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We were coming out of a WMA Saturday and my son pointed over to the bank. I looked over there and under the oaks right at the water's edge was about an eight foot gator laying parallel to the water about a foot from the edge. So I cut the outboard and headed him straight at it...wide open. I figured it would bail off into the water but it didn't. Fortunately there was a tree between us and the gator so I couldn't go right at it so I aimed about six or eight feet off to the side. So I put the bow right up on the bank and the gator opened its mouth and twisted off into the water. Then something jumped up in the leaves right off the bow and it was a little one about 2 and a half feet long. Then we noticed what I thought was a muskrat house just to our left and there were a couple of little ones laying on top of it. All together there were 10-12 of them scattered all among those oak leaves and we realized that we had busted in among a whole buttload of gators and momma was prolly pizzed! He had to jump out of the boat to push us off and wanted me to load a gun...hilarious. We never saw her again but there were little ones poking their eyes up out of the water all around us. If one of these gators have that many little ones our wma's must be slap full of them. Duck huntin's fun ain't it?

A Few years ago my Uncle from Tennessee came down to visit at New Years. I had raved about the Crappie fishing at a small lake by my house for years and it was now time to put up/or shut up. I was going to take him fishing and this had better be good or I would never hear the end of it!
We launched my little 12 ft Jonboat on 29Dec2004, it was 40 degrees and sunny. A good day for fishing. It never crossed my mind that an alligator would be out and about that late in the year, much less with the cold temps we had been having. Well the pond was performing pretty good, we were catching some decent fish and all in all having a great time until.... We turned a bend and there lay a six for gator on top of a reed mat. No breathing, no movement, and it was a cool day... my suspicion was somebody had killed it.... sure looked dead to me! Well as we got to within maybe two feet from it my dear uncle for the 13,726th time asked me if it was dead, I said "sure it is if you dont beleive me poke its eye with your fishing rod(btw I was in the back of the boat, he was about 10 feet closer to it than I was). Thats when all hell broke loose! No it wasn't dead... No a twelve foot Jonboat is not a battle ship... and no we weren't having a good time anymore! Needless to say once the splashing stopped, the gator was long gone I'm talking about that enraged Mountain Man, I had some explaining to do . He never has forgotten that, and come to think of it, he's never come back down to fish either.

Great stories!

A friend of mine on Davis Island saw a 12ft+ gator on the bank of long lake this past Saturday. Not my cup of tea

I was surprised to see a small (4-5 foot) gator in the bayou on our lease near Cleveland over Thanksgiving. Living in FL, we have had to get used to hunting with them around (although it can be a little disconcerting at times when we are wading and you see yellow eyes in the Qbeam pattern).

How far north do gators range in Mississippi? I would think that it would be too cold for 'em where we hunt. Everyone in our club
hunts with a dog and I would hate to lose a well trained Lab to one of those creepy reptiles.

GAHEEL83 wrote:I was surprised to see a small (4-5 foot) gator in the bayou on our lease near Cleveland over Thanksgiving. Living in FL, we have had to get used to hunting with them around (although it can be a little disconcerting at times when we are wading and you see yellow eyes in the Qbeam pattern).

How far north do gators range in Mississippi? I would think that it would be too cold for 'em where we hunt. Everyone in our club
hunts with a dog and I would hate to lose a well trained Lab to one of those creepy reptiles.

As far as I know there range is all of mississippi.

that is a great story

Took a guy couple weeks ago and we pulled up on one in the hole and saw a gator... gave him the spinner (YEAH I KNOW) pole to tap him on the head with, I said " Hit him on the head so maybe he'll leave" he takes my advice and instead of swinging it like a hammer he throws the the thing like an olympic javelin and loses my damn pole

Usually you don't see them once the water temps have been in the 50's for a couple weeks. They must be really frisky this year.

bout a week or so on my club off leaf river i was bout waist deep in a slu throwin out decoys and ole mister gator popped up checkin out my decoys... not cool..

Saw 2 at bogue homa sat, one about 10 +' the other was about five'

You will see gators all year round, when it is cold or has been cold for awhile they will not move as much that is why you can get right up on them.

GAHEEL83 wrote:I was surprised to see a small (4-5 foot) gator in the bayou on our lease near Cleveland over Thanksgiving. Living in FL, we have had to get used to hunting with them around (although it can be a little disconcerting at times when we are wading and you see yellow eyes in the Qbeam pattern).

How far north do gators range in Mississippi? I would think that it would be too cold for 'em where we hunt. Everyone in our club
hunts with a dog and I would hate to lose a well trained Lab to one of those creepy reptiles.

cleaveland as in cleaveland ms in the north delta?

E

no need to worry about alligators as long as we've had some cold temps.. alligators can not digest food below 70 degrees...

BeastMaster wrote:no need to worry about alligators as long as we've had some cold temps.. alligators can not digest food below 70 degrees...

Do they know that?