The Alligator Story

 

One thing about Florida that is superior to all other states is the fishing.  Salt water, fresh water, brackish water, you have it all.  You can catch almost every kind of fish somewhere in Florida’s waters.  In fact, you can catch many things that are not even fish!  This is a story of when I took our kids fishing and caught more than just fish.  I caught an alligator, first on my fishing pole, and then by hand. This is the alligaotr story.

Naval Air Station Cecil Field, where I was stationed, had a small pond that you could fish in.  A small stream fed into it and on the side where the stream came in; there was a wooden footbridge that spanned the pond.  It was about one or two feet off the surface and made a good place to fish from.

A Simple Outing…Turns Into An Alligator Story

This started out as a fishing expedition but ended up as an alligator story. One day I took all our kids there to catch some easy bream (various small, easy to catch fish).  Mostly it was bluegills and sunfish that I was after since they are so plentiful and easy to catch.  I don’t recall that we even took any bait.  I just caught a few grasshoppers and crickets and used them.

 This wasn’t a long excursion since the kids were fairly small.  I only had one fishing pole because the kid’s attention span wasn’t long enough to actually catch something.  Mostly I would catch the fish, then let them feel the fish and look at it before throwing it back.  I was planning on an hour max for this fishing trip.

It did not take very long to hook the first fish.  The kids were excited for that first one, but the enthusiasm waned as time went by.  After about 20 minutes it was like, “Oh another fish…Woop de do.”  So I started to embellish a little bit when I
hooked one and even let them try to reel it in.  As one of the kids (probably Jennifer since she was the oldest and most experienced fisherkid) was reeling one in, I noticed an alligator swimming towards us.  He was about 4 feet long and was attracted to the struggling fish in the water.

Fishing…Turns Into Something More

On the next cast I decided to try and “catch” the alligator by letting it eat the fish that was hooked.  I hooked a fish and let it swim around while the alligator tracked it down and had it for lunch.  I let the gator swim away for a few yards, then “set the hook” by pulling the line tight.  It swung his head around and he did NOT like what was happening to him; shaking his head back and forth, he would not let go of the fish (he had probably swallowed it by now) and I knew I could not and should not get him out of the water and onto the wooden bridge.  I just cut the line and he swam just a little ways away, hoping for some more dinner I suppose.

The kids all thought if was cool to catch the gator, but were also pretty intimidated by it, so we decided to call it a day and pack everything up and leave.  As we were
leaving the gator decided to swim past us.  I saw that he was going to swim right underneath the bridge just a few feet in front of me.  I told the kids to keep walking toward the shore and to stay away from me, but to watch and see if I could catch the gator.  They were NOT keen on the idea, but I had never felt a real alligator before I wanted to see if I could actually grab it by the tail.

GOTCHA!

As it started to slowly swim under the bridge, I laid down and waited for it to swim under me.  As it passed, I slowly reached down and gently grabbed its tail.  By now the kids were screaming and they just knew I was gonna be dinner for that gator just like the fish before.  I was pretty surprised that I was able to hold onto it for as long as I did.  So he kept trying harder and harder to swim away, but I maintained a good hold on him.  Then after about 20 seconds of this he decided that enough was enough and thrashed his head around to try and bite me.  Fortunately, I was expecting this and my cat-like reflexes kicked in so I avoided losing my arm to the jaws of certain death.  The alligator and I parted ways.  We still send each other Christmas cards…just kidding.  Thus ends the alligator story.