Fisherman Recovering From Alligator Attack

    Umatilla resident Jack Hartley is recovering from an alligator bite received while fishing recently on Trout Lake, providing a reminder that Florida's state reptile can be a dangerous, and surprising, addition to a day on the water.
   “I’m doing OK, it’s getting better,” Hartley said this week, reporting on damage to his arm received while fishing on Sunday morning, April 2. Hartley was on Trout Lake, located along SR 19 just north of downtown Eustis, when he caught a bass that required a bit of maneuvering to get out of the water.
   "It was a little too big to lift up onto the boat with the rod," he said. So Hartley left the front of his bass boat and walked the fish along the side, moving the catch, which was very active, back and forth. Once the fish lost some energy, Hartley reached down to pull it out of the water, and that's when an estimated four-to-five-foot alligator came up and grabbed his arm.
   “I never saw it coming. It had to have been lying on the bottom under my boat.”
   The alligator rose straight up out of the water, snout first, and grabbed Hartley just below the elbow. The gator’s mouth then slid down toward his wrist, where it briefly clamped down.
   “I thought it was a gar at first.”
   But it wasn’t, and Hartley quickly lowered his arm into the water, at which time the alligator let go and swam away. Hartley was left with scratches on his arm and the need for a tetanus shot.
   Hartley was fishing about 30 yards from shore, and said there was no warning before the alligator broke the water.
   “The gator came up between the boat and fish. If it had been a little bigger, I could have been in trouble.”
   Instead, he is recovering nicely.
   “I was worried for a little while. It could have been a lot worse, it happened so fast.”
   While Hartley didn’t see the whole gator, and there are lots of alligators in Trout Lake, he would know it if he ever saw the same one again.
   "I can tell you it has a scar over its right eye."
   The incident serves as a reminder of the predatory nature of alligators. And while the attack represents a rare occurrence, it is a reminder that alligators spend much of their time looking for food, and even when they decide the object of their next meal is larger than they thought, the resulting injury to the victim is real.
   “It was bleeding pretty good when it happened, but I didn’t need stitches.”