunday, um, we had a.
We have wrecks all the timepersonal boats, mostly private
boats, but we had a gentleman, aguy, die a fatality.
(42:44):
He was driving his boat and hewrecked, fell off the boat, hit
some tree logs and stuff and itkilled him.
But the next boat that wasright there grabbed him and said
, you know, they kind of sprunginto action and they did what
you would expect they put him onthe front of the boat.
One boy starts doing CPR andthe other guy gets in the
driver's seat and is driving himback.
(43:04):
Well, he kind of was worriedabout getting him back and
trying to get him to, you know,to emergency services before he
died on him and he was drivingtoo fast and he wrecked that
boat.
So the doing cpr oh yeah, theboy doing cpr on the guy that
was already dead flew off theboat and broke his back, hit a
tree and broke his back holythink it cursed boat.
(43:28):
No, that's why yeah, it's, uh,yeah, and and it goes, and it
goes, and it goes, it goes onthat whole.
You know the river changes andthat's another.
There's logs and stuff thatroll down the river.
The river, like I said, changesovernight.
Day by day the river willchange.
You might be on a straightawayand it's wide open, say, and
tomorrow there might be a bigold cypress log or oak log that
(43:49):
has rolled down the river andgot caught on the bottom and now
there's a hazard, justsubsurface, that you can't see.
That would bust a hole in thebottom of your boat, you know.
So complacency is a big problem, man, you know, and you know
it's just you get the guys thatcome out here and I hate to say
this because I'm a guy, so Idon't want to crap on my own too
(44:11):
much, but you get guys and thenyou get a few cold beers and
that testosterone mixed withI'll do what I want attitude.
You know it's a recipe fordisaster.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, I can see that.
Yeah, Justin, do you have astory of a real memorable hunt,
whether it be hog or gator, thatcomes to mind that you'd like
to tell?
Let's see here.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Man, I have a bunch, I have a ton of them.
But, um, I'll tell you the, thevery uh gator hunt that I went
on, that was, that was um,second to none, um, it was just
phenomenal gator hunt.
And I took a boy on it from uhmiddle of alabama and he come
(44:59):
down and and, uh, he said, man,I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
jump on a gator and I'm gonnawrestle a gator, and obviously I
won't let somebody jump a gatorwithout having tape on its
mouth.
You know, um, I do thatsometimes, you know.
But, um, he came down and wegot a gator caught, we got a
gator killed and and he wastalking all tough and everything
, and I said, uh, I said, allright, now, now get over it.
(45:23):
I said, straddle that gator.
I said, put your legs on eachside of my set and I want you to
, you know, grab his head andpick his head up for a picture.
And my, my friend, uh, the othercaptain, he was on the back of
the boat.
Well, that boy put his feet oneach side of the gator and I
picked that gator's tail up andshook it real quick and he dove
out of the boat Head first, doveright into the water.
(45:46):
Yep, dove right into the water,so that was a pretty funny time
right there.
You know, I've just man, I'vehad a lot of really, really fun
experiences over the year.
You know.
I've been real fortunate, um,and I've met a lot of really
cool people in my life, you know, and um, so, yeah, I could talk
(46:09):
for days about cool huntingstories, yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah, no, it sounds like you.
Uh, yeah, you definitely, youdefinitely live each day to the
fullest and have a lot of fundoing it.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, absolutely Love it.
Love everything about it.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Justin, it's been great talking to you.
Why don't you say, like your,your outfitting business that
you have?
Speaker 2 (46:27):
All right.
So my personal website is a wetand salty adventures and wet and
saltycom W E T, dash N, dash Sa l t y dot com, and that's my
personal website.
And I'm on all the main socialmedia platforms tiktok and
facebook and facebook businessand and all that kind of cool
(46:48):
stuff.
And you know, and even like Itell people, even if you're not
interested in hunting or fishingwith me, if I can help you out,
call or call or message me,email, text me anytime day or
night, I answer the phone andand, um, if I can help you out
or call or message me, email,text me any time day or night, I
answer the phone and if I canhelp you out or point you in any
right direction, you know I dothat for a lot of people.
They come to Florida and theydidn't budget in for a fishing
trip, so I'll tell them wherethey can go for free or you know
(47:09):
kind of what to do and where togo.
You know, the biggest thing forme is I want to expose people,
especially young people, to theoutdoors and to the wildlife.
You know hunting and fishing,and that way we can continue
forth with it.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, yeah, no, exactly, justin.
I want to thank you again forcoming on the podcast.
You've been a lot of fun andinteresting to listen to.
I really appreciate it and hopea lot of people go out and
check out Red Sight and ifthey're in Florida they hit you
up.
Is there any chance you'regoing to be in Florida at the
end of this year?
It's not in plans currently,but you never know.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Well, I have a gator tag with your name on it, yeah
sounds good.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
I'll see what's going on.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
All right, I'll send you some dates.
Man, it was a pleasure talkingto y'all fellas, I appreciate it
.
Yeah, thanks again.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Really, yeah, appreciate it as well.
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