With three days left in gator season...
Golly!
Blood will be spilled...
[gunshot]
Troy wants these tags,
so that means I've gotta be on my game.
...to slay the competition...
Oh, no!
-Whoo! -Damn!
...and defeat the most vicious beasts on earth...
These things can grab a small child or a dog.
It's over with.
...all in pursuit of the swamp's greatest prize.
Whoo! We got a giant, baby! Whoo!
We gotta definitely get outta here.
Don't lose him, don't lose him.
Here we go, baby!
Shoot him, Troy!
♪♪
As gator season enters its final, furious days...
Try to do some zappin' and whackin' today.
-You heard me? -All right.
Margins are razor thin
in the competition for 350 tags.
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty pumped.
Let's go get 'em, my buddy.
Troy and Ronnie are battling at the top
in a tie for first,
while the rest are tangled in a three-way tie for third.
It's anyone's prize to win.
[tugboat horn blows]
As day breaks in Pierre Part...
All right, Don, let's get it, baby.
With Pickle away and Jacob baiting lines,
Troy is partnered with Don, and Don's feeling the pressure.
Get your behind in the boat. Let's go.
Yes, sir.
Troy wants these tags,
so that means I gotta be on my game.
So, yeah, I'm a little nervous today
about going with Troy Landry.
I'm gonna be doing my best to give him 110% today
like I do every day with Jacob.
Oh, Lord, he's breaking out the bucket already.
7:00 in the morning, he's already cleaning the boat.
Don gets in the boat,
and the first thing he does is start cleaning it.
And he kinda freaks me out.
I'm not used to that.
I don't usually clean the boat till the day's over.
Pee-wee don't clean the boat till the season's over.
Damn, I might trade you for Pee-wee.
My boat's gonna go into shock.
I tell you, this is the cleanest I ever saw this boat.
-Makes it easier to work in. -Oh. [laughs]
I try to keep a cleaner boat so we can run faster.
When we can run faster, we catch more gators.
We catch more gators, we win the 350 tags.
Pretty simple, ain't it?
There's a broke branch right here.
There it is.
-It's down. We got bubbles. -I don't see nothin'.
Right here, right here, you're good.
Back it up, go reverse.
What you see, Don?
Whoo! It's a big one!
Whoa-oh!
Shoot him, Troy!
Aah! Give me a shot.
Shoot him, Troy! Shoot him!
-Whoo! -Bam!
Good job. That's what I'm talking about.
A 10-footer on the line
should keep them in first place...
Yeah, good alligator.
...and it immediately reveals
some of the advantages of having Don on the boat.
It makes me appreciate Don.
We don't get exhausted
by fighting to put a big, big one in the boat.
It saves us time and it saves us energy.
Look at that.
Oh, Lord, he's breaking out the bucket again.
[laughs]
In Violet,
Ronnie Adams and Timmy Aucoin
start the day tied for first place,
and they believe they have the perfect plan
that could let them keep the top spot all to themselves.
Think we gonna get the Marina Menace today?
I hope we get that Marina Menace, boy.
We got these lines we gonna check
right outside of town here.
Yesterday the hunters met with a local tour boat operator
needing help with a monster gator
threatening his boat docks.
-What's up, Ronnie? -Hey, my baby.
I remember talking with you before,
you told me you had a little alligator problem.
Yeah. Yeah, man.
I come here in the morning to go crabbing.
I walk up to the dock right there, to the edge of the dock.
Next thing I know they got this big old gator sitting there,
and I just don't want nobody or no kids
to get ripped off the dock.
Absolutely.
George, I'ma catch him for you. I promise you.
-I appreciate it, Ronnie. -You bet, my baby.
-Thank you, man. -Yes, sir. Thank you, George.
I've been friends with George since kindergarten.
I got to do what I gotta do to help him,
because if not, this boy can literally lose his business
because of the big alligators right outside the front door.
And on top of that, I'm worried about the average,
you know, because I want these 350 tags.
It's a win-win for everybody.
Come on, Menace.
Here, Menny, Menny, Menny, Menny, Menny, Menny.
-See it? -Oh, yeah.
It's coming down.
Oh, dude, it's going way back.
Maybe we should cut the string
-off of the tree? -Yeah, cut that--
Yeah, cut behind you a long ways
and wrap it off over there if you can.
I got it.
-Pull it through. -I can feel him.
Here we go, baby!
Hell, yeah.
Whoo! We got a giant, baby.
Get the gun, get the gun.
Ooh, it's a good one, it's a good one.
Whoo! Hell, yeah.
Come on, boy, give it to me, baby.
Golly.
Come on, get the shot, baby.
Watch him! Whoo-ee! Look at that death roll, boy!
Come on, big boy, get on him right there.
Gonna pop the line!
