I went fishing with my son in the glades off Boynton Beach Blvd.
Not much was happening then a few small sun fish started bitting, a gator saw what was going on so he came in closer.
I hooked a nice Shell Cracker almost 1/2 LB.
The drag was a little loose so I had a little trouble landing it.
The next thing I knew the gator had it in his mouth, needless to say I snapped the line (I don't fight with 8 ft gators.),after that we left.
If you don't believe that story when you meet my son and me take him off to the side and ask him to tell you the story, he'll tell you the same one.

i belive you.because the same thing happened to me.the only difference is that i tried to fight it.it was only 4 foot or so but it w as a good fight.

i belive you.because the same thing happened to me.the only difference is that i tried to fight it.it was only 4 foot or so but it was a good fight.

me too. i was f in around with a gator bass fishing and got him to hit a zoom power worm reeled across his nose. i fought him for like 10 minuetes and got him preety close to shore but when he realized how close he was, he shot off and broke me off.

You shouldnt intentionally harass the gators. Thats a big no no in the eyes of the FWC. I think it may even be a federal crime.

Having one snatch your fish is one thing...but trying to illicit a strike is wrong.

You beat me to it Mikey.

As someone whos held permits to keep gators and other assorted "dangerous" creatures in captivity, it was my responsibility to know what the laws were.

Just to repeat it...Harassing alligators is not OK and is punishable by severe penalties. Crocodillians are highly conditionable animals. Behaviors can be taught and they will be repeated, if the same stimuli are present.

This is why you arent allowed to feed or touch them. They will begin to associate human interaction with food, and then associate your arm with food, and can grab the arm, mistaking it for food. Even worse, they associate an environment with food and then they stay around and become a nuisance, leading to their relocation or euthanization.

I have seen this conditioning ability work positively in regards to captive husbandry though. At Gatorland in Orlando, they have trained a population of juvenile/sub adult crocs to respond when their snouts touch the tip of a long wooden stick. The animal will "sit" and await its reward for responding to the stick. The keeper was able to stop several curious crocs in a semi circle using this technique. As soon as they received their reward, they ran right back into the water.

I have also witnessed green mambas behaving identically in response to an orange pointer.

Just be safe...all I ask.

Ya, that happens sometimes and I am sure you did not do it intentionally Repair, especially with your lil boy around.

I have had that happen to me bass fishing from time to time too at the Arthur Marshal off Lox RD....

Seriously though guys, Harassing the gators is taken quite seriously by FWC, I assure yu.

i was testin a new baitcaster one day, seeing how far I could throw a chugger with it and a gar picked up the lure, I was to into the reel and didn't notice the fish was on, set the hook and nested that bad boy.....next thing I knew gator on,....my neighbor was feeding it Mangos from her tree for the next 3 weeks

Hope you dont have any small children or pets because I can guarantee that gator is curious and hungry now.

If you want PM me where you live ill come check out that gator I would like to see him in person:wink:

I would suggest re-evaluating the decision to publicize your previous statement.

LOL! I believe it- gets real annoying when they trash popping corks.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm taste goood

you know it... someone get the oil goin

1lb butter 1 BAG onions lots of salt n pecker 5lb meat in1inch cubes put in turky pan on grille let bubble in in butter and onions two hrs serve witn fries
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

hey maddawgandcrew, wanna clean up your language a little, there are young people on this site

Wow, I didn't know you could eat that part of a gator. As a matter of fact, why would you want to?

protein?

FORGOT TO MENTION THE OAYSTORES

that f@#$ing guy will eat any thing!!!!! he will eat the heart out of his dog if he ran out of gas to get to the grocery store!!lol

save the skin for my girlfriend, she loves gator bags, belts, wallets, shoes....

That's the problem with them ol' lizards... just as attracted to topwater as any of the fish we're after. Spent the last 20 years working with these things, 17 of those years dealing with nuisance gators with my father... it's a shame the things people teach 'em. Got places with constant problems with gators getting between people's baits and shore spots waiting for a hookup... nothing like an easy red or trout to get them going... then of course all the cats and other trashfish that they don't look at as trashfish. Got gators that would follow people wadefishing and steal fish off stringers...

Sadly, although when you look in the books, it's supposed to be a big no-no to feed them or to mess with them, it's rare that a FWC officer will actually do anything about it... or about poaching for that matter... I'd LOVE to say that all the cases of illegal alligator possession that I've seen came down to people losing everything, but sadly, all I've seen is wrist-slaps, even in cases where I would have gone back and gotten myself in big-time trouble for what I wanted to do.

I have loads of experiance with gators. Avoid any noisy surface plugs or floats.