Y'all seen this yet?
http://www.2coolfishing.net/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=2398322

Nope nope nope

**** that!!!!

Wow. That's intense.

Any of y'all ever visit the Aransas refuge in Austwell? Went some months back and prob saw two dozen gators, and a handful around 12 feet. We actually pulled up to one of the estuaries moments after a 12 footer caught a wild hog and got to watch it eat it. Was one of the coolest things ive ever witnessed in the wild. You could hear the bones snapping like twigs from around 50 yards away. No thanks.

Can vouch for big gators at the Aransas. They just eat and grow.

Shivers. Have spent way too many dark mornings putting out decoys in the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge in dark waters. This story conjures up my worst fear.

There's a mama gator that has a nest back there lighthouse cove. It chased a fishing guide friend of mine last week back to his boat.

If you go to the north end of St. Charles Bay and take some of the canals, you will most likely see fresh slides and you have a decent chance of seeing a gator or two. They are definitely there.

I believe you're referring to Little Devil and Big Devil Bayous and the canals that connect them in St. Charles. I've seen 3 at one time in Little and see at least one there almost every time I go.

Nope nope nope
the death roll is one of my top fears

ATX_AG_08 said:

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I believe you're referring to Little Devil and Big Devil Bayous and the canals that connect them in St. Charles. I've seen 3 at one time in Little and see at least one there almost every time I go.

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I had to look it up because I didn't know the name. Specifically I'm talking about what I believe is called Burgentine Creek at the far north end of St. Charles. We fish there with my wife's uncle sometimes and that's where I've seen gators. We've fished close to Little Devil and Big Devil Bayous, but I don't remember going up in them.

There used to be (& maybe still is) a pretty good sized gator that lived in a pond along Lamar Beach Rd. just past the Frontier Fishing Lodge. We saw him out of the water once and he started walking toward our Jeep like he was just taking a stroll.

You're right. Different location. Well I guess we've established there is a very healthy breeding population in St. Charles. They probably like the area due to all the fresh water coming in from Salt Creek, Cavasso, and Burgentine.

I've seen a big gator cruising across Army Hole a few years ago which is not far down the shoreline from where this guy got bit. I haven't waded since. It was a lot bigger than 6 ft. Had to be at least 10.

I've got a video somewhere of a gator about 12 feet long that we poked with a rod.

Pulled up on matagorda shoreline and looked down. He was just laying there. We poked it to get it to move because it made us nervous. Thing made one big swipe with its tail and splashed us all. Freakin big it was.

No thanks being in the water with one. I had no idea they laid on the bottom in salt water. You could walk up on one and never know it.

Pictures work for anyone?

https://imgur.com/gallery/VGnBr

That sounds like a really small gator that tried to eat his foot and let go when it realized it had got hold of something too big for it. Probably a 3-4 footer. Anything bigger than that would have crushed his leg and drowned him. Truth is gators don't really view people as a prey item. If it had been a bigger gator it would probably not have attacked his foot.

Anybody?

Gators are one of the most opportunistic eaters there are. What abt the kid at Disney or the guy in Orange last year. I think the reason we don't see more attacks is gators feed more at night and ppl mostly do water activities during the day.

This is one of the reasons I'm leery abt walking and gigging at night. Fug that.

BreNayPop said:

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Nope nope nope

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+1

They are opportunistic, but lazy. The one in Florida tried to eat a child which is more in line with average alligator prey size. The one in Orange got a drunk guy who jumped off a dock where people had been feeding the many large gators in the immediate vicinity... play stupid games win stupid prizes.

NM
Fail

Around here there are plenty of alligators but very few attacks on people. Dogs and other animals, that's a whole other thing.

It's been about 10 years since the last notable one in the state - a 12' one pulled the arm off a snorkeler. The gator was shot and It was recovered immediately but couldn't be reattached.

ATX_AG_08 said:

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Gators are one of the most opportunistic eaters there are. What abt the kid at Disney or the guy in Orange last year. I think the reason we don't see more attacks is gators feed more at night and ppl mostly do water activities during the day.

This is one of the reasons I'm leery abt walking and gigging at night. Fug that.

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Gators, generally speaking, dont view humans as food. It is fairly rare that a grown person will be attacked, even by a larger alligator.

I would not suggest recreational swimming aroind them, but they are rarely super aggressive towards humans. Dogs, pigs, deer, etc are a different story.

They will periodically venture into salt water. We had one down off of Quintana beach a few months back, and with the storm pumping a whole,lot of fresh water into the bay systesm, the salinity should be fairly low and I am not surprised to hear that an alligator is venturing out into the bay.

We fished with Bayflats one day and the guide had us in a little cut where a big gator was visible. We were walking where the gator had been traveling as there were slides all over the bank. We caught a few nice reds and then the gator went under and didn't come up within a couple of minutes. The guide made the call for us to high tail it back to the boat. I was nervous the whole time.

I had another encounter in St. Charles Bay. We were wading along one morning and I was throwing topwaters. We were spread out pretty good, so nobody was within a few hundred yards of me. Out of the corner of my right eye, I notice something coming up on me. Turns out to be a gator and he wanted to see what my topwater was all about. It scared the heck out of me because it was not very small. By that point my lure was very close to me. Thank god there was not a stingray in my path because I was not sliding my feet on the way back to the boat.

...used to see St. Charles gators in the marshy area just north of Egg Pt - multiple slides there too. ...also around Cavasso Creek. ...and there used to be a big one that hung out around a pond on the south side of Cedar Bayou within spitting distance of the gulf beach on St. Jo - pretty salty water there too.
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There are alligators all over the Florida Keys. They hang out in the freshwater lenses, but you will find them in the brackish mangrove swamps and periodically swiming between the islands.

There are lots of humans in close proximity to alligators (sorta like mountain lions) and rarely view them as food. Every once in a blue moon, a fatality occurs. Looks at how long it took Texas to have a fatality, it it was about as stupid an idiot as you could get (we should probably thank the alligator).

I've seen abt a 8 footer in Cedar Bayou but it was years ago.

That was very long. I skimmed. But we see them in Indianola a lot. We quit letting the dogs swim behind the house on Powderhorn bc of it. However we swim with kids during the day along the Ranch shoreline but further out north of POC. Am I supposed to be worried now?

No... gators rarely attack people. I swam with them around all the time growing up. Stepped on one. Had one sitting about 2 feet from me for over thirty minutes while I was duck hunting once (about 8 foot long) he didn't do anything. They are like frogs with teeth. Except if frogs were the size of gators, they'd be eating everyone.

Stepped on a small one 2-3 feet when in thigh deep water for work one time.

Worst was I found a dead one in a culvert at Brazos Bend SP that one scared me, cuz I was already in the water up to my waist when it's carcass came out of the culvert.

ATX_AG_08 said:

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Wow. That's intense.

Any of y'all ever visit the Aransas refuge in Austwell? Went some months back and prob saw two dozen gators, and a handful around 12 feet. We actually pulled up to one of the estuaries moments after a 12 footer caught a wild hog and got to watch it eat it. Was one of the coolest things ive ever witnessed in the wild. You could hear the bones snapping like twigs from around 50 yards away. No thanks.

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This is the answer, we need more gators

In my younger years we'd wakeboard and ski on the Neches River out of Port Neches. I can recall seeing gators as we cruised by and all the reports of bull sharks in the summer. I still can't believe I swam and skied on that crazy murky river.

Nope! I'm never going to wadefish again.