-That a baby, T! -All right.
Hell, yeah!
-Ready? -One, two...
At nine feet, this is not the Marina Menace
the hunters are after,
but it keeps them in the chase for first place
and it helps keep the local community safe.
Damn, that might be a 10-footer.
Yeah, he's pretty big.
The Menace is still out here, bro.
Yeah.
You look around, there's camps all around,
there's kids playing in the water and all that.
I may stop a pet or somebody from getting bit one day.
Bro, I can't believe all these camps in here,
and we just caught that big monster.
Golly.
Over in Bayou Sorrel,
with the clock running out,
Willie Edwards is thrilled
to welcome back a true game-changer.
Yup, let's get this show on the road.
Yes, indeed.
Today I'm pumped up pretty good.
I mean, my son, he's back with me this morning.
He took the nightshift just to come out and help me out.
We gotta catch some big ones
to even be in the competition to get them tags.
With you been gone, I done fell behind,
and I gotta pick 'em up big time.
You mean to tell me you got that far behind?
Hey, put out by myself, it's rough.
We got a lot of tags left and ain't got many more days.
I figured I'd work nights and help my dad in the mornings.
A lot has changed since I've been gone.
We was top contenders,
and now since I left and everything,
I kinda feel like my dad fell down a little bit
and I could tell he was struggling.
I'm helping my dad and picking him back up and everything,
and seeing the smile on my dad's face is well worth it.
There's a big one. Get your hook.
I see him out there bubbling. See?
Throw it, throw it. Throw it way out there.
Hold him, hold him, hold him, hold him!
Goddog!
That's a big one.
Oh, no, man!
Man!
Right there.
Throw it, throw it. Throw it way out there.
Right there. Get him, get him, get him.
-You got him? -I got him.
Coming to us.
Right there.
Oh! Oh!
Oh, yeah, there.
[gunshot]
He's down now. [laughs]
Go.
This 10-footer is the perfect welcome back,
and hopefully it'll turn Willie and Little Willie
into contenders once again.
That's the difference
between two people alligator hunting and treble hooking
and then one person treble hooking by hisself.
It's unbelievable how quick we had this alligator in the boat,
and just yesterday I was straining, grunting.
It took me all day to get a couple in the boat.
And this one here, I mean, it's a big alligator
and had him in the boat in a matter of seconds.
One to break the ice this morning.
Come on, I see some monsters.
Being back in the boat with my dad,
it feels great 'cause I know
my dad appreciates that to the fullest.
Knew we come back here, we'd catch some good ones.
Oh, I like it.
In Amelia...
Yes, sir.
With only three days to go,
Leron Jones and Anthony "Porkchop" Williams
start the day tied for third,
and they've come up with an ambitious plan
to get to the top.
Today we gonna run 50 lines.
50 lines is a lot of lines.
And we not guaranteed big gators for that,
but that's just the risk we willing to take.
Yeah, I know, buddy.
We wasting time in here, buddy.
It just made our job just much worse.
So many damn lilies,
you barely can see where the bank at.
I know.
Chicken untouched.
Yeah, they got lilies as far as the eye can see, man.
We gotta definitely get outta here.
Yeah.
Yup.
We gonna go over head to that deeper bayou, man,
where them big ships at.
Oh, yeah.
You know how deep that water is.
It sucked to go take 50 lines and relocate them,
but we have to do what we have to do
because we still ain't gonna give up.
We not quitters.
I hope this works out.
Outside Franklin...
-God's country, bubba. -Mm-hmm.
Hoping to fight their way back to first place,
the Edgars are taking a big gamble.
We know them dinos are back here.
See if we can find 'em.
I hope so.
Both teams will be at the Edgar crawfish ponds
looking for monster gators like the 13-footer
Joey and Zak captured here last year.
One, two, three!
Unh!
Swamp dinosaur.
What a monster.
Dang.
Let's try to concentrate on these 10-foot bulls.
Yeah. There's some alligators back here no doubt.
The area that we hunting today is about 420 acres.
For all four of us to hunt this area,
we gonna catch some big alligators.
This will help our average.
Just drive along. I'll tell you if I see something.
The canals are not navigable by boats
because there's too many dams and jars to drive over.
So you have to ride a pickup truck, you know,
or walk on foot to try to find these alligators.
And the challenge is, you know,
to be able to get to where you can see one,
catch one that's not in his hole.
That might be a good spot up there, pop.
We caught some big ones up there last year, baby.
-Come on. -Yeah, yeah.
See if they're still there.
Yup.
Oh, there's some bubbles right there.
Solid bubbles.
[pounds on roof]
Let me pull up and get out the way.
Go ahead, go ahead.
There's two gators.
Well, Zak, you remember when we caught that big one
-right here last year, bubba? -Yeah, I do.
