Re: how many can relate to this
If alligators count, then I can relate.
I was visiting my brother in lakeland, FL. He had a place on a lake, so I'm fishing off his back dock, and it's late, so I'm using a lighted bobber. Allong comes a 6' alligator who must have some kind of craving for bobbers. He chomps it and get's himself stuck. I just happen to be using my saltwater gear with a light leader since I didn't bring any freshwater gear on the trip. So I fight him thinking, hey I'm not going to get any fish tonight anyway, might as well experience a good fight then cut line. So I fight him all the way to about 5 or 10 feet from the deck. All of a sudden he turns around and starts swimming toward the deck. I backed up and he went to the bottom. At this time my brother, his wife, and my wife are all watching the horror unfold from behind the glass door, and my brother, being the gentleman that he is, is telling my wife how she'll have to care for me for the rest of my life after my legs are eaten.
So I went back to the edge and this time stood on one of the benches (I figured the extra foot or two would either put me out of reach, or give me enough time to jump back). They're banging on the glass door yelling at me to get away from it, but I go back to fighting him, and I get him up off the bottom and get him right up at the top just inches from the deck. There we sat staring at each other for the next probably only 2-3 minutes, but it felt more like 20-30 minutes. It was about this time that the neighbor's cat comes out onto the deck. My brother has already warned me about that dumb cat, and said it's not supposed to be out because of the gators, but that sometimes it would sneak out. Not having time to dig the pocket knife out of my pocket to cut the line, I hit the drag release, run over and grab the cat in the same hand (tucked under the arm) as the rod, and also grab one of my brother's bamboo fishing poles with the other hand. The gator hasn't moved, but is eyeballing me and the cat more intently now. So I start whacking the gator over the head with this pole thinking I could get it to give up. Meanwhile the cat freaks out and starts clawing me. It was about that time that I had the brilliant idea to throw the cat into the lake with the gator and cut line. I didn't do that though, because before I had a chance to do that, the gator opened it's mouth and out came flying my bobber and everything. He then turned away from the dock and swam off to a respectable distance of about 15' from the dock. I took the opportunity to throw the neighbor's cat back in their back door and shut it in. I turned around and I could just swear that gator winked at me just before submerging for the evening.
I didn't see the gator any more that trip, though we heard it a couple of times a few hundred feet away. My brother tells me the cat went missing 2 months later. I still have the chewed up bobber from the biggest one that I ever wanted to get away. True story.
