Gator Nation

It’s weird moving from Alaska to a totally different enviroment and different animals entering the picture. I came from Fishing with bear and moose to alligators and poisonis snakes. I am definitely a bit more scared of snakes then I am gators, but they are both pretty threatening. I think the worst part is I can’t see either of them until they are fairly close to me.

Florida is full of gators, they are everywhere. I see one almost every time I fish a pond here on base at the golf course. Hence the name “Gator Lakes Golf Course”. The last few outings to the pond has been kind of irritating, but fun at the same time. I will start throwing poppers trying to entice anything that will come to the surface and snatch it. Then minutes later I will see something moving on the surface swimming towards it. Guess who? A friggen gator. He will either sit there and watch or get curious and slam that popper like it’s no ones business. The fight usually doesn’t last to long with razor sharp teeth. Another problem I have with them is they steal the fish off my line! It’s pretty funny, but gets old fast.

The weekend before last I was fishing with poppers as well. Fished the whole bank of the lake all the way around. Finally got a fish, fought for a short while and got it close so I could grab it with my hand. It was good sized fish, roughly 16″. Went to grab it and saw a gator coming up fast from the depths of the lake. I could litterally see the bass below me, and below him was the alligator. He snatched it and the line broke!! All gone! One thing did come out of it though, I saw a huge largemouth right next to him scoping out what was going on. Probably 20″ and atleast 6lbs!

So even with having these gators in Florida and always around, there is still many large fish to be caught. Just takes a little more technique which I am still learning! More to come!