Is this one? What's happening?
Oh! He know he's hooked now.
What? Snag him, worry about snagging him.
He's moving, he's moving, he's moving, he's moving.
God, this-- He's beating the crap out of me.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no.
Damn! Damn, pop!
Joey and Zak are reeling in a monster.
Hey, pop, right here. There's the tail.
Oh, my God, you got my line.
-No, I got him. -You got him?
-That's a big one, pop! -Big enough.
Oh!
Oh, yeah.
That'll help our average. Get your gun.
Don't lose him, don't lose him.
Whoo!
Bring him up.
I can't get his head.
There it is, there it is.
Now you got him, now you got him.
You gotta shoot him.
See you later.
Good job. You got him, pop.
All right, pop.
Yeah, yeah!
-That's a nice one. -That's it.
That's a nice one.
Not bad, not bad.
This late in the season,
they'll need to catch gators bigger than this
if they want to reclaim first place.
I'm just hoping for something better than that.
We're happy about it.
It's definitely gonna pad our stats, you know,
but we're looking for a hard hitter
that's just gonna throw us into the lead,
and that's not it, so we need to spend more time out here
and see if we can get something bigger.
There's a lot of big bubbles behind us, dude.
We might not have to go far at all.
It might be like shooting fish in a barrel, dude.
Oh, we got the whole bayou bubbling.
Outside Violet,
Ronnie and Timmy hope that catching a monster gator
they call the Marina Menace
will help the community
and propel them to first place in the rankings.
'Cause he's always got customers there,
he's got kids there,
and they have a lot of people there, you know.
But, man, they don't know the dangers.
They come down here and play. Yeah.
They don't realize they right here, yeah.
It's so dangerous.
Big alligators become too comfortable around people
is because they not pets, they wild,
and these things can grab a small child or a dog,
and I gotta do what I gotta do to help George out.
-Oh, T, what we got, T? -Oh, yeah.
That look like a big one.
That cane is rocking, bro.
Lord have mercy.
Oh, hell, yeah, T. Get the gun, bro.
I got it. I'm ready.
We got a good one, T. Watch him, T.
Golly, look at that muddy, soupy water he's in, huh, bro?
Gee, don't let that tail hit you, dude.
No.
Sneaker, boy. We got the Houdini on the line, baby.
Check him out, baby, check him out.
He's in the death grip. He's in the death roll!
Put it on him, T, put it on him, T.
Whoo!
You got-- Right here, T. Watch him, T!
Come on, T, get the shot. He's gonna break the line!
[gunshot]
Booyah!
Nah, we good. He ain't that good, but he's good.
One, two, three.
There we go.
One, two, three.
This eight-footer is not the Marina Menace,
and it certainly won't help them climb the leaderboard.
I'm clearing out a bunch of alligators,
but right now these smaller ones
are hurting me for these 350 tags.
It's killing my average.
I got to catch this big one to keep my average afloat.
Clickity-clack, don't come back.
Now we gotta go hunt that Menace.
Menace to society.
Over on Grand Lake...
It's foggy, foggy this morning.
With Pickle away, Don is helping Troy,
and with only three days left in the season,
they're racing against time
to separate themselves from everyone else.
That bad weather last night, it cooled things down.
That's why it's so foggy.
Normally fog is good for us.
On Lake Verret, when it's foggy, we usually rack up.
When it's foggy, the bait smell lingers on the water,
and them alligators can pinpoint it.
It's down. See it right there by the tree?
Talk to me.
-Feel like nothin'. -Nothin'?
No, we got-- Well, I don't know.
You need me to come with my pole?
I don't know. Hang on.
Feels like there's something on it.
-Aah! -Get the gun, get the gun.
Whoo-hoo-hoo. It's a big one, it's a big one.
Whoa!
Shoot him, Troy!
Ah! Give me a shot!
Whoo, bam!
Good job, good job, Don.
Oh, man.
That's what I'm talking about.
One, two, three. One, two, three.
At over nine feet, this gator keeps them in the hunt,
but this late in the season
only a giant will make a real difference.
And Jacob said that you wouldn't catch that many.
You're gonna learn not to listen to Jacob.
I feel good about what we catching.
In my mind, I always try to stay ahead of the game.
We need a couple of big alligators.
We really need it.
One more tag, one more closer.
That's it, baby.
Over in Bayou Sorrel,
Willie is thrilled to have his son back in the boat,
but with Little Willie working all night at the plant
before coming to hunt gators in the morning,
his dad is concerned.
Yeah, I can handle it.
That's hard on a fella. I'm worried about him.
I mean, that's my son, and coming straight to my house
and getting in this boat in this heat,
that could be very dangerous. I mean...
there's so much can happen while fighting an alligator
and everything and if you're not paying attention
and, I mean, you tired and wore out already,
that alligator can grab you at any time,
and it can ruin your day, big time.
