As the battle between man and nature heats up
in the second week of gator season...
We lost everything, man.
It's been rough.
Hunters struggle to get back on track
after surviving a devastating hurricane.
We gotta catch as many as we can today.
We ain't got many days left.
Some years it's good,
some years you got a little struggle to it.
I know that, too.
You all right? Little Willie!
One might not have a season at all.
Everything's tore to pieces. Totally gone.
You look at this, you don't know what to say.
It's just like somebody took a huge hammer and just--
And everyone has something to prove.
Y'all still could call this off.
We ain't calling nothin' off.
Yeah, absolutely not.
The battle of the sexes.
The girls against the guys.
This is our opportunity to take this competition.
So we're gonna do what we can
to get all these alligators in the boat
in this miserable, nasty weather.
Ooh! Ooh!
- Watch that line! - Aah!
[blues guitar plays]
As dawn breaks on day 10 of gator season,
two teams have gathered in Violet to settle a score.
Oh, my God.
Pee-wee can't back up a trailer.
Troy Landry is manning the helm for his team as usual.
Tell me about it.
Come on now. Time's of "assencence!"
[laughs]
But today he'll be hunting with Ronnie Adams...
This is gonna be very interesting.
- [Ronnie laughs] - Come on, Pee-wee!
while his regular deckhand Pickle
hunts with Ashley "Deadeye" Jones
Hey, y'all still could call this off.
We ain't calling nothin' off.
Yeah, absolutely not.
Last night at Ronnie's camp...
Hey, listen, if it wasn't for us,
y'all couldn't do it without us.
[laughs]
Ashley and Pickle didn't appreciate
what the boys had to say about female alligator hunters.
Ronnie and I, we do the bulk of the work.
We gotta carry 90% of the load.
I'm still gonna kick your ass
in getting some alligators tomorrow.
Whoever comes home with the most gators
takes the crown.
Whoever loses has to--
Clean the boat.
[all laugh]
I'm just saying it's not too late.
Y'all can tuck that tail and take that whipping
before it even starts.
Pee-wee and Ashley claim they can outdo Ronnie and I.
Y'all will duck and run before we do.
The battle of the sexes.
The girls against the guys.
Well, may the best man win today.
- The best man, huh? - Oh.
That's all right.
We're gonna change that statement for the world today.
We can swap back out if y'all want to.
Hey, y'all are the ones that keep asking.
All right, Ashley.
So instead of being like men and hardheaded
and, you know, "I drive, I'm captain,
you ain't driving" and all of this bull,
I think me and you is just gonna stick it out and work together.
I drive a little bit, you drive a little bit.
- Sounds good to you? - It's good to me.
Pickle and I have a lot in common.
We're both strong females.
We're not worried about who's the deckhand, who's the captain.
We're just getting out there, doing what needs to be done
so that we can whip these boys' butts.
We've got nothing to prove with these gators we bring home.
Absolutely not, ma'am.
I think men have a problem working together.
They all wanna be a chief,
so we're gonna put our heads together.
And I think we're gonna pull through and get the job done
a lot better and faster than they can.
Come on now.
Whoa, I see some action, Ashley.
Oh, yeah!
Oh, yeah.
- Got a gator on there? - Got one.
All right, pull him up.
It's tight, too.
Jeez!
- They fight hard, huh? - I know.
Whoo!
Tell me when.
You better shoot this thing.
- Whoo! Yes! - Good shot. Good shot.
This gator might not be a record breaker,
but it's a good sign Ashley and Pickle
will give the boys a run for their money.
All right, girl, first tag.
- Got 'em. - Got 'em.
I think me and Ashley are working very well together.
We putting our heads together and getting the job done
regardless of who's pulling lines or who's driving the boat.
I definitely think that there's a chance we can win.
Off to a good start, babe.
I mean he ain't a monster, but, hey, he's all right.
A gator's a gator. We ain't going home with a goose egg.
105 miles west, in Bayou Sorrel...
Gotta roll.
Veteran swamper Willie Edwards
and his son Little Willie
are getting a late start on gator season.
They're out on the water for the first time
after spending the last week cleaning up from Hurricane Ida.
We gotta catch as many as we can today.
When this storm come in,
it was just one thing after another.
But some years is good,
some years you got a little struggle to it.
I mean, we... we survivors.
I mean, We live off the swamp and everything.
I mean, what don't kill you make you stronger.
Let's go ahead, back this thing down here, and get after it.
- Let's get on down the road. - We gotta get this show started.
We had a lot of setbacks this year.
The storm knocked a lot of power out.
We ain't never started fishing alligators this late.
Normally we'd have 100 tags gone already.
A lot went on and everything,
and we anxious to get back in the boat.
We anxious to start filling tags again.
We got something right here.
- Yeah, he's a big one. - Oh, he's a big one.
- Whoa, that's a big one. - Yeah, that's a big one.
Oh, yeah.
All right, get him, get him, get him.
Watch it. He's gonna pop the rope.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- Oh! - Watch it!
Watch your hand!
Hold him tight. He's got a little dog in him.
Hold him, Willie, hold him, Willie.
Come on, come on.
We got him, Willie.
