On the hunt: Vicksburg transplants experience Mississippi culture through quest for gators

The Rev. Tom Potter has done a lot of hunting in his life. The pastor at Crawford Street United Methodist Church has even shared some of his stories with the congregation. And now after last week’s jaunt down the Yazoo, he may be chomping at the bit to share another tale.

Potter hauled in a nine-and-a-half -foot, 220-pound alligator in the Yazoo River, about 10 minutes after launching from the Vicksburg boat landing. Church member Mark Jefferson and a seasoned crew assisted Potter in the catch, as well as in nabbing a six-and-a-half-footer during the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP) Mississippi’s Public Waters Alligator season, which ran from Aug. 30 through Sept. 9.

To alligator hunt in Mississippi, a lottery is held by the MDWFP and after putting in for a tag, Potter’s name was pulled.

Although he is an avid hunter, Potter said he had never alligator hunted before, but thought it would be a good way to see how River City folks live.

“It’s kind of part of a culture here around Vicksburg where it’s not been part of the culture where I have lived,” he said. “And that kind of appealed to me.”

Jefferson, also a sportsman, was also interested in the idea of gator hunting. Before moving to Vicksburg almost two years ago, Jefferson lived in Washington state, where there is not an alligator population.

“I’d never seen one before unless they were in a pet store or at the zoo,” he said.

And while both Potter and Jefferson were game for a new hunting venture, they knew they would need someone more experienced to help them out.

Therefore, Jefferson found guides skilled in alligator hunting who were willing to assist.

“Mark found us some guides that live in Matheson over by Starkville who come with all the gear and the great big giant boat and all the experience and all the expertise to take neophytes like me out to hunt gators, because they know how. I doubt we would have seen anything or known where to go or anything,” Potter said.

The MDWFP allows six people in a boat for gator hunting, so Potter and Jefferson were accompanied by guides Hunter Parrett, Christa Parrett, Joey King and Carson King.

The group pulled out right before sunset on Sept. 1. and ended up fishing until about 1 a.m.

“We had gotten one legal gator — an eight-footer and then released him because the law says you can have one gator over seven feet and one gator less than seven feet, but the guides recommend I turn him loose and not use my long gator tag on him, because we were going to get our bigger gator,” Potter said.

And that they did when they nabbed the nearly 10-footer.

Potter credited Jefferson for being the lead in helping wrangle the reptile into the boat.

“Mark actually did most of the heavy lifting getting the 10-footer close enough that we could hook him up with the other throw line to haul him up to the boat so he could be dispatched,” Potter said.

Potter said he had done his part by standing at the back of the boat with a spotlight making sure the gator didn’t surface behind them downstream and get away.

And while doing so, he said, he risked the result of one wrong move.

“I was constantly just spotting seven, eight sets of gator eyes that were in a couple hundred yards of us while we were looking for the big one out in front of us. So, I made a mental note — ‘don’t fall in,’” he said.

“I know now that there is no way I am dangling my feet in the Yazoo,” Jefferson said after seeing for himself the number of gators that inhabit the waterway. “And the idea of swimming in it, which I’ve seen people do, is incomprehensible to me. There are a lot of gators on that water. We shined that light around at night and there were gators everywhere.”

Hearing the screech owls while they were out on the water was another menacing novelty for Jefferson.

“We have owls, but they just hoot,” he said. “I thought they were killing people. It’s definitely different in the Northwest than here, but at the same time, it’s interesting different. I don’t expect it to be the same; it’s fun. Part of moving to Mississippi for me and Kimmey (Jefferson’s wife) was to immerse ourselves in Mississippi. I love the outdoors, and Mississippi is great for the outdoors.”

The final part of hunting for both Potter and Jefferson is consuming what they harvest.

“I’m in it for the meat,” Potter said of hunting, and this included grilling gator after it was picked up from the processor.

Before cooking, however, Potter said he put the meat in saltwater to soften it up. He then tenderized it and used several different spices for flavor.

Once done, Potter said the meat was,…interesting.

“My brother-in-law in Tunica, who’s a great outdoor chef, said, ‘You’ll probably cook some on the grill and say it’s okay, and then cut all the rest of the gator meat into chunks to be fried, which is excellent.’ I’ll just say that I think he’s right.”