Right over there by that limb.
I see his head in there.
Throw it way on the other side of him where it won't touch him.
-That's a big gator. -Yeah, he's a big one.
Oh, he's going out, going out.
Throw it, throw it, throw it. Throw it ahead of him.
You should catch him right there.
-He's big. -Big.
Oh! I got him!
My fingers! My fingers are in there! Aah!
Never twist that [bleep] thing on your hand, son!
Damn!
Now get your gun, son, get your gun.
He's under something here.
Oh!
-Here you go. You got him? -Yeah, I got him.
Ooh! He's coming up.
Whoo!
Look at the tail on that thing.
He is big.
He's coming up.
-Goodness gracious alive. -God!
Coming up, coming up.
Whoo! That is what I'm talking about!
-That is a brute. -A big gator.
Whew! [laughs]
Biggest gator of the season right here.
Feel like it weigh 1,000 pounds.
Want me to get the winch?
Yeah. Ay-yah!
About tore my fingers off.
You can see where the knuckles are swole up across there.
With Little Willie back,
targeting only the biggest gators with the treble hook
-becomes possible again. -Let him down.
But running on fumes raises some risks.
When you work a nightshift all night
and a dayshift the next day,
it takes a lot out of you. It exhausts you.
And it's dangerous, too,
'cause you're in the boat, in the sun,
around alligators and stuff.
If you're not watching what you're doing,
it can end up to a hospital trip right quick.
I need a shot of my go-go juice.
On the Intracoastal Waterway...
[tugboat horn blows]
Got a pretty good feeling, buddy.
Yeah, I got a good feeling, too, cuz.
After their lines were suffocated by lilies,
Leron and Porkchop have spent hours relocating them
in a Hail Mary effort to save the day.
It's a shipping channel.
You know, it's a lot of deep water
that run to the Gulf of Mexico,
and a lot of big gators love hanging in that area.
Ain't too many people think they got alligators over there,
but me and Porkchop always catch big ones over there, you know.
We hopefully gonna find some big ones.
Look like we got some action on here, buddy.
Uh-huh. Straight to your right.
Oh, that's him.
I'm gonna get him, cuz.
I got his ass now.
I got him now, cuz.
Show that thing you the boss, Porkchop.
Whoo! Whoo!
That sucker bite that boat, boy.
Got him, cuz. Don't worry about nothing.
Get him! Get him now!
[gunshot]
Yeah, it's a success.
One less gator all right.
This gator won't change their average,
but at least they're starting to catch gators
since relocating to the shipping channel.
You know, we caught a decent size gator.
It wasn't amazing,
but it still was better than what we was doing.
But that's why we set the lines there
to go look for the bigger gator,
and we just hoping everything go right.
By Grand Lake...
Oh, lookit, a pile of gators.
As they're filling the boat with big gators,
Don is getting a sense
of Troy's determination to win it all.
He might be getting old, but he sure don't drive like it.
Son of a gun.
First thing I learned fishing with Troy Landry,
when he said he got 40 lines out,
that's a Troy Landry 40.
You add 60 to it, so that's 100 lines.
I'm gonna tell you something. For his age he does not stop.
I mean, just hammers down.
He got two speeds: all or none.
It's down. See it right there by the tree?
We got one.
What you thinking?
He's a tagger. Get a gun, get a gun!
Get the gun, he said, get the gun.
Unh!
Whoo!
Show him who's the boss.
Whoo!
It's a big one, it's a big one!
Shoot him, Troy, shoot him!
Shoot him!
Whoo! It's a big one, it's a big one.
Good job. Okay, Don.
Don can't help but be impressed by the King of the Swamp.
One more!
I will go with him any day he wants me to go,
'cause, I mean, we got a load of gators in here.
Don, did you want something to drink or something?
Let's break one of them Snickers bars in half, hey.
-I deserve a Snickers bar. -I think you do.
Thank you, Don.
Pee-wee, Pee-wee bring me vegetables.
Who wants vegetables?
Back in Violet...
Come on, big boy McCoy, where you at?
Ronnie and Timmy's search for the Marina Menace
has gone cold, but the hunters discover a clue
to why they aren't catching the monster.
Look. Look all the food.
Look all the bait.
That's why these gators are all around these marinas.
When people start feeding alligators,
all you're doing is taking the wild out of 'em,
and you're making 'em like a pet.
But people don't realize
that they not pets, they wild.
And if you go there one day and you ain't got food,
he's looking to eat something,
and these things can grab a small child or a dog.
It's over with.
Look, more coming out up ahead here.
That's why these gators are getting used to people.
All that crab, fish, marshmallow.
Gators are scavengers.
