This story goes to show that you should never mess with the gnarly, fierce, ruthless, deadly, and powerful creature that is… the FLORIDA MAN.
The legend of the “Florida Man” continues to grow every single day. And just to clarify, it’s not just one man that is known as the Florida man. It’s instead more of an idea, or a culture if you will, that select, deranged Floridians possess. Most of the time, a man from Florida makes headlines for doing something crazy or ridiculously absurd.
In this case, a 71-year-old Florida man by the name James Grayson McMicken stared death-by-gator right in the eyes and said, “Not today.” The man and his bulldog were out back behind his North Fort Meyers home fishing in a canal – like they had many times – when an aggressive gator came charging out of the water.
McMicken told CBS12 that he had just thrown out his first cast when the alligator came out of the water and chomped down on his right leg:
“I started reeling, and it jumped out of the water and grabbed me. He rolled me down off the bank into the water. (I said to myself) ‘I’m going to do everything I can not to die.'”
Any other type of man would have crumbled in the high stakes pressure, and likely died… but not this Florida man.
Instead of panicking, the 71-year-old immediately thought back to the best defense that a human has during an alligator attack: poking the prehistoric creature’s eyes. In the heat of the brawl, and with his life on the line, McMicken started jabbing with both his hands and his fishing pole:
“I stuck my thumb in one eye. 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. I’ve always heard that if you got no other choice, hit them eyes. And that’s what got him off of me.”
When in doubt, jab it out.
It clearly worked for James McMicken, but getting out of the alligator’s grip was just half of the battle. Once he was let go by the punishing grip of the gator’s jaw, he mustered the strength to crawl out of the water, and even stood himself back up with an assist from his bulldog:
“I’d have never made it crawling this far, so I called my dog over, and she stood there and let me get up on her back to where I could get stood up. (I got into the house where my wife was), then I sat down in my chair and passed out. I was so exhausted.”
Shortly after the Florida man got into his house, he was rushed to the Cape Coral Hospital, where staff there was stunned to hear about the heroics that McMicken used to safe his own life. Thanks to his quick thinking, he managed to get out of the scary encounter with relatively minor injuries, and he’s now recovering at home and is starting physical therapy.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission went to the site of the attack to remove the alligator from the water, but officers and state-contracted trappers were unsuccessful in finding the one that went after McMicken. Despite the aggressive creature still being out there, the Florida man says he’ll get right back to fishing the canal once he’s able:
“No gator is going to run me off.”