First one of the season right there.
This 10-footer helps the father/son duo
make up for lost time,
but the celebration doesn't last long.
Ooh! I cut the [bleep] knuckle, man.
He was just holding an alligator and kind of come up too high.
And the knife pointed up into his knuckle,
and he was holding the tail at the same time.
Went right in his knuckle.
The knuckle swolled up.
Willie jumps into action
with his signature swamp medicine,
a torn shirt and electrical tape.
- Hold that right there. - Didn't have to cut your shirt.
Come on, come on. Cut your finger.
-Uh...
- You all right? - Um...
You all right?
Sit down.
Sit down, man. Seen his blood.
- I'm about to pass out. - You ain't passed out.
Just get some air in your face.
Little Willie. Come on now, son.
I'm about to pass out.
Keep your bad hand covered.
Just hold your hand down right there.
It could've been cut a finger off
or it could've been a lot worse, and I'm glad it wasn't.
- Whew... - Hold it up, and just keep
getting air in your face, son.
Hold on.
I mean, when you go that whole year
without alligator hunting and you jump right in
and first starting and everything,
you think you're ready.
If you're not watching or nothing like that,
trying to get everything, thinking of everything,
I mean, you up and hurt yourself bad.
It'll take a toll on you,
and he kind of realized he gotta kinda slow down
and just put his head to what he's doing.
Feel a little better, Willie?
- Little better? - Oh, I'm good now.
50 miles southeast in Vacherie,
veteran gator hunter Leron Jones
and his cousin Anthony "Porkchop" Williams
lost more than a week of gator hunting
after Hurricane Ida devastated their hometown.
Yeah.
Now they're finally ready for their first day of hunting,
and they'll tackle it together
like they've been doing since they were kids.
And if you're looking for me, you're gonna actually find Leron
because we always together.
If we ain't hunting alligators, we fishing,
or we just cooking
or just sitting out chilling under the tree.
So I'm always there to try to protect him,
you know, and make sure he's doing right.
Hopefully we can get on out there
and go and catch some good gators.
California got earthquakes, up North got winter storms,
and Midwest got tornadoes, down South we got hurricanes.
So we all got something nature whip our ass with,
but we all rebuild once we lose everything.
All right.
Picture if the forefathers of this country was quitters.
We all would be pretty much in bad shape right now.
Because the minute somebody throw a fit about it,
"Oh, I'm gonna quit."
Nah, we don't roll like that around here.
- More gators, more money, right? - Yeah, you right about that.
So we go in there and put some money in our pocket.
Well, guess what?
That's what I'm talking about.
You know, ain't nothin' guaranteed.
But, you know, we gonna give it a shot,
give it our best and see what that gonna do.
68 miles east, in Violet,
Troy and Ronnie's partnership is proving to be a good one
with three gators already tagged
in today's battle of the sexes.
Beautiful today, my baby.
It's beautiful!
I got one on that point right there.
Ashley and Pickle saying
they gonna outcatch more alligators
than me and Troy Landry.
Me and Troy's gonna put a whupping on them
like they can't imagine.
But we might take it a little light.
Because they're women, we gonna take it easy on 'em.
We not gonna beat them too bad.
Look like we down.
We got a crime scene, Ronnie.
Oh, yeah, baby. Oh, yeah.
- Got it? - Yeah, get the gun.
This son of a gun's heavy, my baby.
It's a good one?
Oh, yeah, that's a good one, Mr. Troy.
Get that gun, papa.
Lord!
It's a big one!
Whoo!
Come on, big boy!
Whoo!
It's a big one, it's a big one, it's a big one!
Man, that son of a gun wore me out.
On three, ready? One, two, three!
All right.
After catching their fourth gator in less than an hour,
Troy and Ronnie are convinced they've got the women beat.
There we go, baby!
I don't even think they got to their lines yet.
I think you're right.
Ashley and Pee-wee only knows what we taught 'em.
They didn't grow up doing what they doing now.
We taught 'em.
So how could they be better than us
if we were their teachers?
You know, I don't see that. I don't see them outdoing us.
That's a pretty gator.
Yes, indeed.
71 miles northwest, in Hammond,
veteran swamper Bruce Mitchell
is working to pick up the pieces
after Hurricane Ida nearly destroyed
everything he's worked for his entire life.
Look at all these big trees.
Whoo!
We had a big tree fell right through here
and hit my house all up in here.
I mean, it hit this corner, but the rest of it's all right.
I was with my wife all night. It is scary.
It is scary when you got them big winds.
We was looking at 200-something mile-an-hour winds
coming through there.
And, uh, my house is over a hundred years old,
and I was just hoping it would make it through it,
you know, with us in it all right.
But it's just terrifying.
Mother Nature can tear up some stuff when she gets ready to.
I have to go look at something, y'all,
so we gonna go step outside for just a second.
Oh, boy.
It ain't good, y'all.
Bruce and his wife may have survived Hurricane Ida,
but the same can't be said for their property.
This ain't real out here no more.
Everything's tore to pieces.
Well, this used to be my outdoor kitchen, y'all.
My grandkids stayed in here all the time.