They gonna get anything that's easy,
easiest meal they can find.
-That's right. -They gonna go for it.
How about we try some marshmallows 'cause...
Where we gonna get marshmallows?
Ain't no damn supermarket out here.
Yeah, but I brought some for my snack.
Oh, did you?
Enough to put some on the hook.
Yeah, got some big ones.
Well, pull them out. Let's put 'em on the hook.
-All right. -I mean, it don't hurt to try.
Hell, yeah, dude. That's some big marshmallows.
All the tour people in Louisiana,
they feed these alligators these big huge marshmallows.
It ain't because the marshmallows
are on the top of an alligator's appetite list.
It's because it's big and white
and it looks like a dang egret bird.
I'ma start baiting these lines with marshmallows,
and I feel like my chances of catching a big boy
is gonna happen.
Huh. Let me see if the alligators are gonna like 'em.
Let me try me one.
They any good?
A little stale, but it'll work.
Put it floating down in the water.
That's what they're used to.
Look, there we go.
-I think that's gonna work good. -Hell, yeah.
We're gonna put some marshmallows in the marsh.
-Come on. -Yeah!
Outside Franklin...
Okay, pa, let me see if I can spot something.
Daniel and Dorien are counting on the crawfish ponds
to boost their season average,
but so far they haven't helped at all.
I mean, it's midday.
We only saw one alligator.
And the clock is ticking for the season,
because you need big ones to win this thing.
Stop right there. Whoa.
Wait, don't move, pa, don't move.
Finally, pa. Look, look.
-You see him, pa? -Oh, I see him.
-That's a nine-footer, pa. -Yeah.
Get your hook, pa.
Let's see if we can go get him.
At least a nine-footer.
Let's try to sneak to the backside of him if we can
so he can't see us coming.
Let's just check him out right here.
That's him.
He's a mean one.
Whoa!
That might be a good one, but don't go in that pipe.
Whoa, he's mad.
Man, that thing's pulling.
Oh, broke off.
Whew.
Man.
It's extremely frustrating,
because traditionally, historically that area
we get 10, 11, 12-footers.
Sure hope Joey and Zak are doing better.
I thought I had something pretty good.
It looked like it.
Whoo! That alligator was pulling.
Good Lord, man.
By the Intracoastal Waterway,
after moving their lines to a shipping channel
to avoid the chokehold of the lilies,
Leron and Porkchop have managed to save their day.
But they need a lot of giants to climb back to the top.
Having those lines in that deep water,
it paid off for us good.
Ain't gotta worry about your lines getting tangled up
and we catching big gators.
The day is improving,
but for us to keep our average up
and keep competing,
we gotta catch one or two more
of these big old monsters out there.
You see the line?
Oh, man.
Watch yourself.
All right, buddy.
Watch it, cuz.
Watch him now, cuz, watch him.
Give me a headshot.
Watch out, cuz!
On the Intracoastal, Leron and Porkchop
are tussling with a feisty gator.
Come on, man.
Ready for that shot, man.
You gotta get him now, cuz.
-Get him, cuz. Come on now. -Give me that shot, Porkchop.
[gunshot]
-Give me some, boy! -Whoo!
-[laughs] -All right.
Nice size gator, buddy.
Yeah, that gamble that we took
by moving these lines in the middle of the day,
we had to give them time to work.
But we got one,
and, man, it was a big one, too, bro.
Over in Bayou Sorrel...
-See him swimming out there? -Yeah.
Little Willie's return means the Edwards
are back in the hunt for the 350 tags,
but it also means father and son
get to spend quality time together again.
Hey, Willie, try one of these.
Huh?
They're pretty good, though.
What is that?
That's a persimmon.
Oh, that's like a grape.
Yeah. It's kinda like a grape or something.
That one was kinda bad.
[laughs]
Him working with me, it's nice.
He likes to have a little fun, he likes to joke around a lot.
And it's just unbelievable how much he means to me,
and he's a big help in that boat.
-I got you. -I got this.
-I'm the captain of this ship. -Come on, watch out, move.
You ain't the captain of my ship.
-Oh, I'm the captain. -Watch out.
Straight down on the bank right there.
Let it go, boy.
You gave me one of them persimmons to try
so I'm gonna bring you an oyster.
I ain't trying it.
-Oh, yeah, you gonna try it. -No, I won't.
You gotta have 'em on a grill. Don't fry 'em.
-I don't want it at all. -Don't fry 'em.
Look like something you hacked up.
He's all man, grown up.
I mean, it's a little bittersweet,
but he's making it, and I'm proud of him.
What that is?
Strawberry lemonade.
This'll change your life. Take a sip.
I don't want it, dude.
Hey, you better--
-[laughs] -Dude, you better back up.
Man, that's some good juice.
