Chris Castle: Wrangling nuisance gators in St. Johns

By Wylie Saviello

Florida is gator country, and when a nuisance gator shows up in a backyard, someone has to come get it out. That’s where St. Augustine gator trapper Chris Castle comes in.  

The state of Florida is home to 1.3 million alligators, and the St. Johns River is the longest and most alligator-infested river in the state. These gators often end up in yards, pools and even garages, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) has a rotation of trappers like Castle that they use to remove such nuisance gators. In addition to gator trapping, Castle is a licensed captain and runs Wide Open Charters, a fishing charter and guide service. 

As more people continue to move to Florida, the population having increased 8.2% since 2020, Castle has seen impacts in his work, both a change in gator trapping and a significant increase in the number of other charter boats. 

“I have calls now in areas that I haven’t had calls before,” Castle said. “They’re doing all that building off State Road 208, and all of a sudden gators are showing up in these little ponds on people’s property.” 

Getting an alligator removed from your property is a multi-step process that begins with reporting the gator to the FWC’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP) and ends with trappers like Castle showing up with a permit to catch the gator. 

“In the Nocatee area, for instance [gator trapping] is growing leaps and bounds,” Castle said. 

Castle often responds to calls where a gator has ended up in a neighborhood because people have been feeding it, something he strongly discourages. Sometimes people are grateful and relieved to have the gator gone, but on other occasions there are residents who don’t want him to trap the gator. 

“There was a lady one time who picked up one of those yard signs and started hitting [Castle] with it,” said Kathy Williams, who works with Castle trapping gators and running charters. 

Gators, of course, are dangerous, and most people don’t want to get anywhere near them, but Castle enjoys his work. In one instance, he removed a gator from an older couple’s yard where the woman was so terrified of the gator she couldn’t sleep at night. When Castle caught it, she ran out of her house and happily thanked them. 

“We don’t really do it for the accolades, but for the experience of doing it, it’s fun… it’s an adrenaline rush,” Castle said. “[I do it] because now I’m pretty confident I know how to do it…somebody’s got to do it, right?” 

Castle has been trapping gators for 14 years, mainly in northern St. Johns County. He used to work with an previous partner named Adam, but now works with Williams. 

“I only work the north part of the county: Ponte Vedra, Nocatee, over to Julington Creek … anything north of King Street basically,” Castle said. 

Williams has been doing fishing charters and dolphin tours with Castle for about 8 years. When they first met, she would film him and Adam trapping gators, but when Adam left the trapping business, Williams started trapping too. 

“I started helping [Castle]. And with each [alligator] I got a little less scared… but you still want to be afraid of them, don’t get too comfortable,” Williams said. 

After a couple of years of trapping gators together, Castle got a hip replacement and couldn’t jump on the alligators. They switched jobs, with Williams jumping on the gators and Castle taping them up. 

“We had a role reversal there. And I was terrified at first, I was just so scared, and all of a sudden, I was like ‘it’s easy, it’s a piece of cake,’” Williams said. 

Over time, Williams has come to appreciate the challenge of the work. They catch a lot of 5- or 6-foot-long gators, but when they catch one that is 8, 9, or 10 feet long, it’s a rewarding accomplishment. 

“I could be on a high the rest of the day, and [Castle] is the same way… there’s not a lot of people that are going to go out and catch an eight- or nine-foot alligator,” Williams said. 

Castle has a passion for being outdoors, especially on the water. He grew up fishing in the Florida Keys, catching “40-pound Mahi Mahi’s all day long” and fishing on his own small boat in Maine. He now makes a living from his love for fishing by starting Wide Open Charters. Castle does dolphin tours and offshore and inshore fishing charters, including shark fishing. 

“When I first met Kathy, I was fishing every day in the summertime, and she was like ‘you’re not fishing on Tuesday. Let’s go to the beach,’” Castle said. 

St. Augustine attracts tourists from all over the world, even bringing people from the Netherlands to Wide Open Charters. Castle and Williams like fishing and dolphin charters because they get to meet interesting people and provide them with new experiences.

As they cruise through the St. Augustine Inlet, Castle and Williams point out dolphins playing in the currents, and if Castle sees what he thinks might be a shark, he grabs a rod and casts a line out in hopes of bringing the shark up alongside the boat to show guests.

“Fishing or dolphins, they’ve never done it, so it’s cool to give people their first experience,” Castle said. “And even if we feel like we had a mediocre fishing charter or something, when we get back people are like, ‘most amazing day ever!’”  

Over the years, Castle estimates he has trapped 1,200 alligators, catching about 100 a year in the last several years working with Williams. Castle has caught a gator just short of 12 feet on his own, one just over 12 feet with his previous partner Adam, and one almost 9 and a half feet with Williams. 

Before his work with wildlife truly began, Castle graduated from Flagler College in 1987. He moved to St. Augustine for college from Virginia. Castle was born in Milton, Florida, but his father was a Navy pilot, so he moved around as a child. He lived in Guam, Maine, Washington D.C., and Green Cove Springs, Florida. 

“I don’t like the cold; it’s not for me. All my friends were going to University of Virginia and other schools and I was like, ‘you can have it… I’m going to St. Augustine,” Castle said. 

Castle studied English, psychology, and journalism during his time at Flagler, writing for The Gargoyle and eventually going on to write for the St. Augustine Record. He was an independent print-based ad contractor for 14 years, but when the internet came along, the industry died out, and he eventually turned his passions into a living. 

Castle enjoys the smaller size of St. Augustine and appreciates all the accessible nature surrounding it. He used to drive his car on the beach in the area that is now Anastasia Island State Park. 

“I love finding somewhere I can get away, you know, and see a little piece of the woods or something,” he said.