Alligator

For years my wife did not believe me when I told her that there are gators in the TN river. Well today we were leaving Limestone creek about a quarter mile from the main river. I’m having to dodge debris left and right. I notice one stick in the water. Hmmm looks funny. I get within 10 ft and it sinks. I said look alligator. About that time it comes up behind the boat. 6 footer. Now she is a believer. Lmao.

50 or so in wheeler

There was a big one in Lay in the late 90's. Don't know about now.

Choot im

there are way more than 50 gators in wheeler.

You can say that again.

My info came from an article i read about it. It said 50 were put in there and they lived and did well but were not able to reproduce. I dont have any firsthand knowledge about the subject.

Saw a 5-6' er at a boat house I was working on last spring. It was there every day. That's the only one I've seen on lay.

The 5 14inchers i saw back several years ago says they do reproduce.

Last year saw one about 4ft way back up in Waxahatchee creek north of the Hwy 145 bridge.

I was about that same area years ago in a 10 ft. flat bottom. Saw one about the same way. Thought it was dead. Reached to poke him with a cane pole and he went under and under my boat. Made it rock pretty good. Funny part was the old guy in a boat behind me saw what happened and started hollering "He's coming in the boat...he's coming in the boat". Thought he was too. Big head on that sucker too. Used to count on seeing one over there sunning himself on the bank. Called him ol nub because a big piece of tail was missing. Saw one one night on the bank right next to the ice rink at Pt. Mallard. Friend of mine has a picture of one on the beach area there. Seen several slides on flint creek too.

Here's a kayak fishing video I saw a few weeks ago that shows a bunch of them in Wheeler.


https://youtu.be/W5wAyYd4_4Y

There’s plenty on the tenn River. Limestone creek, flint, Blackwell swamp use to see them pretty regular at those places.. mussel camp even had a few last year

One of my buddy's got his lab eaten down near Roland Cooper park.

Dang it, I’m wanting to go noodling on Lay this year but now I’m having second thoughts.

That’s why I won’t let my dogs swim in the river.

Wheres that?

Found these while bank fishing a portion of Flint Creek in Hartselle last week, hind footprint of a smaller alligator.

I'm trying to train them to learn that jet skiers are just another variety of fast food to add to their diet.

Been in the river since the mid 1970s. A few were released at the urging and arm-twisting of Wheeler NWR manager Tom Atkeson and then-Rep Flippo. Supposedly as "beaver control" and also to see whether they could live in what was believed to be their northernmost range.

They breed here. The refuge had some little ones in the visitors center, many years ago. Most of the gators are in the Limestone Bay area and thereabouts. I've seen them on the south side of the river in some of the sloughs. Was called in the late 2000s at the newspaper one day by a guy who said he saw one in Aldridge Creek up between Mountain Gap and Hobbs. I asked how big and he said at least 4 feet, and it wasn't a log or tire. He was pretty convincing.

Honestly surprised more haven't been found in Paint Rock, Aldridge and Cotaco creeks.

On the Alabama River at Miller's Ferry





Have coon and squirrel hunted in that Flint Creek area on the TVA land. Always thought that backwater and woods was perfect for gators.

I didn't see it, but heard multiple matching reports of a large dead one floating in Lay last year.

I've always heard supposed sightings of gators on Logan Martin, but never anything tangible.

Seen one on Wheeler in a break off down from paper mill over 40 years ago. Columbus Lake on Tombigbee is full of them. Cousin killed one a few years ago during Mississippi season below Columbus lock 11'8 ft.475lbs.

I’ve been in the water with the gators on Wheeler. They are indeed reproducing without issue.

https://youtu.be/sWqg6B-taUg

They just want to be friendly!

I know the general area that big bull stays around the I-65 bridge. The Decatur Daily wrote an article on him that said he was 16 feet (he's not, he's 13.5 tops, or at least he was last time i laid eyes on him which was the summer of 2019). That article was the worst thing that ever happened for the gator population in Wheeler. Ever Bubba that's ever thought he was a Swamper (and not the kind that plays studio music for Aretha) was out there shining every night trying to poach em a gator. It was pitiful.

Supposedly they put 550 gators there to control beavers. When the news finally got out, they hired a man to trap them. He caught 5. Then they said that they wouldn't survive the winter. But they did. Then they said that they wouldn't reproduce, they lied again.

I think there is one or two in lake eufaula. Actually it is more like one or two per acre. We got within 30 feet of several this weekend while crappie fishing in the chewable creek area.

It wasn't 550 and I don't believe even 50. But the rest of the story about the released gators being put in for beaver control and the trapper was what I heard, too.

They reproduce. I've seen the babies, and have seen nests. I saw one in the mid-80s while fishing with a friend. We cast at what we thought was a log and it submerged, and we about crapped our drawers. There's not a bajillion of them in there but there's enough.

The one I seen in Lay was just north of the dam.

I live along the arsenal And ditto area. An arsenal bomb safety instructor told us 40 were released for beaver control on the Arsenal. They started reproducing. Sent a team to catch them to remove them and they only caught 16 and quit. I have spent a lot of time on the river from the arsenal to g ville dam. I have only seen 2 since 1995. These 2 were together. About 4ft long. In a swamp area on the east side if arsenal about 100 yards off the tenn river bank. Just down stream from ditto landing. Back in 2003 a friend showed a pic he took of an 8fter on a log in the flint river not far from the tenn river.

keeps them ditch pickle ate up 😁