Fishing With Gators???!!!

[Troy Taylor]

I was stationed in Orlando when I was a young man. My neighbor an I would shore fish a lot of the ponds in our area. As we would walk around we constantly watched out for fresh gator poop on the trails around the water.Warm gator poop and we would get the hell out of there as quietly as possible. Everything was so over grown you never knew where the gator might be. Yea it was scary at times.

[Troy Taylor]

We also took my neighbors dog. He was good for warning us about gators on shore in our area while we where fishing. Again we would leave.

[1234567]

Don't leave your lures hanging over the boat either!  Down in the glades two years ago I was on the trolling motor in about 4 feet of water.  As I looked down I saw a gator laying on the bottom.  That's when it started up to the surface and came after the crankbait hanging over the side.  I kicked my pole with my foot and luckily it missed.  That could've been an expensive day on the water for me.

[RAMBLER]

I have several Rapala floating minnows that are now key chain fobs.  Those little (2-3') gators are quick and they like to lay in the weeds and ambush anything that moves and is smaller than they are.  After they've crushed the lure and wrecked it, they give it back.

I fish in an area where there was a 13 foot gator.  I'd drift through very quietly and he would slide off of the bank and float around near me and roar once in a while.  When he would roar, I knew that I was closer than I should be so I would slowly and quietly move on out.  I know he was 13' because I talked to the guy that killed him during a legal hunt.  I miss seeing that old gator.

[Gotfishyfingers?]

Just don't go swimming....

[Oregon Native]

What gets me is those stories of people who float tube and fish small boats around the swamps. Dang...gators, snakes oh my!!!

[BassinLou]

^{As not} only a fisherman that has done some fishing in the south and lived there. But I also was a large scale reptile breeder. High end ball pythons, leopard geckos, bearded dragons, boas etc etc etc. had thousands. I know a lot of people who own American alligators and caimen crocs etc. I've handled my fair share of crocs and gators so they don't bother me. From 18" babies to helping sedate a 14' american alligator. If you know how to handle them and avoid them when fishing you're fine. They also can give you an indication if you're fishing in a good area if you know how they behave.

 

However the size is up to you to believe. I've shown people 8 ft gators they believed had to be 12-13 ft lol. Gators just scare people so they tell you they are that big the same way they tell you they caught a fish "THIS BIG" haha. Truth is just mind your business and they will mind theirs. Just don't hop out of that boat.

 

 

 

Fishinthedacks, can you please elaborate on the red highlighted text. I may learn something new on what you have to say. Yesterday for example, the place I went to fish in the everglades usually has a lot of gators.  Fishing was ok, but we only saw a handful of gators, when in the same area last month we saw a lot more. 

[Hyrule Bass]

id feel better in a boat than on the bank if i was fishing with gators. if i was bank fishing id stand way back. they would make me really nervous and cautious. i'd probably focus on them more than my fishing. just might not enjoy that regularly, from the bank that is. snakes are another thing im terrified of, if a snake of any type is around im gone. i was in NC back in february, and my bro in law had to kill a copperhead in his backyard, in freaking february. there were a few warm days, but dang, it wont that warm...sucker blended right in with the pine straw...