We've talked a lot in the past about the dangers of shark fishing. While lots of people have close calls boating threshers and makos, you don't often hear stories that result in hospitalization or bloodshed. I'd say that's because while sharks may have a mouth full of teeth, those teeth don't extend four feet out in front of their heads.
When I was about 11 years old my family had a big boat at the beach. On the next dock over there was a smaller boat, about 25 feet long, and one day they went out on a trip to the canyon and never returned. The weather had turned on them, and all the Coast Guard ever found were the fuel bladders they had strapped to the bow, floating 80 miles out.
It was pretty cold up here over the weekend, which naturally got me thinking about places I've fished where it was warm. Florida is one such, of course, where you can toss a plastic worm into some likely shoreline bass cover and come face to face with something like this gator.