Off topic story time
Why I don’t like alligators. Back in the 80’s I owned a camp on Toledo Bend Lake on the Texas side near English Marina. Fishing and wildlife at it’s best. Only downside was a gator named “Two Notches”. At some time in his life he had encountered a boat propeller and lost two notches on his tail.
Two Notches spent the summer at Golden Shore Marina just north of us and as I understand it… they fed him! A lot questions come to mind. Why feed him? Why feed an animal with no hair? Don’t feed any animal with no hair! If he’s pre-historic why is he even here? If it’s ten feet long and has 200 teeth does it need a hand out?
During the summer a family of Cajuns from South Louisiana bought out English Marina. Nothing changed a lot except breakfast went from eggs and bacon to beer and pigskins. Fall came and Two Notches headed south for the winter.
Wonderful October weekend get to the camp stop at the marina to pay launch fee, skipped breakfast and one of the Cajuns said guess who was here yesterday? Aw Gaud! Where is he? Cajun said we caught him at the bridge last night and tied him up with a yellow ski rope. We got up this morning and the yellow ski rope and Two Notches was gone! The reason I’m telling you this if you see a yellow ski rope on the water and you want it, you need to have you’re shit together!
Well I got the boat in, had to pass the bridge I figured that belonged to Two Notches and looking over, a man was wading and casting in the creek. Saw him catch a few fish and put them on a stringer tied to his belt loop. Then I saw a yellow ski rope floating on the water behind him. One end of the rope was around Two Notches’. neck and he was looking at the fish on the stringer.
Not good! the gator is going to get the fish and at least half the man’s butt! I charge in with Mercury 50 HP wide open shut down and the guy thinks I’m trying to take his fishing spot. Says, “CAN I HELP YOU?” I said, “see the yellow ski rope behind you”, it has a gator on it. About the time Two Notches had enough and cut a 180-degree retreat.
For those of you that don’t know what a 180-degree turn on a 10-foot gator looks like, it looks like the Hover Dam with all turbines in full operations. I ducked, the boat took a violent rock and my new-found friend was in the boat. I said, “CAN I HELP YOU?” Would you please take me to the shore? Ten-foot alligators tend to change attitudes.
Got the wobbly-legged guy unloaded, looked for Two Notches and I saw the yellow ski rope streaming in the water. Headed back towards my camp. Looked like something I saw in Jaws movie. The only thing at the camp was my wife so I didn’t see a lot of harm in his direction.
I turned back south and went to my second favorite spot at Rag Town Park and found at least 20 kids from five to fifteen turning my fishing spot into a mud hole. About eight mothers in two-piece bathing suits that fit about 100 pounds and 10 years ago, all lined up on the beach waiting for Greenpeace to drag them back in the water.
That did it! Cut my motor off and said “YA’LL SEEN THAT BIG OLD ALLIGATOR NAMED TWO NOTCHES AROUND HERE? Now that was a big mistake! Another clip from Jaws erupted, the screaming was unreal and now I can visualize a pencil sketch of my mug posted in the Shelby County Sheriffs office. “Wanted for domestic terrorism goes by the name Alligator and sometimes uses the allies Two Notches”.
Got back to camp and wife say’s “you not going to believe this”, the biggest alligator I have ever seen came up here and old man Driggers next door said it was old Two Notches. Did it have a yellow ski rope around his neck? How did you know that? Tell you what get me a big glass of ice and a diet 7-up, I’ll get old Evans Williams out and I’ll tell you all about it!
Buck
Two Notches spent the summer at Golden Shore Marina just north of us and as I understand it… they fed him! A lot questions come to mind. Why feed him? Why feed an animal with no hair? Don’t feed any animal with no hair! If he’s pre-historic why is he even here? If it’s ten feet long and has 200 teeth does it need a hand out?
During the summer a family of Cajuns from South Louisiana bought out English Marina. Nothing changed a lot except breakfast went from eggs and bacon to beer and pigskins. Fall came and Two Notches headed south for the winter.
Wonderful October weekend get to the camp stop at the marina to pay launch fee, skipped breakfast and one of the Cajuns said guess who was here yesterday? Aw Gaud! Where is he? Cajun said we caught him at the bridge last night and tied him up with a yellow ski rope. We got up this morning and the yellow ski rope and Two Notches was gone! The reason I’m telling you this if you see a yellow ski rope on the water and you want it, you need to have you’re shit together!
Well I got the boat in, had to pass the bridge I figured that belonged to Two Notches and looking over, a man was wading and casting in the creek. Saw him catch a few fish and put them on a stringer tied to his belt loop. Then I saw a yellow ski rope floating on the water behind him. One end of the rope was around Two Notches’. neck and he was looking at the fish on the stringer.
Not good! the gator is going to get the fish and at least half the man’s butt! I charge in with Mercury 50 HP wide open shut down and the guy thinks I’m trying to take his fishing spot. Says, “CAN I HELP YOU?” I said, “see the yellow ski rope behind you”, it has a gator on it. About the time Two Notches had enough and cut a 180-degree retreat.
