Gator! 12'oclock!

[pignjig]

I just got through reading a thread that talked about gators down in Santee-Cooper. Here in SW VA we got musky and a few mosquitoes big enough to stand flat-footed and smack a turkey, but no gators. Just curious-- For the Deep South Bassers, are gators a real problem? Do they pretty much leave you alone or are they aggressive? Anybody ever hooked one? Again, just curious.

Thanks, Pig

[JB]

i heard every time some one fishes at night, lots of eyes pop open along the shore

[pignjig]

Yah, JB, I heard that, too. There's not much I'm skeert of, so to speak, but sharin' the water with the a toothy newt-zilla seems like it would be a little "disconcerting". I guess it's what you're familiar with-- I got to hand it to the warm water clan. They got my respect!

Pig

[zooker]

febuary till april is there breeding season. the males are very aggresive at this time.. after dark the, Roof! "wack" of them snappin there jaws is some thing you got to hear to belive.. there eyes glow red when hit by a light..

normally the bigger one's will avoid you. smaller ones tend to come out to the boat kinda curious to see what it is.. one thing you MUST never do. if you see a gator on a hump or a mound on shore. stay away from it!! this mound is the gator nest. being found near it is a NOT GOOD thing...

zooker

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by zooker

febuary till april is there breeding season. the males are very aggresive at this time.. after dark the, Roof! "wack" of them snappin there jaws is some thing you got to hear to belive.. there eyes glow red when hit by a light..

normally the bigger one's will avoid you. smaller ones tend to come out to the boat kinda curious to see what it is.. one thing you MUST never do. if you see a gator on a hump or a mound on shore. stay away from it!! this mound is the gator nest. being found near it is a NOT GOOD thing...

zooker

Good advice, Zooker! I've fished around them for years, and have seen them in places that most folks didn't know they were there. They're normally pretty shy and prefer not to interact with humans. As with any wildlife, use your head, don't corner or intimidate or do something stupid and you'll be just fine, even at night.
Just remember what Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid!".

[pignjig]

Thanks, guys. I guess gators just aren't something I've thought about much since we don't have 'em. Still, it'll be interesting to come down there and see one in person. I appreciate all ya'lls input!

Pig

[zooker]

pnj
this picture was taken on the alligator river near plymouth nc..i took it from the base of my deer stand. it is amazing just how quiet the big lizards are coming thru the swamp..



the location is roughly 20 miles from the roanoke river -just under 200 miles away from roanoke va..


zooker

[Rebbasser]

Seen plenty on Choke Canyon south of San Antonio, but have never bothered by them. Most times they do their best to avoid people.

[bamabassman]

seen lots o gators in south bamy, not 1 on guntersville though. would like to. tastes like chicken, lol. and gator tail is getting over 50 bucks a pound i hear, then the hide makes great cowboy boots. if you hunt them legally. don't know of any hunts around here though. maybe the numbers are too low still up here. they have a big hunt down south every year.

[WTL]

Bamabass, they have them over on redstone arsenal - some up to 11 ft.


pigjig, gators are very, very dangerous and will attack unprovoked, they will even chase you around when you use the trolling motor. I sometimes don't even bother to fish in april because of their mating season. They are so stealthy they can come out of nowwhere. Beware.

[lunker-lander]

I wanna get me some Gator Boots, cowboy style. How much would a pair, say size 10 run me?

-Lunk-

[pignjig]

Zook, that is a freakin' newtasaurus!! I'm amazed they can get enough to eat. Do they scavange a lot? Find sick or drowned deer and boar? Maybe nutrias? Or, do they eat mainly fish?

WTL, Zook, Bob, Bama, Reb- Ya'll ever seen one of these scaley puppies out in open water?

I probably sound like some kid but this stuff is fascinating!!

-Pig

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by pignjig

Zook, that is a freakin' newtasaurus!! I'm amazed they can get enough to eat. Do they scavange a lot? Find sick or drowned deer and boar? Maybe nutrias? Or, do they eat mainly fish?

WTL, Zook, Bob, Bama, Reb- Ya'll ever seen one of these scaley puppies out in open water?

I probably sound like some kid but this stuff is fascinating!!

-Pig

On Sam Rayburn you see them a lot just cruising across the mouth of a cove or going from one hydrilla bed to another. Down near Cleveland, TX (just north of Houston) is a bunch of gravel pit lakes known as "Chain O Lakes". This is a very popular family destination during the summer. It has a big lake dedicated for swimming with all kinds of slides, swings and things on it. Adjacent to to that lake are a number of other smaller lakes for fishing (electric only or paddling), several of these used to be loaded with alligators too. It was really hard to get a topwater bait back to the boat without a small gator chasing it. My dad and I once run up on top of a gator that would go about 11-12 feet in the upper jungle on Lake Conroe. We never saw it and it obviously never saw us until the boat slid onto it's back! It went crazy trying to get out from under us (in the river channel over 12' of water), I think it scared us as bad as we scared it! Those things can get some speed up in a hurry, looked like a missile when it got out from under the boat!


