TexasCHLforum.com

Update on this alligator question.

I found an eye witness who explained to me that the monster gator was lurking in the area because (get this) some people north of us are intentionally feeding it. They reportedly trained it to come when they call (and they don't appear to have a hunting permit - they are just feeding it). The witness saw this transpire.

Someone out there is probably thinking, "Only in east Texas..."

Here's the good news: by way of coincidence, I was intercepted by a state game warden yesterday when I was out on the lake. PFD compliance check - of course I had mine on and it was serviceable (inflatable). So while I had his ear, I relayed the story of what was transpiring, and followed up later with an email. It's probably too cold right now for additional alligator activity, but when the weather warms up, if these people recommence this alligator-luring activity, the warden will be watching.

couzin wrote: ↑Thu Dec 06, 2018 9:55 pm ... If there is no discernable boundary between your property and that of USACE fee lands, and you have widow makers or dead timber that you are unsure of who owns what, go to the park office and ask to talk to someone. They are not unreasonable folks.

Except I'd have to go to that office on a trip when I'm NOT traveling with firearms in my vehicle. Or I'd have to park in a location that is outside of "their" property (not simple in the case of Rayburn because the office appears to be at the dam).

Picky stuff, I know, but I'm re-emphasizing the point that they don't make being lawful easy.

Thanks for that great info above. I would have thought that TPWD game wardens fulfill the function of enforcement on Rayburn as they do on other Texas waterways... but you know what they say about the word "assume".

The area in question where the private property abuts the lake... there are no demarcation signs posted. There are horrible numbers of widow-makers in that area, to the point where I've asked the community "Why don't you cut down those dead pine trees? These things can fall and really kill someone and you have people walking dogs etc. right there in that area all the time, with massive dead trees teetering right over top of them."

The response was that the USACOE controls some of that in some way, and dead trees simply cannot be felled even if they present a danger to human life. Well, I don't know if I believe that to be the full story, but I haven't had time to research the issue.

Speaking of dogs, they are what I believe to be the reason why we might really have a nuisance gator in the area (not just a rumor). Out in the country, in rural areas, a lot of people, especially older citizens, let their dogs run free. Well, in a concentrated community and with senior citizens preferring smaller lap dogs, this is a problem. The little dogs run around the shore off-leash and they are constantly going, "YAP, YAP, YAP!" as if they are announcing "LUNCH HERE!" to alligators. That's the natural prey. So yeah, I can believe that someone really did spot a monster gator in the area. Sufficient food enticement is certainly present.

It may be the law, but it gets a big fat FAIL for common sense and intuitive deduction. The federal government backed off firearm restrictions in National Parks which are arguably more sensitive environments, but left the same provision intact for the surfaces of water bodies? How does that reflect any logic whatsoever?

https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/manageme ... 2-2010.pdf

Maxwell wrote: ↑Mon Dec 03, 2018 9:15 am ..... Lake Sam Rayburn is Army CoE. A firearm in your boat would be a federal crime if I understand the laws correctly.

Can anyone expound on this please? The property adjoining the lake is private property. At some point there is an invisible line on the shore where we step onto USACOE property (dry land) as we approach the water's edge. Is the entire water surface (submerged land) considered "federal" for firearms purposes? What about the guys who pile into the john boats to go hunt in areas of the National Forest that are only accessible by boat? (Well, very little is ONLY accessible by boat, but many areas are far, far easier to get to that way.)

I've known not to take handguns into USACOE campgrounds, for instance. The rest is a bit unclear to me.

Edit: I sorted out the Wiki entries and came up with this list of federal lakes in Texas:

I searched about 5 years' worth of threads and didn't see any focused discussion on gator defense strategy. I saw stories about a Grandma who got a permit and shot a gator that had eaten her mini-horse, a gator that treed a teenager and had to be shot by a LEO, an 800-lb gator found in Sugarland, stories about a gator having eaten a Florida woman, the legendary gator that ate a pet dog on the University of Houston Clear Lake campus, and that genius in Orange County TX who was killed by a gator a few years ago after having been warned not to go swimming in the animal's lair. But nothing about how to deal with one personally.

There's a story going around about a super-sized gator lurking in 'our' little section of Rayburn (husband and I have a shack in a small waterfront community). No human encounters have been reported, but the stories have been enough to keep some of the local kayakers out of the water.

I realize that the odds of encountering a nuisance gator are very low, but (a) I like to kayak and (b) I like to have a contingency plan in my head, just in case. How would you handle it if you were in a one-person non-motorized craft and you were suddenly faced with a twelve-footer? This was the question I was asking myself yesterday as I was paddling carefully along the shore.