They come over here and we had a TV set up,
and they watch movies all night.
Had a lot of people stayed under this roof,
and I fed many a people under here.
It just takes a little while.
You know, we'll walk around and, uh,
just dig through that.
And you find a picture or... or just anything,
and it just, you know--
Stuff like this.
This was my great- great-grandmother's cookie jar.
I can remember when I was five, six years old
getting cookies out of this.
It's gone.
This can't be replaced.
Just gone.
Totally gone.
You look at this, you don't know what to say.
We've been living in that house for 40 years
and just never seen nothin' like this.
I'm not gonna be able to fish this year.
Uh, it's too many other fish to fry,
too many other things going on, you know.
So I just--I just made up my mind I'm not fishing.
Sometimes you just gotta close the door on something
and do something different.
Life goes on. We gonna keep going.
Back in Violet...
Oh, they talked all that smack yesterday, Ashley, huh?
That's all they do is talk smack.
Pickle and Ashley have set out to prove
they can beat Troy and Ronnie at their own game.
- See anything? - I do not,
to be honest with you, Ashley.
But so far, the women have had a slow start.
I don't see a damn thing.
I was expecting to go in there
and just blow it out of the water, literally.
But we really can't help if there's a gator on the line,
and so far, we haven't had a lot of gators.
I'm really nervous.
We down up here?
Yup. Line down, Ashley.
Pull up a little bit, babe.
Got one.
Oh, yeah.
This line's short, yeah.
He under the boat?
- Got him? - [indistinct]
Whoo!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Lookit, hold that.
Let's go this way.
- Got him? - Yeah, he ain't going nowhere.
Might want to get on this side here.
Absolutely, ma'am.
Whoo!
Go ahead, shoot him, Ashley.
Shoot him, Ashley! [gun clicks]
Aw, what you got?
You better hurry, girl. Hurry.
Bullet's stuck.
- [pickle's line] - All right, I got it.
He's gonna come off in a second. You gotta shoot him.
Soon as you get a chance, you shoot this thing, okay?
- Pull him up. - All right, give him a headache.
Go ahead, give him a headache.
[gunshot]
Oh, absolutely, my babe.
Lord, Ashley, Lord.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness.
We're gonna go up, up, and in, okay?
Ready, pull it up.
Way to go, mama.
This nine-footer will help them close the gap
with Troy and Ronnie.
Shoot that thing.
And a second swamp giant is a good sign
their luck is turning around.
You got it?
You're Deadeye Jones, babe. Get him.
I'll get the treble hook in a second.
There we go. It's cleared up now.
Ready.
Yeah, shoot him right between the eyes.
Right in the front.
[gunshot]
Watch him. Where'd he go? Got him?
- I see him. - Keep your eyes on him.
- All right, here we go. - Alll right, Ashley.
Whoa!
He's barely hooked, Ashley.
Get that gun.
He's barely hooked.
- Whoa! - Whoa.
Good!
Now that Pickle and Ashley have three gators tagged...
That's what I'm talking about.
Like to wore me out, that little thing, but we got him.
the dynamic duo hope they're back on track
to outgun the boys.
I think now is the time to show Ronnie and Troy
that me and Pickle can do just exactly what they do
and if not better.
We're young spring chickens, you know?
We got all the energy to do that.
I hate when a man underestimates a woman
and what we're capable of doing,
and so this will be basically
just the icing on the cake when I prove them wrong.
You're much easier to work with than Ronnie.
- Me? - Yeah.
Might not even let Ronnie back in the boat.
105 miles west, in Bayou Sorrel,
with Little Willie feeling better
after accidentally getting cut by his father...
Look, I ain't even got a mark. I burned a little bit.
the Edwards are finally ready
to kick gator season into high gear.
When you don't do something for 11 months straight,
you gonna be rusty and it's gonna take a little bit
to knock the rust off.
You gonna have to get used to it at first.
You gotta get that first day knocked out.
You gotta get maybe them first couple days knocked out.
Shake the rust off you a little bit and everything
and just keep moving.
Ready to get some tags filled today.
Ready to rock and roll.
Oh, I'm ready, me.
You better be ready.
Load that gun.
Slow down, slow down, slow down.
All right, all right, all right.
Right there, right there. I see him.
Give me the hook, give me the hook, give me the hook.
I got it.
Hurry. Hurry up. Pull. Pull it.
I got him.
Watch it, watch it. Right there. Here he come.
Watch it, watch it.
Oh!
Oh, man, I knew that [bleep].
Man.
There he comes. Go, go, go, go!
All right, stop! Give me some rock and roll!
There you go. Right there, right there,
- Right there. - I'm trying, Willie.
Get him, get him, get him.
Watch out, watch out, watch out.
Watch out. We missed that gator down there.
Watch out. Get off the front.
Go get him, go get him.
Hook that [bleep] hard.
That's it, that's it.
Let him roll up. Give him some slack.
We ain't losing this one.
Hey.
Hauling in this nine-footer helps them get back on track,
but they still have some kinks to work out.
First day of the season and everything,
and you pumped up and ready to go.
And all you got on your brain is catching alligators
and finding the biggest one you can catch.
