Big Broken Bow Gator

Anglers find dead alligator at Broken Bow Lake

BY ED GODFREY, Outdoors Editor, egodfrey@opubco.com
Published: April 21, 2010

Terry Walser of Edmond was crappie fishing with some friends Saturday on Broken Bow Lake when they came upon a startling discovery: a dead alligator.

This 11-foot alligator was found dead by Terry Walser and some friends, who were fishing on Broken Bow lake. Photo provided by Terry Walser of Edmond
State wildlife officials think the alligator — which had been shot twice in the side with a high-powered rifle — is the same one they have received numerous reports about for several years at the lake.
Fishermen even reported two or three years ago that an alligator in the lake acted very aggressively toward them, said Mike Virgin, chief of law enforcement in southeastern Oklahoma for the Wildlife Department.
"They said it looked bigger than a bass boat, hissing and acting like it was going to ram their boat,” Virgin said. "I bet this was the perpetrator.”
The alligator found by Walser in the Otter Creek area of Broken Bow Lake appeared to have been dead a few days, Virgin said. It measured 11½ feet long.
"That’s a big alligator,” he said.
A small population of alligators live in far southeastern Oklahoma, but Broken Bow Lake is not a place where they are usually seen, Virgin said.
The nearby Little River with its numerous sloughs, oxbow lakes and swampy bottom land has a habitat much more suitable for alligators, he said.
"Alligators are not uncommon there,” Virgin said.
Game wardens in far southeastern Oklahoma are sometimes called to remove alligators from local ponds, Virgin said. The alligators are usually relocated, but may be euthanized if they are deemed dangerous, he said.
Five years ago, Virgin killed an 11½-foot alligator that weighed 500 pounds. The alligator was in an Eagletown rancher’s pond and was suspected of killing some calves.

That'll make you think twice about hoppin in the inner tube or the skis

We fish Broken Bow Otter Creek every year. In the fall of 2008, we were tied up in Otter Creek next to my wife's parents' boat. They were catching more and bigger fish than we were, so my wife decided to move over into their boat to fish for awhile. As she stepped from our boat to their boat, the boats seperated and she went splash between the two boats. I shudder to think what "Old Chomp" could have done if he had been closer. And where there is one gator, there is probably another. Sheesh!! We will definitely be more aware next year.

Here is the link to the original article: http://www.newsok.com/anglers-find-dead-alligator/article/3455616?custom_click=lead_story_title


and a picture of the gator.

We go trout fishing down there every year on the Lower Mountain Fork River. Obviously, we use waders, walk in the water, and fly fish. The guys I go with and I were talking about this story this weekend. Just goes to show just how diverse this great state is.

I can honestly say, if that thing surfaced in front of me while I was fly fishing, I would have had an enormous brown trout swimming in my waders...

Ole' boy looks like he was catching a few rays there on the bank and some dude in a passing boat put a few rounds into his liver.

I gotta tell ya, I'm not much of a poacher, but if I fished that area on a regular basis, I'd probably shoot the thing too if I had the opportunity. Seeing that guy out on the bank with his maw open and hissing would make you wanna load the boat and head to the house to hide under the bed.

I wouldn't mind having a new pair of boots, a belt, and a wallet . . .

I can tell you from experience that this particular alligator has been a fixture around Otter Creek for a few years. If you caught it at the right time, you could see it laying out almost daily.

This isn't the first alligator to be caught around Broken Bow. There was another killed by Game Wardens just on the east side of the Mountain Fork because it was alleged to be killing calves. Little River is the culprit. Millwood Lake in Arkansas was being stocked and this population has travelled upstream. I use to live near Little River and we had a little 8 foot gator along the road near our house. I've had a friend who killed one. Once again, near the sloughs of Little River.

That would scare the ever loving S out of me if I was just cruising by on my wakeboard. I say shoot on sight!

Maybe you need to start packing in your wetsuit.

And to think, I used to swim in the Little River at night. I had heard that there were a fewl gators around but never so many big ones as told here.

You don't?

Wasn't there a 14 foot gator several miles east of Tulsa a few years ago?

We mostly boat in Lake Arcadia and Lake Arbuckle, anything we should be worried about?

drunk boaters...