At the Edgar family's crawfish ponds...
Right here, pop.
See these bubbles?
Joey and Zak have caught one big gator
and are looking for even bigger ones,
but hunting gators from the bank carries some risks.
When you catch an alligator here from the ponds,
you fight it from the bank.
When you hook him with the treble hook,
you don't have much leverage.
If it's a big alligator, it can peel you off the levee.
Get him, pop, get him, pop!
Oh, my God, he's so big! Pop, hold on!
Oh, my God! Pop!
Catching an alligator from land
is more dangerous than from the boat.
A lot more.
Pop, I don't know if I want to tie around my wrist
like I did last year.
[laughs]
-Huh? -Probably not.
Probably not, pop.
Pop, there's bubbles on both sides, a lot of 'em.
Okay.
There's something bubbling right here!
Hold on, I'm coming.
Come on.
Yup, yup.
Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.
Aah! Uh!
Solid gator. Aah!
There's one. Come on, come on!
Oh, damn.
Aah!
Zak struggles with a feisty gator.
Aah!
Aw, dang.
-Little on the small side? -Yeah.
Let me help you.
Yeah, he's not as big as I thought.
Let's get him up.
-Let's get my hook back. -Yeah, let's get our hook back.
Yeah, lift him up.
-Got him? -Oh, he's biting that.
Yeah, get him up here, pop. Get him up, get him up.
Get him up.
Dang.
-Man, I tell you what. -Okay, pop.
That's a nice alligator, but--
-That ain't big enough. -No.
We gotta be careful right here.
He's only seven, but if he bites you,
-it's gonna be real. -Yeah.
Whoo-hoo!
Be careful.
Watch that hook doesn't get you.
You got him? Pressure on his mouth.
Here, I got his mouth.
Here, you do your thing.
This is an alligator that's not hooked on the line,
that's hooked with the rod and reel,
and I come in and help Zak and hit him with the treble.
I'm gonna unhook my hook, we gonna unhook Zak's hook.
No harm, no foul.
Turn it back into the breeding population
and keep our average up.
-Okay. Okay. -That ain't gonna hurt him.
Now we gonna get yours. You got him?
Hold on. Wait, wait, wait. Don't take pressure off.
Get on top of him.
Don't take pressure off him yet.
-You got it? -Yeah.
-Just hold him, pop. -Yeah.
That's just his skin. He's not even bothered by that.
I'll re-tie, you can cut it.
-Just pull that line off him. -Okay.
-You good? -Yup.
Go ahead, baby.
Pull that line off him just in case.
Okay.
-Okay, ready? -Yup.
-Go ahead, baby! -Come on.
Give her a little kiss bye, Zak.
-Come on. See you later. -Go ahead.
Nice work.
I ain't wasting no gator, dude.
Good job. Good job.
This is not what we need to maintain our average,
but I'm confident that Zak and I,
we'll still be able to get us two or three nice 10-footers.
We're not wasting tags on no little gators, dude.
We gotta get this average up, baby.
That's right. We gotta try to get a giant.
Back on Grand Lake...
Oh, lookit, a pile of gators.
-One more, baby. -One more.
Troy and Don have a boatload of big gators,
but with less than three days left in the season,
they need a giant
to break the tie for first place
with Ronnie and Ashley.
I just hope we can hold the average up.
Can't slow down until you finish,
'cause the last line of the day
might have the biggest alligator.
And for us to get ahead a little bit,
we gotta catch a monster.
We gotta catch a real big one.
Oh, Troy, we got one.
I don't see it moving.
No action?
Don't look like it.
What you think, Don? Talk to me, Don.
You know, when a gator's on the bank,
you have to be a lot more careful.
A lot of times we think they dead, and they not.
They turn around and come to you and you trip or something,
you don't know what can happen.
Damn. Troy, come here and look at him.
You don't think he's good?
This thing is not alive.
We gotta pull him out and look at him.
Damn! It's the biggest one of the day.
He's in the sun on the bank.
The worst two things could happen.
Give her hell, Troy.
Hit it hard, hit it hard, hit it hard.
Move, move.
What you think, Don? Talk to me.
If an alligator has been in the sun for too long,
its skin can start to slip,
which means he's spoiled and the buyer may reject him.
Look. He's a good one, though. Look.
I mean, his skin ain't bad yet. Look.
Yeah, let's bring him in.
It looks like they got to this monster just in time.
We gonna winch him. Let's use the winch.
-Okay. -Save our backs.
Might have a bigger one down the road.
I'm gonna show you.
I've been eager to show you
exactly how that winch works, Don.
All right.
Oh, don't tell me.
Slow you down. When you need it, it don't work.
My winch today, I went to use it, and it wouldn't work.
So I think there's some kind of electrical problem.
Take a gander at it.
Try it now, Troy.
