"I've never known one to "come at me""
Maybe the gators in LA are not very aggressive. But the ones we have in SW Florida have no problem going after people. We had a big one swim right up to our 20 Hewes a few weeks ago on Shell Creek. He was definitely in a mode to "taste" anything dangling over. I wanted to put down the powerpole to see if he hit it, but reconsidered. What would I do if he did? He had NO FEAR at all.
"But the ones we have in SW Florida have no problem going after people."
Yeah, I've seen stories about that. They seem to be a little more aggressive there or maybe it's just FL probably has more people in close proximity to them.