A Florida fisherman is very lucky to be alive after a run-in with an alligator. He fought off the reptile with his fishing pole after it attacked him.
71-year-old James Grayson McMicken survived his encounter with the alligator by striking the animal with the fishing pole and digging his thumb in its eye. McMicken was just trying to enjoy some fishing in Fort Myers behind his home. That's when an alligator attacked him and his bulldog, sinking its teeth into McMicken's right leg.
"I started reeling, and it jumped out of the water and grabbed me," McMicken told KGNS News.
The fisherman was an experienced alligator hunter, so he knew what to do.
Fisherman vs Alligator
"He rolled me down off the bank into the water. I stuck my thumb in one eye, and I just took that fishing pole and jabbed him in that other eye and jabbed him and jabbed him and jabbed him. It seemed like forever, but it wasn't that long. But then, he turned loose," he told the outlet. "I've always heard that if you've got no other choice, get them eyes, and that's what got him off of me."
Free from the alligator, he realized he was bleeding badly. His bulldog helped support him enough to stand up and get home. His family rushed him to the hospital. He needed stitches and staples on his right leg. But ultimately he was lucky. Just a few days prior, 31-year-old Brittany Clark died after a 12-foot gator attacked her in the Econlockhatchee River. She had been swimming with her boyfriend at the time of the attack.
So the fisherman is lucky to be alive. Hospital staff couldn't believe that he managed to fight off an alligator.
"All the nurses on the floor had to come by and go, 'Wow, you did what?'" he said. "I'm going to do everything I can not to die. No gator is going to run me off."
He'll need physical therapy, but he plans on getting back out there.
