Fun on Ross Barnett yesterday

[MississippiBoy]

I decided to brave the weekenders and twice-a-year boaters yesterday and do some froggin' in the pads. Got a good shot of the sunrise on the way up the river.


A little after 9, I notice something moving. Somebody had been jug fishing, using PVC pipe and yellow pool noodles as the float, and one of them was still there, being pulled around by whatever had been caught. So I figure there's a catfish or something that's going to die with this noodle dragging from it, so I troll over to release (or keep for supper ;)) that catfish.
I reach down and grab the noodle and start to pull it up. I can feel the weight on it, but nothing is thrashing or pulling against me...it's just dead weight. I pull it up a couple of feet, and see something long and skinny coming up with it. Can't tell what it is, I'm thinking maybe a gar or something. I pull it up a little more, and I recognize what it is....it's a front leg.....that's still attached.....to the 6-7 foot alligator that was not happy to see me. I wasn't thrilled, either. I dropped the float as quick as I could, and he thrashed hard to the side and made a big splash as he swam off. Let me tell you, my heart was POUNDING in my chest after that. It took me probably ten minutes to calm down.
Then I looked down, and saw the float about 20 feet away from where it was when I grabbed it...Mr. Gator didn't go too far. I thought that he would be pretty likely to get hung up on something with that float still hanging from his mouth, so I worked up my courage and trolled on over to it. As fast as I could, I grabbed it, picked it up about a foot, and cut the line.
My day was fun....how about yours?

[marshall256]

Troy would have said..."Choot 'em!"

[haveme1]

Man that's wild !

[250bassFL]

That's cool you cut the line so it could go on it's way.
Awesome picture.

[BrownTrout]

If that was me, the Pucker Factor would have hit 11 on a scale of 1 to 10

[carp_mstr]

I fished Ross Barnett in June of 2007 at the Central Divisional and the gators were entertaining to say the least. On the way to Mississippi I told the wife we had to look out for gators but she thought I was kidding. On the first practice day we took of at first light and headed up river and I started fish a pad point and we worked back into a pocket when the wife said is that a log? I turned and said no it's a big gator and the wife freaked as the 9 or 10' gator swam along side the boat and went into the pad field. Then on the second practice day I was frogging a stretch of pads when there was a swirl and my frog disappeared I set the hook and thought hell I've hooked a big bass on the practice day. After a short time I figured something was wrong and realized I had hooked about a 3 1/2' gator. I got him to the boat and he was hooked all then way through the upper mouth with both hooks. I managed to get the frog body up the line and managed to cut the line as close to his mouth as I safely could and release him. On the second tournament day I was fishing a pad bank back in a cove when about a 9 or 10'er exploded on my frog but missed. I told the guy I was fishing with let's move down this bank a ways to get away from that gator. He must of been following under the pads because on my next cast he exploded on my frog again but I was able to jerk it away before he could get it. I told my pardner "Let's go over to the opposite and fish before one of us hooks that bad boy". Interesting lake to fish. Larry Brumley

[PROCRAFT192]

Are you sure you weren't using rotten chicken for bait like Troy and Lizabeth.