ha ha Dave! I saw a gator one time that was probaly from the tip of this one's tail to his rear legs, close to 13 feet long! I was on Johnny's boat on the Cooper and had a momma gator charge towards me in a direct b line route. I was like a deer in the headlights!! First thing I heard from the pontoon boat when I surfaced was "look out there is a gator headed straight towards you!" Very scary surreal feeling, gator veered off maybe 30 yd away. Another time I surfaced and being far sighted saw something in the distant but could not distinguish and it kept getting closer. All that was exposed was my hoodie covered head. When I saw it was a gator moving in on me, I inflated my bc and started waving my arms over my head and the gator veered off. Another time on the suwannee river I came upon a good 10foot long gator laying on the bottom and was within 7-8 feet of the gator and he never moved, just layed there on the bottom, but brother everything in me locked down on that one! Bad thing was the water was crystal clear so I could see every scute on that armor plated bohemoth!