For those of you that don’t know what a 180-degree turn on a 10-foot gator looks like, it looks like the Hover Dam with all turbines in full operations. I ducked, the boat took a violent rock and my new-found friend was in the boat. I said, “CAN I HELP YOU?” Would you please take me to the shore? Ten-foot alligators tend to change attitudes.
Got the wobbly-legged guy unloaded, looked for Two Notches and I saw the yellow ski rope streaming in the water. Headed back towards my camp. Looked like something I saw in Jaws movie. The only thing at the camp was my wife so I didn’t see a lot of harm in his direction.
I turned back south and went to my second favorite spot at Rag Town Park and found at least 20 kids from five to fifteen turning my fishing spot into a mud hole. About eight mothers in two-piece bathing suits that fit about 100 pounds and 10 years ago, all lined up on the beach waiting for Greenpeace to drag them back in the water.
That did it! Cut my motor off and said “YA’LL SEEN THAT BIG OLD ALLIGATOR NAMED TWO NOTCHES AROUND HERE? Now that was a big mistake! Another clip from Jaws erupted, the screaming was unreal and now I can visualize a pencil sketch of my mug posted in the Shelby County Sheriffs office. “Wanted for domestic terrorism goes by the name Alligator and sometimes uses the allies Two Notches”.
Got back to camp and wife say’s “you not going to believe this”, the biggest alligator I have ever seen came up here and old man Driggers next door said it was old Two Notches. Did it have a yellow ski rope around his neck? How did you know that? Tell you what get me a big glass of ice and a diet 7-up, I’ll get old Evans Williams out and I’ll tell you all about it!
Buck
Views: 18
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bobi Carr ("parker") on -
Buck,
I sure have missed your stories. -
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Permalink Reply by Bobi Carr ("parker") on
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Mine’s not near as interesting but here goes.
A friend ran yoyo's on our farm and was tearing up the white perch. After a few months, he stopped fishing it.
I thought it would be fun to take my son fishing at the farm. He was about 5. Of course, if it was going to be fun for one, why not bring along a slew of kids. So I borrowed three extra. Two girls and an additional boy. All close to my son's age. Already, you can say, "what was I thinking".
Well it had been since I was a kid that I had been fishing. I rounded up enough poles and tackle and then bought shiners and worms. I'm not opposed to bait'n a hook, but for all practical purposes I'm a city girl, so bait‘n five was already going to be a stretch.
I'm sure the whole scene would have been comical to anyone if we could have been seen.
I improvised best I could remember how to tie a sinker and hook and cork on a line. But remember I had five lines, I had to try to assemble. And it had been quite a while since I had fished. What the heck, the kid's wouldn't know whether I did it correctly or not.
I don't know why it didn't occur to me to try to do some of this ahead of time, but the whole idea of fishing was sort of spur of the moment anyway. The kids were skwirmy with excitement.
I got a few poles assembled and instructed them how to cast, etc. I went back to trying to assemble my pole. Not gonna happen that easy. First one kid gets hung up on a stump. Reassemble that pole. Then one gets stuck in the top of a tree. Time to start again. All while baiting hooks and trying to keep an eye out that none of them slip into the mucky water never to be seen again.
Did I mention that you couldn't even see the water itself for the duckweed?
By this time, (thirty minutes or a month into it), it was hard to be sure which, we were all hot and sweaty and itching from the bugs. I'm at the car, tying a line AGAIN. I was foolish enough to think that I was actually gonna fish with them. Once again, I know, "what was I thinking"?
One of the girls starts screaming that she has a fish. I pick up the net and head that way. She then starts saying it's an alligator. Yeah right. It's got to be another stump in the duck weed, so I'm not in that big of a hurry any longer.
When I get there (just a few feet away), I think it does sort of look like an alligator. But surely it isn't. Well, I didn't think it was until I saw the eyes. I had seen the darn things out there but I sure as heck didn't know you could catch one on a fishing line.
Mommy mode kicks in. Panic was welling up inside of me, but I'm still somewhat calm on the outside. I popped the line and corralled the kids into the car. I sure felt like he was about 10 feet long, but in reality he probably didn't amount to three foot. But three footer's have moms and pops.
Now if I had good sense, we would have went and had ice cream and called it a day. By now, I'm sure you can tell I wasn’t thinking.
We went to a bayou down the road and fished for a while there. Didn't catch a thing, but a pretty good story and a memory that may grow that gator eventually into a 10 footer. -
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Permalink Reply by Big Daddy, bcnr on
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LMAO Buck!!! Next time I'm down in the Purchase, I wanna party with you! Just tell some stories while I make beer go away. I thought ole Two Notches might be 3 or 4 Notches thanks to the 50 horse! By the way, how's them 'maters? Just got our garden in this past weekend. Ground finally warmed up.
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