FORT MYERS, Fla. — For many Floridians, alligators are just part of everyday life.
But one 71-year-old man had to rely on his survival instincts after an alligator attacked him without warning.
James Grayson McMicken said it happened during what started as a routine Friday night. He took his bulldog outside, grabbed his fishing pole and made one cast into the canal behind his North Fort Myers home.
“I started reeling and it jumped out of the water and grabbed me,” McMicken said.
He said the alligator clamped onto his right leg and pulled him into the water.
“He rolled me down off the bank into the water. I stuck my thumb in his eye and 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,” McMicken said.
McMicken said he has legally hunted alligators before and believes that experience taught him how to survive the attack.
“I’ve always heard that if you’ve got no other choice, get them eyes. And that’s what got him off of me,” he said.
Once the alligator released him, McMicken said he knew he couldn’t crawl back to his house.
“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,” he said.
After making it inside, McMicken said his wife cleaned his wounds before he passed out from exhaustion. His family then took him to Cape Coral Hospital.
“All the nurses on the floor had to come by and go, ‘wow, you did what?’” McMicken said.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the attack happened on June 26. As of July 2nd, officers and trappers had not found the alligator.
McMicken is still recovering but hopes to be back fishing soon. He said he will make one change going forward.
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