Nope, not one of those. When I was a kid a gang of us would get together to catch gators. I’m talking all of us around 10-years-old. Somebody would steal a rope from home, one would steal a grappling hook, and one would steal a whole chicken. We put the whole chicken on the hook and trolled the canals for gators. We always caught one. The thing about gators is that they roll. We teamed together to pull the rope. As we pulled the rope, the gator rolled himself up in it. Once he was on land and tangled, we tied our end to a tree and called Wildlife Resources.
At that time, hunting and killing them was illegal. Instead, the fish & game paid a bounty on each gator for relocation. That’s one of the ways we made store money. When they paid us, we divided it equally, jumped on our bikes, and headed to the store. It was the 60’s. Good times.
The only times I was almost bitten was while walking along the edge of the canals and it was always a small gator, under two feet. Mean little lizards. LOL The big ones didn’t bother people back then. They were hard on dogs and cats though.
Wonderful memories of growing up in the Olde South at the tail end of America’s Golden Era! You were blessed! I would have been more wary of cottonmoiths around the waters’ edge!
I grew up in the 40’s-50’s and know those times too albeit in the north but of southern heritage.
Stay well!☺️