Another story I have on lake Fork, there was a big gator that lived up in the creek channel in the back of Long Branch Cove. I had one of my VPs from California out fishing for spawners one March a few years back. I knew he had never seen a gator in the wild so we fished back into the creek. I didn't tell him what I was looking for until I found the gator... Well, I located that big sucker laying on the bottom in about 7' of clear tannic colored water. It appeared almost white laying motionless on the bottom (water temps were in the upper 50s). I called my VP up to the front of the boat and told him to look down below the boat. He asked me what he was looking at. When I told him it was big old gator he went beserk! Scared the living poo out of him. I put the T- motor on high and got the "Hades" out of that creek. There was no amount of assurance that was going to convince him that he was safe in that creek channel with that big ol Gator. The fact is with the cold water temp, that big feller wasn't going anywhere very fast.

[rodman rat]

LOL HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I wish I knew how to post pixs. I have lived and fished in florida my whole life and never had a gator chase me!! Little ones will follow bait, but BIG ones will run from you!! (unless of course you have no brains and mess with them or the nest). Yes their eyes are red when hit with the light at night. They are protected and are only hunted 4 weeks out of the year and it is one tag per person, only 4000 tags issued per year and they cost about 300.00 for residents and 1100.00 for non residents!! Good luck getting one!!!
Yes they eat deer, birds, small animals, and fish
TOOOOO funny the misconceptions people get about gators!! leave them alone and they will leave you alone (most of the time) Don't go in the swamp at night yeee

[WTL]

Aww come on rat, I'm just tryin to scare him.

What rat says really is the truth. I am somewhat amused that northerners are so afraid to fish southern waters cause of gators. Hillbillies are much more frightening.

[Cranebird]

Originally Posted by WTL

Hillbillies are much more frightening.

I resemble that remark.

[MississippiBoy]

I've seen several out fishing the reservoir near where I live. The biggest was about 7-8 ft, but he was swimming the other way as I trolled up.

Me and a friend of mine actually caught a small one bare-handed last summer. My buddy had a worm on, fishing a shallow backwater, and the gator kinda liked the way it wiggled. He would go after it for a short distance every cast, so we used it to "lure" (get it? lure?) him closer, until I was able to grab him behind the head. He was maybe 3 1/2 to 4 feet long, tail and all.
Then we kinda looked at each other, and I said, "Ok, we caught him. Now what?" At this point, we realized neither one of us had brought a camera.



Crane, hope you don't mind me borrowing Homer...

[pignjig]

LOL-- Now, WTL, you're not, I say, you're sayin' that Virginia is a Yankee state, are ya? Why, the ghost of Ol' Marse Robert must be tremblin' in fury! Stonewall hisself just might rise up an' smite ya some! Laws!? Could the Rose of Alabamy be turnin' on her Brothers in the Old Dominion? I believe, Sir, that I can hear the faint mumblings of a confused Jeff Davis! (Then again, I got a buddy from south of Beaumont Texas who swears everyone north of Highway 10 is a Northerner.....)

Those gator stories are pretty da#* in'trestin'! Thanks!!

-Pig, The Unreconstructed Virginia Angler

[Cranebird]

Originally Posted by MississippiBoy

Crane, hope you don't mind me borrowing Homer...

That was compliments of professor Rebbasser.I C- Birds

[bamabassman]

hahahaha!!! just like a mississippi boy!!! and yes they eat everything you mentioned pi. and yes virginny is southern by the grace of god. no i have not seen a gator in open water. seen them on the bank and as we were passing heard them hit the water. and yes they are scared of humans for the most part. unless you are messing with their nest.. or little ones. i almost messed up once. was at the uss alabama, and saw a baby, about 4 footer, i was getting closer for a better look when i noticed the mamma coming at me. so yes i got the he-- outa there and i mean quick!! haha. i ain't from mississippi, hehe, so i know what to do. hahaha. and lunker the boots will rum you well over a grand if you get them. and if your going to get them, i suggest you have them hand made. another thing pignjig i too was called a yankee when i moved to south bama, and i am borned and raised just north of b'ham. goes to show you. folks on the coast are just a little different from others. hahaha.

[JRL]

Even worse is when they are not afraid of you. Was about 4 feet from this gator when I took the pic. I was on a doc behind the railing, he was under me and had what looked to be braided line hanging out of his mouth, he was about 7 feet long:

[bamabassman]

maybe he was fishing for you!!! hahaha, they ain't dumb.

[Cranebird]

Those overgrown lizards don't bother me none.Its those snakes they got in florida where people released them in the wild C-Bird Bath.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171358,00.html

[JRL]

Heres the picture from that story:

http://www.rgj.com/blogs/mostlydogs/...s/1-719253.jpg

[pignjig]

Nice pic! We had a monkey get loose from the zoo and a few cougar sightings last year, but Appalachia's pretty tame compared to that. I reckon the snowbirds don't walk their dogs near water down there... Leash = Dental Floss

-Pig, The Alligatorphobia Virginian