Dont recall which lake it was but had a roomie that seemed to like skiing with the gators. Dont recall the details, but one of them clamped down on his hand pretty good and ended that experiment pretty quickly. He was lucky to get away. Of course he used to like skydiving, streaking and had an old truck painted as an American Flag. I borrowed that truck once for a follow up-date and the girl promptly went back to her old BF . She was a hottie but was a high maintenance sorority girl and I was a poor boy, so no real loss there. A couple of beers at the old Rathskellar was about all I could afford in those days.
Pretty much every lake of any size in FL is full of alligators now....you just have to ski around them
Did it used to be different? Been that way as long as I can remember. Springs, and some spring fed rivers and lakes are about the only places I ever remember going that cut down on sightings. They’ll go in those areas, but generally don’t stay there. If you’re going swimming in FL, taste the water. If it’s salty, you’re swimming with sharks and crocs. If it’s not, you’re swimming with gators and snakes.
Gators were much sparser in the60’s and early 70’s. But the protected status enabled a steady then huge boom. Time for new boots! Waters skiing in Newnan’s, ah hell no. My outboard died out there once (80 I think) man when it got dark, nothing but glowing eyes.
We went to Mama Lo's all the time. So good. I took Dizzy Gillespie there for lunch one time, caused a bit of a stir.
They stay away from you until around dusk. When you see them slipping off the bank into the water it’s time to get in the boat and head to the ramp
I went often as a student and then later in life I took my boss and clients there when in town. The vegetable plate was like $1.99 for a mounded plate of food. Even took wife and family when in town for games.
Sharks are there every single time you’re in the water and they very rarely have any interest. If they had the mentality of a gator, no one would ever survive going in saltwater.
I suspect there are a lot more cases of sharks attacking people than gators attacking people. I’ve swam with cudas plenty of times but if there’s a shark around I’m getting out of the water. Water moccasins scare me a lot more than gators