Camping and Fishing Adventures

Gator gets aggressive!

We just happen to reside in one of those states where alligators are in abundance, and we see them much of the time.  Especially since we camp near water and I fish a lot.

Recently, we camped at one of Florida’s finest parks called Myakka River State Park.  It’s certainly one of those places where you WILL see gators cruising the Myakka River, as well as the main lake.

They mate during the spring and at that time they can get rather territorial now and then.

After ten years of living in Southwest Florida, we’ve never personally had any type encounter with an alligator during one of our many fishing adventures, except for our last camping trip!

During the morning we set up my chair and shore fished.  Within about 10 minutes I looked up and saw a rather large alligator swimming right toward me.

Luckily for me, it stopped about 30’ away and just stared at me.  Much like they do when you’re fishing anywhere in this area.

Only this particular day, this gator was obviously a very aggressive one that didn’t want anyone in its self proclaimed area.

It wasn’t long before the gator started creeping closer until it was less than ten feet from where I was sitting.

Waving my arms didn’t work this time, but when I finally picked up our little blue cooler, that aggressive gator did a virtual back flip and landed about 20’ away.

It was at that time that I picked up my chair, cooler and fishing gear and left the area.

Karen and I walked back to where we started the trail, but along the way, I looked back and saw that same aggressive gator swimming upriver, literally following us.

We arrived at the place where the trail starts and there weren’t any gators around so I decided to start fishing again.  About 10 minutes went by before I noticed that same gator swimming toward me again.

This time, it kept about 30’ away and just watched me fish.  Knowing that gator was still just watching me, I just kept looking to see if it was moving closer.  It did move about 10’ closer, so again I packed up and we left the area.

The next day we drove to the bridge and watched while two gators actually walked up an embankment, bit into some tree branches and returned to the water.

All in all, it was an exciting few days and we even caught some fish in the main lake!

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