Python Hunting

 

08/02/2025

Last Tuesday Opal and I went out and got us a snake. The day before I had gone out with Lyles, our boat captain who is also a python removal agent (gets paid to kill them) but had not seen anything. That night Opal and Bobby, who is our other boat captain joined. Lyles’s truck has lights fitted on the front and both sides that make spotting snakes easier. Essentially how you hunt pythons is you drive around 15 miles per hour and look for snakes in the road or just off the road. The main park road was just mowed around so we had a ten-foot-wide mowed grass clearing on both sides. Where this mowed grass met the trees is where Opal and Lyles spotted a big Python. We all jumped out, immobilized it and taped its mouth shut. I was surprised with how little it struggled; there was no real effort from the snake to get away at any point in the whole ordeal. We measured the snake at 7’11 which pays 200$ from the Florida Fish and Wildlife commission for and 80$ for the skins from a leathermaker. Agents do get paid by the hour but it barley covers gas so snakes like these are really how you get paid. The rest of the night was slow which python hunting usually is but Opal and I got to hear from Bobby and Lyles about the fine folk of everglades city, where they both reside. One character that came up was Ervin of Perv’n Ervins Karaoke Bar. To get people to come to his bar Ervin had promotional events like “come see the hot Mary Lee” who was his daughter. Apparently he was known for importing drugs which was not uncommon for people who lived in everglades city. Another person Bobby and Lyles knew was Dave Sheily, someone I recognized from a book my dad had given me on Florida. The book which has a chapters on Key West and explaining the ‘Florida man’ dedicates an entire chapter on Dave Sheily. In fact Dave might be the best example of the ‘Florida man’. He runs the Swamp Ape Research Facility and up until recently had the second largest captive python at 25’. Bobby and Lyles described how he fed the python as something similar to how they feed the T-rex in Jurassic park, entire goats at one time. 

The entire experience of python hunting was culturally enriching. I felt more Floridian than ever.

 As a thanks for reading this blog post here’s a Florida fact: Missouri has a back-to-school tax holiday where for a few days you can purchase school supplies tax free. Florida on the other has a “second amendment tax holiday” where you can get your guns and ammunition tax free. Florida does charge you to use the roads though.