Capt. Brandon Laszlo

“So we were fishing somewhere in the Glades. There’s a creek where a whole bunch of baby tarpon are at, baby tarpon and snook. And there were a whole bunch of alligators around us. Buddy steps up on the bow and hooks a tarpon. I’d staked the boat out and got current coming behind us, so there’s some alligators hearing the commotion.

Now, they’re coming down our back pretty quick.
I go, ‘Here, bring him near the boat so I can dehook him and let him go.’.
He goes, ‘Why?’.
I go, ‘So the alligator doesn’t get it.’.
Buddy goes, ‘You know what? Nah, they’re not quick.’.
I go, ‘What do you mean, they’re not quick?’.
He goes, ‘I don’t even understand how they can live. They’re not fast enough to eat fish or eat a bird.’.
I go, ‘You’ve never watched National Geographic?’.
‘No, no, but I don’t think they’re that quick.’
We get the fish and release it.

Not even three minutes later, 60 feet down the shoreline, there was a group of white herons sitting on the edge of this branch, and they’re picking out all the little fry that are getting pushed out with the current. There was an alligator that crept up behind the branch. I didn’t see it. He didn’t. We didn’t see it at all. Neither did the birds, obviously.

So what happened is, giant commotion, bro, all hell breaks loose. Alligator jumps over the branch, takes a heron and you hear them all squawking.
Guy turns around, ‘Holy crap!’.
We’re all laughing. I go, ‘That gives you a new perspective on them?’.
‘Oh for sure, man. I underestimated those guys.’

So, later on throughout the day, he hooks a branch.
I go, ‘Here, you got to either grab it with your hand or try to break it off, because there’s current behind us.’.
So he goes, ‘I’ll grab it. I’ll grab it.’.
He sticks his hand in the water and his buddy yells like he sees an alligator to scare him. This guy then screamed at the top of his lungs, dropped his rod and ran to the back of the boat. We were all dying laughing.“