the alligator story

[carrmillus]

.....a couple of you guys commented on the alligator in my "51 years ago" post, so here's that story. my neighbor of nearly 20 years who netted my big bass was born and raised in the area where ross Barnett resivoir was built and he fished there a lot. a friend of his who was a guide down there sent him a map of this small lake about 10 miles above the reservoir just off the pearl river, so next trip down there, here we go to fish it. had to go thru a narrow chute about 200 yards long to get to it from the river, I'm in my boat with my oldest son, johnny is behind me in another boat with his brother, couldn't run even the trolling motor, so I'm pushing off logs with my paddle to get thru the chute to the lake. and when I get clear, johnny holler's "good lord, what an alligator". the last log wasn't a log. it was the gator. he hollers at me -"see if you can hook him", so without thinking I pick up my rod with a big 3 hook topwater bait on it and cast and it lands on his back, that's when I realized this wasn't a good idea. when I tried to flip it off his back, he literally exploded, came right past my boat and almost turned us over!!..when we pulled the boat out at the boat ramp about dark, 2 game warden's that johnny knew were checking licenses and johnny runs over and starts telling them about the 'gator. it turns out that this one was not one of the imported gators, the warden said it was a native and wouldn't harm you if it was left alone, he told johnny "you can wade all over that lake and he won't bother you"-johnny looked at him and said-"bert, the only way i'll ever wade in that lake is with stovepipes on my legs"!!......R.I.P., Johnny!!........ .....................

[Mumbleypeg]

Great story Tommy!

Reminds me of when I used to fish Sam Rayburn Reservoir in East Texas a lot, and it had its share of gators also. Mostly the ones you saw were about 2 to 3 footers but there were occasional big ones too. You didn’t dare leave a stringer of fish in the water long, else they’d be eaten. We wade fished a lot in shallow flooded timber too, and you for sure didn’t want a stringer hooked on your belt! I was younger then, and not too bright either.

Thanks for the story!

Ken

[carrmillus]

......johnny and I started out wade fishing and I remember him wading out of the lake one day dragging his stringer tied to his waders that had 3 yearling bass on it and a cottonmouth trying to swallow the last one on the stringer. I told him to stop and look down, and he unhooked the stringer and I swear it was still in the air when he got six feet away from it!!!............ .........................

[kootenay joe]

Does this mean that there is more than one species of alligator in the inland waterways of Florida ? And that at least one species is docile and safe to be around ?
kj

[DM11]

Great gator story Tommy!

[zoogirl]

Ha! Great story!
Thanks to my old job, I gotta gator story too.

We had two eight footers, indoors, at the little private zoo where I worked. They each had their own room with ponds and a basking area. Sheba’s room was beside the kitchen enterence, across from a big plastic tank of caimans. Her door was the Dutch type, which you could open about halfway up. There was also a big piece of wood that fit across the doorframe.
I came in one Sunday to do feeds. The boss was out doing something and nobody else was around. I puttered about for a bit and then went to get something in the kitchen.
Oh boy, did I get a surprise!
Sheba’s door was pushed open and thankfully, wedged against the caiman tank in such a way that she could only go in her room and the kitchen, which is where she was.
By the time I found her, she’d been pretty active in there. She was doing donuts around the room, going partway up the freezers and knocking over everything. There I was, with nothing but a half door between me and eight feet of pissed gator!
I very carefully managed to reach over and get hold of the kitchen door, which I slammed!
Then I called the boss and told him to come and get his animal!

Sheba was actually normally good tempered and featured in a couple of ads. I’ll see if I can find a pic.

[stagman]

That is a great gator story....if ya want another AAPK gator story,
search out the one Ralph, (Sunburst) as a farm boss in Florida,
killed and has a pic of it hanging from the tractor...its a wonder
if ya read all the posts that it did not grab him, gave me chills
Cannot remember year, maybe 2006-2009 or about

Stag
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/stagman

[Mountain Man Knives]

I enjoyed it too......Thank You

[royal0014]

Not to steal Tommy's thunder, but here is the story
stagman referred to; from Sunburst May 2006 .....

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1157&hilit=alligator

[RobesonsRme.com]

Whatever happened to SunBurst?

It was one of his posts re' Robeson knives that I found via Google and brought me to AAPK.

Charlie Noyes