Now?
No, it ain't working. Mm-mm.
I don't think that's gonna do it.
No, we gonna do it, me and you, without it.
-Let's load him up. -All right.
I got the head, you get the arm.
Put that thing on it.
-One, two, three! -Three!
One, two, three!
Okay, we coming. Don't let your thing slip.
At over 12 feet,
this behemoth could be the one that puts the Landrys on top.
Aah!
Hang on. Let me get this leg over here.
Right there, right there. Hold what you got.
Okay, that's good.
[whistles]
Whew!
What I consider a pretty alligator
is if it's a real big one, a monster,
and it makes a difference.
It's gonna help us big time in the competition.
Of all alligators for the winch not to work on, huh, Don?
Yeah.
That winch would've been screaming.
Outside Violet,
Ronnie and Timmy are looking for the Marina Menace,
and they only have one line left to run.
Hey, T, keep your eyes peeled up in here,
'cause you never know.
That big boy might be up in here.
We'll put a treble on him real quick.
Anywhere, dude. Anywhere.
You know, I'm feeling good
about the marshmallows and them working
because we catching some real good alligators right now,
but we don't have the big bull out the area yet.
We gotta do what we gotta do, and I'm gonna make sure
that I bend over backwards just to help my partner George.
Might be something good here, T.
Come on, give me a big one.
Oh, Lord. Yeah, that's a good one.
Look at him.
Think we got a good one here, papa.
I think that's him.
-You got the line? -Oh, there we go.
-You got him? -Oh, yeah, he feel heavy.
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho, baby. [laughs]
I'm thinking this is that big motherhumper.
They ain't out-beating us.
Look at this dude, bro!
Oh, look at him.
Golly! Look at the size of him!
Whoo, boy, we got a monster, baby.
Golly, that motherhumper almost broke my foot.
Watch him, baby, that's a violent one.
This is the Violet Menace!
Whoo!
Outside Violet, Ronnie and Timmy
might finally have the Marina Menace.
Golly! We got a menace, boy!
Uh-oh, he's on a roll, T.
He's gonna pop the line!
Come on, baby!
Whoo-hoo, boy.
Come on, big boy.
Drop the hammer, baby.
That a boy, baby.
Man, I can't wait to show this gator to George, bro.
Yeah, he's gonna be happy.
Oh, absolutely, T.
This monster was caught
less than a half mile from the marina.
Ronnie's confident that this is the gator
that's been terrorizing his friend's business.
The marina ain't but right past that camp.
Yeah, it's right there.
That's unreal.
-Clickity-clack! -Don't come back.
Hell, yeah, T.
It means the world to me
that I can help out one of my good friends
that I been knowing so long, and he needed this to happen
to make sure his business stays afloat,
and I got a couple 11-footers to go along with it.
All that's gonna do is keep my average up there.
It's a win-win for everybody.
I'm telling you, George, before I show you this,
dude, you were dead on, boy.
-You had some monsters here. -Yeah.
We caught all this right here, from here to about a mile out.
Yeah?
Dude, look at the size of these things
we took out of here.
Oh, man. Wow, that's crazy.
This is the one I caught right up the bayou.
Oh, Lord.
Look at the size of him, dude.
-Monster, brother. -Unbelievable.
Man, thank you for calling me, George.
-I appreciate you, my brother. -Hey, thank you, man,
because that gator would've ate one of my people or something.
I don't want that, brother.
I'm glad that we ain't no new statistic.
Man, we outta here. God bless y'all.
Over on the Intracoastal,
Leron and Porkchop have turned their day around.
With only 48 hours until the end of gator season,
they're getting in the zone at just the right time.
Adapting like this on the fly is very important,
especially as a hunter,
because sometime Mother Nature gonna throw some stuff at you
and you just gotta observe the situation
and go with the flow.
Ah!
-You see the line? -Yeah, I see the line.
Hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey. Hey.
Now we got action, cuz.
Yeah, I'm gonna need to cut this.
I don't want to cut that line though.
-Yeah, look, be careful, man. -I got it, cuz.
Give me a shot, buddy.
Whoo, that tail would've whipped your ass just now, boy.
Yeah, I know. Watch yourself.
Come on here.
Come on, get him, cuz.
Come on, you gotta move.
Put a shot on this thing, man.
[gunshot]
The deep waters of the shipping channel
provide another 10-footer,
giving Leron and Porkchop the bump they need
to stay competitive in the race for the 350 tags.
[laughs]
Cherry on top.
We went to one of our last lines to catch a big gator,
and sure enough that's what they had on there.
And our strategy, it was very successful.
If you're gonna win these 350 tags,
it's gonna require a never-give-up attitude.
Oh, yeah, man.
That was one of the smartest decisions we made all day, man.
