No gator season

[FLS]

I hunted the first two seasons and killed them with a bow both years. Not much of a hunt IMO. I'm not against it but just don't see the appeal. Ego stoking exercise at best. I grew up wade fishing on the St Johns river In FL around lots of gators. Never had one do shit other than get out of the way. We gave the big ones a wide berth, just common sense. Kinda like snakes. The cul du sac dwellers see every one as a threat....

[Palmetto Bug]

I was against it too when it was first proposed. We were still in the midst of an epic drought and the gators were necessarily bunched up in the remaining waters. Then sometime that spring, I took a kid I was mentoring to the west branch of the Cooper River to fish. I had not fished there is several years. It was a Saturday and I think more than one bass tournament was in process...boats were everywhere. From my younger days fishing the river, I only occasionally saw gators in the daytime. I knew there were plenty because I did a lot of night fishing and frog gigging. Well, that day they were everywhere and they were not skittish. I had one so close to the boat that I had to push it away with the pushpole. I had the kid and my three dogs in the flats boat and it wouldn't have been hard for a gator to make trouble for us. I changed my mind that day and decided they did need some thinning and at least a little training to stay away from people.