Searching for alligators last weekend was a thriller when one of the hunters fell out of the boat with two alligators watching.
The hunter, Josh Thomson, survived, and the next night was able to kill a 12-foot-1-inch alligator weighing an estimated 700
pounds.
Thomson had been awarded a permit to hunt in the area from U.S. Highway 71 near Wilton Landing down to Millwood Dam. Thomson and friends scouted the lake the previous weekend trying to get an idea of the alligator
habitat.
"The first night, I tried to stab at one with a harpoon, and it hit his skull and bounced off," Thomson
said.
Then Friday night, Thomson and his friends went scouting again and saw two alligators. They used red and green lights to avoid being intrusive, Thomson said, and an 18-foot boat that's 54 inches
wide.
During the first scouting weekend, he hit a log and fell in the river about 20 yards from two alligators. "I was struggling," Thomson
said.
"I was slightly worried and wanted to get back in the boat as soon as possible and not give the alligators a chance," he said.
Then about 11 p.m. Sept. 24, Thomson was able to harpoon the 12-foot alligator.
He noticed what he thought was a log in the middle of Little River. It was an alligator, and it went down. They used the trolling motor and went to the lily pads where the reptile had been.
"It came up and went over to the bank, and we finally got close enough to harpoon it," he said.
"Once I harpooned it, we squatted down, and he (the alligator) jerked the boat around. He took us on a ride for about 200 yards," Thomson said.
They finally got close enough to the bank, and Thomson was able to fatally shoot the alligator with a 12-gauge shotgun. The animal was harvested in the Little River near White Cliffs landing on the northern side of the lake.
Friends Jeremy Jones of De Queen, Ark., and Jesse Hinton and Royce Mullins of Ashdown helped Thomson load the alligator in the boat, about 150 yards from the White Cliffs landing. They loaded the boat onto his trailer there and took the reptile to his dad's house.
"I was limited to one permit. We were local and wanted us to get something decent. We couldn't go home with a 9-footer. We have a certain amount of pride," Thomson said.