Yeah, bro.
Back at the crawfish ponds...
-We need a big one. -Yeah.
After releasing a young gator back into the ponds,
Joey and Zak are looking for a monster to help save the day.
Pop! Stop, stop, stop, stop stop, stop, stop.
Right here, stop.
Come on, grab the hook. Come on.
We have one day to hunt here, and I know
that I'm the man they're counting on right now.
I have the rod and reel, I have the skills
that a lot of other teams just don't have.
I'm trying to push through for them,
seeing if I can get some big alligators
and not waste this day.
Right here.
It just went down.
Hit him.
It's a big one. Look at the bubbles on that thing.
Gonna have to get that big hook in him fast, dude.
Get him a little closer.
Unh-unh-unh-unh-unh!
That's a big one. Where's he going?
He's going towards the tunnel.
You gotta keep him out of there.
No, no, no!
He's beating the crap out of me.
He's moving, he's moving.
He's coming up right towards us.
Pop, he's right here. Whup him.
Good throw.
Aah!
Whup him! Go full speed! There he goes! Drag him!
That's a big one! Oh, my God, that's a big one!
-Get the gun. -I got him.
Whup that thing, dude. He's biting the line.
-Oh, he's biting the rope! -Whup him!
-You got him? -I got him, pop.
Damn, that thing shoots fast.
There's our 10-footer, baby.
Yeah, Quick Draw McGraw.
I've been practicing in the Wild West.
God bless.
Let's go.
Come on.
This 10-footer is only their second tag filled for the day,
but while this means they still have more tags to fill,
at least it helps their season average.
Average, baby.
-Come on. -All right.
Finally catching this giant alligator is such a relief.
Joey and I pulled through.
Instead of just catching a bunch of dinks
and us going backwards,
we're at least progressing forward.
Oh, that's a unit.
Good job.
Back in Bayou Sorrel...
We're gonna turn some heads this evening.
Little Willie's return
has given the Edwards their best day of the season
and revived their chances
to win the treasure trove of new tags.
Bunch of tags that's coming up for grabs here,
and if I can get these tags,
then next year he might stay with me
and fish the whole season with me and everything.
I hope so.
I mean, hunting by yourself is just a lot of work.
See him over there?
He's right there. He's on that shelf.
It's deep in here now. We gotta watch what we doing.
Watch your rope.
Right on top of him.
-You got him? -Yeah, I got him.
Thought you had a stump.
This ain't Daddy's first rodeo, son.
-Get your gun. -Oh, I got it.
Soon as he comes up, I'm gonna pop him.
Get ready, get ready.
Damn.
He's coming.
Oh, watch it, watch it.
You get ready.
Here he come.
That's a good one right there, too.
Gol.
Brute.
We're the brute snaggers.
The brute snaggers.
Three.
Another 10-footer.
[laughs]
With a boat full of giants
and Little Willie committed to helping his dad until the end,
the hunters are firing on all cylinders at the perfect time.
We got alligators stacked up in the boat,
and there's some giants.
And my son, I'm very proud of him.
Can't be no more proud of him than what I am.
And him working two jobs
and then still can come out here and help me and everything,
I mean, it's just a big responsibility,
and he's stepping up to the plate.
Them tags is ours this year and next year.
-They all some brutes. -They some big ones.
Back in Pierre Part...
Keep spraying now.
Inspired by Don's commitment to cleanliness,
Troy has enlisted the help of his grandsons
to keep his boat sparkling as he awaits Pickle's return.
You're always ready to help.
You know, Papaw's not always gonna be around
to clean the boat,
so I'm teaching them and I bribed 'em.
I told them to come help me clean the boat
and I was gonna treat 'em.
Coming out pretty clean, huh, bud?
You gotta clean the boat first.
We all been cleaning the boat.
Let's take a break.
Let's eat us some ice cream.
Miss Pee-wee went and get us some ice cream.
That's your reward for helping Papaw clean the boat.
I did the most, so I can get all of it.
-You did the most? -Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Mine!
Come on, boy, that ain't all for you.
If you bribe Jacob's two with ice cream,
you can get them to do anything.
[laughs]
They love ice cream.
Mmm, mm-hmm.
Very good.
Despite a successful day hunting with Don,
Troy and the Landrys drop to second place.
Willie and Little Willie make an impressive jump to first
after a day of catching giant gators.
Ronnie and Ashley fall to third,
while the Edgars fight in a tie for fourth
with Leron, Porkchop, and Bruce.
Boy, this is good stuff.
Mmm-mm.
I know what this is way better than.
Huh?
His cornbread.
[laughs] Good job, dude.
[laughs]
What y'all say?
-Thank you. -Thank you.
-You're welcome. -Thank you, Miss Pee-wee.
Cheers.
C'est bon, huh?