This morning, I had good intentions of catching the culprits that were raiding the traps each night. I thought that if I got to the pier before daybreak, I might be able to get a few photographs of the otters as they did their handiwork on the traps. It was a beautiful, calm morning. The sunrise was impressive and, even though it was low tide, fish were breaking along the shoreline as they chased the little mullet. While I waited for the otters to come, I fished. I soon bored of this as nary a fish decided my mullet was tasty enough for breakfast. Along about seven o'clock, I prepared to head back to the Little Bayou House. I had been on the pier for three hours and never saw hide nor hair of the otters. Perhaps they were still full from the raid yesterday! I checked the crab traps one more time before leaving the pier. As I tossed the last one back in the water, a large swell in the water caught my eye. That must have been a huge fish! Such a large splash could not have been made by any less than about five feet in length! I stood staring at the wake. It was a good hundred feet or so from the pier so I really could not tell what had made the splash. Then...a head popped up much closer to me! About thirty feet out, the gator surfaced! Nice! A photo opportunity just arose! And, yep, that was a large critter that made the swell! This gator was nigh on seven feet in length!
I took quite a number of pictures of the alligator while it floated just out from the pier. I was surprised to see it move closer. At about twenty feet away, I was able to get better pictures! Then, it moved closer, yet! Uh, oh! Now I knew why this gator was so intent on coming nearer..Mark had put some old chicken wings in the crab traps as bait. The gator wanted breakfast! It became quite clear now who was tearing up the traps! It was not the otters at all! This gator had the powerful jaws that was crushing the wire and even ripping huge chunks off of the bait box doors! I had falsely accused the otters when it was the alligator all along!
I sat still and waited to see if the gator was going to come any closer. Sure enough, the gator made its move and was directly below me! I could see every bump and ridge on the gator! I could see the light from the early rising sun glinting in its eye! Yep, it was close! It was then that Ms. Ez decided to jump up and greet Mark who was headed down the pier. This spooked the gator! It disappeared underwater for a few moments and then popped back up about twenty feet away from the pier. Ahh! Good! Now Mark could see who was demolishing the traps! While Mark was sitting on the bench with me, the gator grew brave once again and moved toward the trap. It really wanted breakfast! We watched as it downed a chicken wing that shook loose from the trap! It was incredible to view this! I was amazed at a critter that I see often here on the Bayou. For some reason, just knowing it was so close to us and, yet, was more interested in food, intrigued me.
The gator got most of the chicken wings from one trap and then evidently had its fill. It moved back to the hiding place to spend the heat of the day. I had made the remark just yesterday that Mark would have to "otter-proof" the crab traps if I wanted to catch any crabs this summer. Now that I have been proven wrong, that will have to change! Mark has a bigger problem to face! He has to "gator-proof" the traps!
No comments:
Post a Comment