And it's chaos.
I mean, you're just running back and forth in the boat.
And you gotta take the time on one alligator.
You can't just jump ahead,
like, trying to rush yourself and everything.
A lot of stuff can happen.
Just a little rusty first part of the season.
88 miles away, in Violet,
as the battle of the sexes rages on,
Ronnie can't help but smell the sweet scent of victory
with gators on every line.
Whoo, boy, my hands smell like I got that new perfume on.
[laughs] Chicken on a stick.
I'm gonna tell ya,
every freaking line's got a gator on it just about.
I mean, we are killing it.
I mean, literally we are killing the gators.
And if their lines ain't got a gator on every line,
they don't have a chance with us.
It ain't gonna happen.
I just hope they not sore losers.
What we got, Ronnie? We got something?
It's down. It's downtown, baby.
Ooh, look like all kind of stuff under the water here.
Oh, he's big, Mr. Troy. He's big, my baby.
I'm telling you, this is a big son of a gun, baby.
- Ooh! - Watch him.
Watch him, watch him. Tie it to your leg.
Come on, my baby.
You got to shoot this big son of a bitch.
- Oh, boy. - Whoo!
Watch him, watch him! Bring him up!
[gunshot]
- That a boy. - Whoo, it's a big one.
- It's a big one. - Got a big one, baby.
With five bagged already,
this 12-foot monster puts them one step closer to victory.
There's no way
the girls are gonna outdo this alligator we just caught.
I mean, this thing is a giant. It's as big as they get.
Okay, ready, on three. One, two, three.
Okay, let's roll him.
You know, we struggled to put it in the boat, us two.
I gotta push it. You're holding it down too tight.
So I'd hate to see what happens
if the girls would catch one like this.
I mean, this thing's heavy.
They fat, fat over here in this marsh.
Whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo!
That big sucker, we were struggling with that big thing.
- Golly! - Man, I love it.
I got muscles in the boat.
He's not as pretty as Pee-wee
and he don't smell good like Pee-wee.
♪ Jigalow for you, Mr. Troy ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
But look, what he lacks in looks,
he make up for in muscle power.
That's right.
Meanwhile, in Pierre Part,
Leron and Porkchop are anxious to get on the water
and start filling tags.
to his dad's age than him.
And I told his dad a long time ago
that I always would look out for him.
So no matter what situation we in,
I'll always be there for him.
The cousins have decided to start their season
on the edge of Pierre Part,
not far from their usual hunting ground of Vacherie,
which was decimated by Ida.
I'd rather be on this cool water
than being back in Vacherie right now.
It's been rough.
I'm hunting in Pierre Part, Louisiana, right now
because Vacherie got destroyed from the storm,
and it just was common sense
to come, you know, 40 minutes from home
and come here
and still make a decent living and catch some gators.
That was a no-brainer.
Can't just sit back and cry over spilt milk.
You know, I still got kids to feed,
and sitting back waiting and waiting, no.
I gotta keep moving forward, man.
All right, Porkchop.
Got one on there, Porkchop.
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I see him, I see him.
Whoo! Whoo!
Hold on. Hold on, cuz. Hold on.
Whoo!
I'm about to give him to you, cuz,
I'm about to give him to you.
Hold on, cuz, hold on. I'll gonna give him to you.
There he is. What you waiting on?
[gunshot]
All right.
All right. Stay right there.
Oh, yeah.
Whoo!
All right.
This nine-footer is a morale booster for Leron and Porkchop,
but the two know they have a lot more work ahead.
I'm very concerned about just starting late,
but I will not give up.
There's only one way to find out what's gonna happen.
You gotta be out there.
But that ain't gonna cut it.
Whoo! Yes, sir!
[thunder]
Down in Violet,
[thunder]
The battle of the sexes
is turning into a lopsided affair.
There's the girls.
Oh, look at them. Let's see what they got.
How y'all doing?
Hey!
Come show us what y'all got.
How many, how many?
I don't wanna talk about it.
What you mean y'all don't wanna talk about it?
I got three in the boat, dude. Come on.
Y'all wanted to talk about it last night.
We pull up to Mr. Troy and Mr. Ronnie,
and it's just so discouraging
because their boat is full of big alligators.
And I just kinda shrugged my shoulders
and changed colors a little bit.
I'm really discouraged.
You wanna see my lizards?
We sniped one.
Look how small they are.
Y'all can hang these for bait.
[laughs]
I mean, they decent.
They're good gators.
Now that we just ran into them in the middle of the day,
they not talking trash no more.
They don't have nothing in their boat, and we got a full boat.
[laughs]
Their attitude changed real quick.
What about you? How's your back?
Good.
Oh, yeah.
Ah-ha-ha-ha.
Hey.
He ain't even broke a sweat.
I see that.
I see. The man looks good today.
You're soaking wet.
Hey, he's literally getting to do
what a captain's supposed to do.
Yeah, well, I bet he's bored.
You miss me?
- Well, yeah, I miss you. - Aw.
But I don't miss these things.
Ahh!
Come on, man, I got a little bit, I got a little bit.
That's them Cajun cannons, baby.
