New York hunter education instructor harvests massive South Carolina gator that falls just shy of record

Mt. Pleasant, N.Y. — Carl Finkelson feels like he had a pretty good 2025 hunting season. The 37-year-old hunter and bowhunter education instructor from Mt. Pleasant, in Westchester County, N.Y., who works for the White Plains school district, harvested fine bucks during both the archery and late muzzleloading seasons.

But it was a unique hunt, one that might even be considered a fishing trip, that was the highlight of his year. Finkelson drew a rare out-of-state tag for a South Carolina alligator hunt, one he said allowed him to stare “a man-eater” straight in the eye. And one that came close to breaking a state record harvest.

It was a long time coming.

Finkelson was tipped off by a friend several years ago that alligator hunting wasn’t only common in South Carolina, it was one of the better states for taking a mature gator.

“I was still putting in for moose lotteries and all kinds of stuff like that,” Finkelson said. “So, I was like, ‘I’ll start putting it in’. So, that turned into six years of putting into this lottery. And then just this past fall I finally got my e-mail stating I actually won a tag this year.”

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Finkelson said only 100 out-of-state tags are awarded through the lottery, which in some cases includes a slot. He compared the tag he received to that of a trapping pelt seal. Finkelson had friends in the area he hunted, including one who had a fishing boat. So, he brought his dad, Russell, along for the trip, for which he said he was not unprepared, but ill-prepared.

“I don’t know what to bring. And here I am fully clothed, long sleeve shirt. And they’re like, ‘yo, man, you’re gonna sweat to death.’ So, I was worried, I was gonna wear muck boots,” he said, adding that he later opted for water shoes on the boat.

“I’m sitting there and we’re spotting gators left and right. We’re cruising up and down a river, and it was called Lake Marion. And different parts had different channels where they would open up into a river portion after the main lake,” Finkelson said of the outing. “You could see a nice, 9-foot gator just swimming right by you underneath and around the boat.”

But his partners said they were after nothing smaller than an 11-foot gator, and they also helped with the gear and technique, which involved casting a 4-ounce treble snatch hook once a target gator was spotted.

“When you see a gator come off the shore and go in the water and disappear in the murky waters, you had to take a saltwater fishing pole, cast it over him and slowly reel it in until it feels like you hit something in the water,” Finkelson said. “What you do is you’ve got to treat it like you’re hitting a Bassmasters and you yank it over your shoulder. And if it drags you, it’s a gator. If it’s not, it’s a log. Because you don’t know, you don’t see. It could be underneath the boat. It could be 5 feet in front of you. It could be anywhere.

“Sometimes 20, 30 yards past,” he continued. “Sometimes you have to go 40, or 50. They always say try to overcast. But having such a stiff pole and a light ounce on the bottom, that thing really flies.”

The rig had 100-pound test braid line set at a 70-pound drag. They spotted the big gator on the first day, hooked it and fought it for 30 minutes before a mishap resulted in the gator getting loose. The idea is to tire the gator out, and by law, get it to land or boatside where it can be dispatched, in this case, with a handgun.

The next day, the crew was back at it.

“They’re a creature of habit, almost like deer,” Finkelson said. “They don’t skate too far from there, a bank they’re familiar with. So, when we passed by this area again, it was only 20 yards from where we hooked him the first time.”

The fight was on, which Finkelson said was chaotic, with two members of the crew hooking the gator.

“And then we start holding on for dear life, crossing on each other’s poles, holding on, keeping it strong so it doesn’t loosen up because that doesn’t pierce the skin. It just holds it because their skin is so tough and rough,” Finkelson said.

Eventually they harpooned the gator and got it boat-side where Finkelson was able to use a .45 ACP handgun in an attempt to dispatch it, which resulted in a long wait and yet another shot from the .45 on the tough reptile. This is when the work started and when they realized they had a trophy-caliber gator.

What was an hour-and-half boat ride to get to the area where they found the gator was a longer ride back with the big gator, not much shorter than the boat, on board.

“I didn’t officially put him on a scale, but the one trailer that we had sank down quite a bit when he was put on there. And we were guessing probably around 900, maybe 1,000 pounds,” Finkelson said.

The 13-foot, 1-inch gator was just 6 inches shy of the state record. After processing, Finkelson came home with 110 pounds of meat, which he compared to pork. He’s also having the front half of the gator mounted by a Florida taxidermist and will have other portions of the hide available to make items such as belts or even a rifle case.

So, what now? Finkelson said he’s basically one-and-done with the gator hunt, also citing the odds. He has other ventures in mind, and some fond memories from this outing.

“One is definitely more than enough. Coming within a foot of a man-eater, it’s something that, really lurks in the bottom,” he said of the alligator hunt. “I still have some lotteries I’m putting in for: elk in Pennsylvania. I put in for moose in Maine and New Hampshire.”