And ditto on the snakes, way more chance of a run in with cottonmouth's.

Yea, but all you got to do is slap them with your pole or givem some ratshot...that is a whole lot different situation than dealing with a gator!

The first time I went to Choke Canyon, it was cold and we didn't see any gators. I thought about taking my tube next time I went. Then I was down there in a boat and saw these.

Scratch that lake off your premier tubing destinations list!!

When was the last time you heard of a gator attack?


That should tell us all we need to know about gators being a problem in Texas.

I have seen 1 or 2 alligators around Tower Bay on Lewisville. I really had to take a hard second look to make certain I was not hallucinating. I'm guessing the one's a saw were 4 to 5 foot in length.

The baskets which are being mentioned can be purchased from Academy for less than $20.00

Jeff

How often do you wade fish with the gators?

I would think there is a 99.9 percent chance you will have no problem, the .01 is the problem.

Yep, I agree...except maybe a 98% chance...depending on where you are...long time ago, we used to fish with yo-yo's...and there was a 100% chance you would have to fight the gators for the fish!!! the smaller one's were never that bad..once in a while you would lose one to the gators...but when the big one's moved in they always wanted to fight with you till you left...i had to leave those yoyo's many times and go back and get them the next day...especially, if one of the big bull gators showed up...got our boat beat up pretty good from time to time.

Has anybody heard of any gators in rush creek in arlington?

No, but when gators started showing up in east texas, it seemed like they showed up on every piece of water at once...I moved to west texas and danged if they aren't here now...can't get away from those big mouthed critters...the tail meat tastes real good though...now if TP&W would just let us have at them!

I had my first good fly roding experience on the Trinity River at the lock and dam on my styrofoam kick boat that was sold to me by a very nice guy name Bill. While wrapping up the day a bank fisherman asked me and a fellow kick boater. Were we scared of gators, cause he heard that some people had seen some down river a few years ago. Had anyone actually seen the down there? HWY.7

I had my first good fly roding experience on the Trinity River at the lock and dam on my styrofoam kick boat that was sold to me by a very nice guy name Bill. While wrapping up the day a bank fisherman asked me and a fellow kick boater. Were we scared of gators, cause he heard that some people had seen some down river a few years ago. Had anyone actually seen the down there? HWY.7

Its 38 miles of swamp from the entrance gate of Everglades National Park to Flamingo. When the road start looking like the picture above you better start looking for stuff in the road.

This is picture of spoil island where I had my only direct contact with an alligator. It ran across the bow of my kayak. I came around corner of island at higher tide stage, up against the shoreline trying to stay out of gusting winds and accidently cut off its escape route to the water. It had been sunning on shore when we both scared each other.


Crocodile on West Lake Flamingo, Fl


Dead gator/croc at Flamingo, Fl


I honestly believe I ran over this gator about a year after this picture was taken. Hit one in road at night 20 feet from this exact spot where I had seen this one off and on for months on the road to Flamingo, not far from the entrance to Everglades National Park. It was laying in the road warming up and it blended in perfectly with the pavement and I didn't see it until it was too late. It raised up and turned to look at me with mouth wide open as I smashed it going around 50 mph. Never hit my breaks as I had heard stories of folks getting high centered. It felt like I'd run over a telephone pole with railroad spikes as its tail was doing a beatdown on the undercarriage of my car. It was around 3 a.m. and I drove back and reported it to park ranger. He asked me if I needed a tow truck. I told him no and limped on in to Flamingo with fiberglass groundeffects scraping pavement the whole way. My car had $1800 in damage. Got the car fixed and then hit another one 6 months later going to Chokoloskee to kayak fish.


I should have run over this python but since I was inside a national park I gave it a free pass. They encourage it now.



Thank goodness sharks don't hang out on the roads. I've been hit hard 4 times by sharks, once being knocked 90 degrees while in kayak. This one in picture was just messing with me as it cut a huge doughnut right beside my kayak.


Christian Point, Flamingo...not far from the protected crocodile breeding grounds and my favorite fishing spot.


The second one I hit, again around 3 a.m. while on my way to the Everglades.

Right on! Takes a lot of food for gators to get big and the ones where I fished set up shop right at the edge of chokepoint near channel that opened to deep pool. It made fishing around them even more exciting.