From the looks of things,
they ain't got a shot in heaven to beat us.
I feel so confident, we just gotta finish the day out strong.
Well, we don't even have to finish strong.
We just gotta finish the day out and we got this puppy hemmed up.
Well, we gonna slow down a little bit.
Y'all go ahead of us. We'll let y'all run a few.
- Aw. - Oh, let us?
All right, all right. Thank you, thank you.
Appreciate that.
[laughs]
They asked for this.
I know it. They brought this on.
They brought it upon themselves.
[thunder]
There's still time left in the day,
but with bad weather closing in,
the girls' chances of beating the boys
are getting slimmer by the minute.
I don't want them feeling bad for us now.
We gotta step it up.
Yeah. They gonna "let us"?
What the hell they talking about?
They are entirely too confident right now,
and if they're not careful,
we're gonna sneak in and pull the wool from under them.
And they're gonna be very surprised
when me and Ashley come out on top of this competition.
Typical men.
In Bayou Sorrel,
Willie's working at a breakneck pace
to make up for his late start.
But especially with an injury earlier in the day,
his son might not be prepared to keep up.
I burned a little bit. All them marks.
Before alligator season started,
he was talking about, oh, his hands,
they good, tough, ready to go.
One by the thick patch of bubbles?
He's 10-foot, nine, 10-foot.
Three alligators into the season
and he's already talking about, man, my hands are burning.
I looked at him then, I said, boy,
you got a lot more years to go to get them hands tough.
I mean, that rope will burn you.
I guarantee it'll tear chunks out
where you want to baby them hands.
- You got him? - Yeah, I got him.
- He's a big gator? - Ooh! Oh!
Oh! Oh!
Get him up here.
Oh, don't let him get caught in that rope there.
Oh, man!
That's a big alligator!
Hold him tight, hold him tight.
Shoot! Come on!
Nice one, nice one.
Hold him, Willie, hold him!
[gunshot]
- Big gator. - Yeah, it's a big gator.
Though they're making up for lost time,
battling this 11-foot leviathan
didn't do any favors for Little Willie's hands.
I thought my hands were a little tough,
and I thought my hands done built up.
I thought I had man hands.
But it don't matter how tough your calluses are.
That rope, once it heats up
going through your hands and everything, it's coming out.
And you don't feel it at first,
but then you look down.
Oh, I got blisters on my hands.
I got meat tore out my hands.
Man.
Fingers been bothering you?
- My fingers yesterday-- - Golly, yeah.
You're gonna get infected.
I got something for you.
Here. Put them things on.
But you're got to wear them the rest of the year.
Tell you what, you must've thought about me.
Yeah, yeah, I seen you was all tore up.
See, I thought my hands was a little tougher this year.
Oh, I'm good now.
In Hammond,
after his home took a direct hit
from Hurricane Ida...
Got a good view now.
Bruce ended his season before it could begin.
That big huge tree fell through my kitchen.
But his home isn't the only property he's concerned about.
We're going down to check on our family's camp.
The storm just tore stuff up, you know.
A lot of memories in that camp.
We gator-fished and stayed the night
and stuff like that all the time.
It's been up there for 45 years or more, you know.
Let me back this thing in the water,
and we can get out of here.
Well, we got something in this camp
that's real important to us,
and it was my grandpa's gun.
I just wanna make sure it's there,
and that'd be one thing less off my mind.
Dang.
This is all family camps over here in this.
It ain't looking good from here.
This camp been here since I was a kid.
It'll probably never be rebuilt.
The wharf's gone, everything's gone.
Boy, it don't look all right over there.
Yeah, I hate to see this one gone.
This is five generations.
Five generations been in this camp here.
You know, it's nothing but full of memories.
That's the bad part. Just-- Your memories are gone.
The way I'm looking at the river, it's going down.
I'm just losing hope. I don't know.
I don't think nothing's gonna be here.
It's just not looking that good for our camp.
Wow.
This is our family camp here.
Lord have mercy.
I knew it was gonna be bad,
but I didn't realize it'd be this bad.
In Hammond, Bruce arrives at his family camp
to assess the destruction caused by Hurricane Ida.
Wow.
Dang.
It tore the whole back out and sucked everything out of it.
That's my two sisters and two brothers-in-law up there
just trying to salvage something.
Yup, all gone.
I'm looking, and I really don't see nothin'.
And that's the only thing you're hanging on to right now
is old memories and stuff.
You're just trying to figure out what direction to go.
And it's so jumbled up just digging through stuff,
trying to salvage whatever you can,
a picture or a pot or a pan.
That's memories down there.
You know, it ain't like you can rebuild this.
You just gotta start completely from scratch and start over.
Yeah.
It's hard to put this in words.
It's just-- It's like a bomb exploded.
It's funny. There could be a plastic chair
sitting where the people always fished at.
- Yeah. - And it's still sitting there,
but their whole camp is gone.
I mean, It's just like somebody took a huge hammer
and just hit, hit, hit,
and just chopped and mixed it all up,
and it's all there in a pile.
Really, the only thing we really wanna do is find Papaw's gun.
I'd like to find it.
It's back here somewhere under all these camps,
but we just gotta look for it and find it.
