The discussion reminds me of when we had a place on Kickapoo Creek at Lake Livingston. Late 70's - early 80's there was an abundance of gators in and around the creek -- some REALLY big ones -- 15 footers; give or take a little. I KNOW this to be true. A fishin' buddy and I were quietly trolling around one of the coves around Kickapoo bass pluggin when one just slowly raised up about three feet from, and parallel, to the boat. He was roughly the length of the 17' boat we were in. My buddy and I looked at each other for a few seconds, then I reached over and popped the gator between the eyes with my rod tip. We both got pretty wet when he swung his tail and departed in a big hurry. Wet was better than et!
When gator season opened down around the coast, all of the resident gators migrated south(in the back of pickup trucks I suspect). After a couple of years, there were no gators to be found around Kickapoo Creek.
Not a darn thing.
The lake used to be filled with catfish & bass. Guess the gator's took care of that! On a education thought, gators don't like carp.