We got to find this gun. We just got to find it.
I know y'all been looking for it,
but I'm here, and I'm gonna come help y'all.
It's here, we think.
I just don't know which way to go.
74 miles away, in the marshes of Violet...
[thunder]
The weather has turned, but with their boat full of gators,
Troy and Ronnie feel good
about their competition with Ashley and Pickle.
They thought we were being scared.
And we was just trying to be nice.
That's it. You the King of the Swamps.
I guess I'm the prince.
When we met up with the girls earlier,
they didn't have nothin'.
I think they had three alligators in their boat.
But we got almost a full boat, so...
I know this competition's all over but the crying.
The girls are gonna be doing the crying.
[laughs]
He was right out front here. I don't see him, though.
I'm gonna bring him back around.
All right.
Whoa, whoa.
- Come on, come on. - What is it?
We got a good one, baby, we got a good one.
Got a good one?
Come on!
Boy, we got a good one, papa.
Look, his foot is-- Something done ate his back foot.
They gotta have a big one in here.
- Whoo, bring him up. - Come here, papa.
- Golly. - Huh? Bring him up.
Shoot him, baby, shoot him!
Whoo.
Golly, that's a sucker. Got some fight.
Shoot him, my baby, shoot him.
That a baby! That a boy.
All right, Ronnie.
Look at this, my baby. Check that out.
- Oh, yeah. - That's fresh, too.
- A big one ate his leg. - Yup.
Hey, there's no way they're gonna beat this, huh?
- No way, my baby. - Whoo!
This is our day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's the swamp bop with the crab trap.
That's the crab trap? [laughs]
Now I learned some new dance moves.
That's right, baby. You can bring that back to Pierre Part.
You know, this rain done started
and the lines kinda went cold now,
so I would say I'm worried, but why's the worry?
Because we got this puppy in the bag, baby.
I hope so. I hope they don't sink my boat.
We headed in. We outta here.
And I think we probably left 'em
about four or five lines for them extra to run
just to have on their plate, you know,
just to help 'em out.
[thunder]
Just a few miles away,
Ashley and Pickle aren't letting the weather
slow 'em down.
Oh, yeah.
I'm miserable. I'm done with this rain.
I'm freezing, Ashley's freezing,
but this is our opportunity to take this competition.
So we gonna do what we can
to get all these alligators in the boat
in this miserable, nasty weather.
I see the grass all messed up.
Look like a crime scene over here.
All the grass is all laid down and tore up.
All right, girl, I'm gonna put you
right over here on the right side of the pole.
Oh, I see the line going in the grass over there.
Oh, yeah, he's decent for sure.
Hurry up. Oh, dang, He's springin' out.
[bleep]
Let me get the gun.
I'm ready, girl. Pull him up.
Oh! Whoa! Watch your hand.
Whoo! He's pulling hard.
They fight down here, dude.
Oh, watch that roll.
Pull him up.
All right, Ashley, you gonna shoot this thing?
You waiting for an invitation or what?
[gunshot]
These alligators ain't huge, but they decent.
This seven-footer isn't much to brag about.
Another tag filled!
But today's competition is about numbers, not size.
Watch how slow they start moving now
'cause they think they're winning, you know?
Oh, yeah, I'm sure they're laying back right now,
sitting there, eating a sandwich.
Sounds like Mr. Troy. Probably eating some chocolate.
To be honest with you, I wish I had a piece of chocolate.
Mr. Troy and Mr. Ronnie
are definitely gonna learn their lesson.
We definitely can do a better job than they think we can.
Let's go, let's go, let's roll it.
104 miles west, in Bayou Sorrel,
Willie and his son are still trying to find the groove
on their first day of gator season.
No, you ain't.
You said when we left the landing,
I load the guns and I hunt the guns.
You go over there treble hooking and do what you gotta do.
So don't step on my job.
Yeah, but then I just made my mind up.
Well, dude, you can't change your mind like that.
What's said is said. You just was gonna help.
Your job is right there, that's what you gonna do.
- Oh, I do it. I do it. - So that's what you gonna do.
Day one, you know for sure
you're not gonna come with 100%
'cause you ain't got the feel of it yet.
As the season goes and everything,
it'll fall in line, you'll get used to it,
and it'll be like something
that you'll be looking at the back of your hand.
- Something right there, huh? - Yup.
- Show you how to catch it. - Right there, go on that side.
Yeah, that's that big one going against the bank.
Man! Look all the bones!
You splattered that, Daddy. That was a good shot.
Whew!
[Willie laughs]
Oh!
Man!
Put a hole in that head.
Throw him over in the back,
and we got one right over here.
See him over there bubbling?
Right there, right there, right there.
Oh, yeah, that's an alligator there.
Throw it on him, Willie. Throw it on him, Willie.
Snatch it. Soon as you feel a bump, snatch it.
He's caught this time.
Don't say that till you get him in the boat.
Let him have slack!
Oh, that one's rough.
Hold him up right there.
[gunshot]
That's how it's done right there.
Done.
After tagging two in a row,
the Edwards seem to be right back in their groove.
We both had dust on when we first started this year.
And to catch them two alligators back to back,
that shows me that he got his head in the game
and he's ready to hunt.
I do make mistakes. I ain't perfect for sure.
But it all paid off in the long run,
and it always do, and we survivors.
I think we got 10 or 12.
Yeah, could've been a lot worse.
Could be one or two,
but we did pretty damn good, I think.
Meanwhile, Bruce is searching his family's camp
for a prized heirloom.
Just gotta go through every little thing,
hoping to find one little thing, you know.
Well, we get down to the old camp,
and I know I got my grandpa's gun down here,
and we gotta try to find it.
What about in here?
I doubt it's gonna be that way
because everything that was on this side is still on this side.
It's just blown over.
This gun's real important to me.
I've shot it many times with my grandpa.
I was with him when he bought it, actually,
and that was probably over 50 years ago.
So this was y'all's bedroom window right here?
Yes, right there.
I don't know what to do but get down here and dig for it, y'all.
My grandpa was probably the--
Well, he is the reason I hunt gators, you know.
He's just the reason I do it.
I guess it's in our blood, you know.
[muttering to himself]
Oh, this is jacked up.
It's here. I know it's here.
Whoa. Whoa, whoa, I don't know, maybe.
Wow.
Whoa!
All right! Whoo!
Feel like I won the lottery. [laughs]
I pulled that old gun out,
and it just felt like I won the lottery.
Can't explain the feeling. It just made you feel real good.
Something survived, you know. Something survived.
I don't know what to tell y'all about all this now.
We had some good memories down here.
Yup.
We gonna make a lot more though.
Mm-hmm, it's gonna be all right.
Couple years, we gonna laugh about it.
That's right. It'll be back.
Thanks for helping.
Thank you. That was the only thing we wanted.
I know. I know.
There's nothing to do here but rebuild.
That's all you can do.
Tear all the tore-up stuff up, pile it up, burn it,
and start over.
Life got to keep going.
See y'all later.
- Bye! - Later!
Love you!
In Pierre Part,
Leron and Porkchop are working hard
to fill their tags after missing out
on the first week of alligator season.
Man, it's a beautiful day.
Yeah. It's beautiful out here,
but being beautiful don't pay the bills, man.
We need those gators to get on those lines.
Oh, yeah. The hurricane came, and it set us back a lot.
I'm hoping for this gator season here
that we come in here, do good,
get on back home, to take care of our families
and help the community as much as we can.
Porkchop, we here to fill these tags today, buddy.
We can't control that.
That's the thing that grind my gears.
Stuff that I can control,
you know, I feel like I got a grip on it, you know,
and I'm cool with that.
You can control alligator hunting,
so that's where my focus there was.
Yeah, he pulling rope, buddy.
He pulling rope, pulling rope!
When that line's tight, I get them goosebumps,
and, man, I be pumped up,
and I be like, hope that's a big one.
- Pulling rope, huh? - Yeah.
What it feel like, Porkchop?
I don't know.
Working with a monster?
Come on, baby, come on up.
- Working with a monster? - Oh, we working with a monster.
Gotta be.
All right, working with a monster!
Working with a monster, Porkchop!
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! - Working with a monster!
Whoo! Hold on, cuz.
I ain't be holdin' long, cuz. I ain't gonna be holdin' long.
Yeah, cuz, we gotta get him, cuz.
- Yeah. - Don't wanna pop that line.
Come on.
Come on, cuz. There he is.
Whoa, whoa.
Come on!
[gunshot]
Man, that's what I'm talking about, cuz. Whoo!
That was a near miss.
That gator was so strong,
and he was just pulling and pulling and pulling.
Man, if he would've popped that string,
we would've lost out on some good money there, Porkchop.
Yeah, we almost lost him, too.
Oh, we almost lost him like that, too.
Yeah, look, he almost straighten out the hook, cuz.
Aw, man.
This 11-foot monster
is the morale boost they need
to jumpstart their season.
Hold on, cuz, hold on, hold on.
There you go. Come on, get him in, cuz.
Now you grab that back leg back there.
There you go.
Whoo! Oh, yeah.
Whoo!
Man!
First day of the season, started catching some gators.
For some reason, my spirit
made me feel like something better is coming.
Hold on, we gotta cover them up, baby.
Cover them up a little bit more. Oh, yeah.
Mother Nature threw a curveball.
I picked up a bat,
and I still hit a homer out the park
by coming to Pierre Part.
So I had to do what I had to do. I didn't give up.
We gonna tag out in no time the way we doing it, cuz.
Hey, that's a good or a bad thing?
That's a great thing.
That's what I'm talking about.
I was very happy.
I didn't expect that to go like that because we started so late.
But like I said, we had a good day, good start day,
and, hopefully, it continues on like this here.
It ain't our fault that we started late.
Mother Nature came through, and it's put us back.
But if we can continue getting days like this here,
we have a lot of tags, we gonna get to that number.
78 miles away, in Violet,
the weather's gone from bad to worse,
but the ladies aren't backing down
from their bet with Troy and Ronnie.
Since it's raining,
I'm sure that the boys have already headed back.
But we're gonna run every single line,
as many as we can, and finish up their slack.
And when we beat the boys today, I'm gonna feel great.
I'm gonna show 'em that we did what we came to do.
Ashley, look.
Something's pulling that line on that grass.
Oh, yeah.
Let's see what we got.
All right, Ashley, you ready, girl?
Come on, pull.
Oh! Oh!
- Hold him. - Oh, God!
He gonna pull me in!
Oh! Uh!
- Unh! - Watch that line!
All right, Ashley, as soon as his head comes up,
you shoot him, okay?
Pull him up.
[gunshot]
- I got him. - Give me five.
This 400-pounder...
There we go.
is Ashley and Pickle's biggest gator of the day.
We getting the numbers, girl. [laughs]
I mean, he may have been four times our size,
but we got him in the boat... eventually.
We picked up after they came over there,
and they were, like, trying to rub their gators in our face.
That just goes to show our resilience.
We're not giving up easy, and if we do lose,
it'll not be because we didn't put up a fight.
All right, girl, let's go.
Ashley and Pickle hope the extra time in the rain
gives them just enough to win the competition.
We put our heads together, and we worked smarter,
and I'm a strong believer in that.
You really just gotta adapt
to, you know, what Mother Nature brings to you.
I got all faith in the world in me and Ashley.
We really pulling together here,
and I'm so excited to pull up to these boys.
And whether this be the clouds or their tears
because they know we winning the competition,
I don't know. We will see.
In Violet, it's the moment of truth
as Ashley and Pickle meet up with Troy and Ronnie
to find out who's caught more gators.
Dude, where you been?
- Where we been? - [laughs]
We been waiting here two hours.
Look like y'all went to a hatchery, huh?
Yeah, man, look at all them babies.
They don't have the gators
that I think they're gonna beat us with.
It just don't look it.
Hey, it's quantity. That was the deal.
My God. I just feel like me and Troy is victorious.
We said alligators, not lizards.
- [laughs] - Hey, hey!
And we just need them to count every one
of them little lizards they caught.
I just want y'all to know,
we rode by the lines,
and every one that had a little alligator on it,
we left it.
And we went and run the ones with big alligators.
So that's why. It's your lines, dude.
The bet was that we catch more alligators,
not bigger alligators.
You can't count these lizards.
Quantity, not quality.
You need three of them to match up to one of ours.
That ain't what we said, though.
That's not what we-- That wasn't the bet.
Well, we got, what, one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine. We got nine.
How many y'all got?
8, 9,10, 11. Y'all got 11.
- We won. - Damn!
Girl, we got five of them over 10 foot.
I think me and Ronnie left a little too early.
All right, we done. You lost.
Ronnie and I, we ain't never gonna hear the end of this.
Rub it in our face.
Oh, loser.
Now we gotta clean their boat,
plus they got bragging rights for the rest of their lives.
It's a coin toss, but we'll give it to you.
[laughs] Oh, yeah?
We should've ran more lines.
[laughs]
Go home and bake y'all self a cake,
because y'all got us today.
Hey, we worked hard.
I know that Ronnie and Troy like to talk about who's tougher,
and that's just men in general.
But today we worked through it.
We were in the rain, we didn't take cover,
and we ended up winning because of that.
Y'all beat us fair and square.
All right, time for a beer.
Let's go get us a cold one.
Some dry clothes and a cold beer.
Back in Vacherie...
- Oh, yeah. - Always got a story to tell.
Cousins Leron and Porkchop
are celebrating the end of a successful first day
in the best way they know how, by fishing.
Come on, y'all. What you got there?
Whoa, what that is, boy?
Look at y'all.
Look at y'all. No.
It's too hot for you to be missing fish, bro.
Man.
Just being in nature, enjoying life.
You know, it's just so peaceful back here, I just...
I put the regular world on pause,
and that will sharpen my brain.
If you wasn't just sitting there watching him go in the water,
we probably would've had him, buddy.
There ain't too much conversation going on
because you in that zone, you know.
You in your own little world.
And what you just focusing on, man, it's just a beautiful day.
I'm just relaxing, having fun, chilling.
Oh, you got one?
Oh, what the hell was that?
No, really, I'm a bad fisherman.
I ain't gonna say nothin'.
I'm being very impatient.
I got action. Whoo!
- Whoo! - Reel him in.
- Get him from over there. - I got him, cuz.
Reel him in, buddy. Chill out.
Yeah, you watch too much sport fishing on TV, man.
Cuz, chill out. Cuz, I can't--cuz, come on.
He already in the grasses.
Aw, man, look at this, y'all.
I done got myself caught up in a bad situation here.
I'm just gonna let him go, cuz.
I'm gonna let him do what he got to do.
See if you can get him unhooked.
You know, it doesn't really matter
if you catch an ice chest of fish
or if you don't catch none at all.
It's just the peace and the relaxation
that you have when you be out there.
Look at that.
Porkchop. Whoa.
They love marshmallows.
Seem like those gators got a sweet tooth, huh, buddy?
Next season we might have to hang a big damn marshmallow
on a hook on the tree, man.
It'll be much cheaper than buying chicken for sure.
Yeah, you right about that.