Just as gator season gets going...
This is the lowest I've seen the water
in years and years.
I ain't never seen it this low.
Mother Nature throws another curveball.
There's a lot of horsepower behind us
and a lot of timber underneath that water.
That's a bad combination.
Water levels are dropping to record lows.
This is how much the water dropped this morning
- since we've been out here. - A whole foot?
We don't need to get stuck, Porkchop.
That's the last thing we need.
For some, it's an opportunity
to settle old scores...
Grand Betaille is an alligator
that we've been trying to catch for about 10 years.
Whoo, it's a big one! I know it's him.
Whoo! Whoo-hoo!
I think that's him. He's gonna pop the line!
while others risk getting stranded in the swamp.
Here we go. Here we go, baby.
We ain't gonna make it out.
Feel like we might not make it.
[blues guitar plays]
It's 7 A.M. in Southern Louisiana.
In the last 12 hours,
water levels have dropped by more than a foot and counting.
In Lake Fausse Pointe,
veteran swamper Joey Edgar and his deckhand Zak Catchem
are heading out to run their lines,
but Joey can see they've got problems.
Water fell hard last night.
[revs engine]
Aw, [bleep].
The low water is making conditions difficult
for their outboard motor.
Well, we got some really good hunting grounds to hunt today,
but the problem is, with this water falling,
we probably shouldn't be going in here.
I didn't know the water was gonna drop like this.
Now we gotta run 'em.
This water's falling, but we have no choice.
We gotta get back there and make it happen.
Come on. Shut it-- Cut the motor off.
I told you we weren't gonna fit back here.
Aw, aw, that doesn't feel good. That's nasty.
If I lose a toe, are you gonna pay for it or what?
- Here we go, baby. - Good job, pop.
Here we go, baby boy. Now we're picking up steam, huh?
[laughs]
I think we got it.
- We're getting kind of deep. - Yeah, you can get in.
I don't know about coming out, though.
Coming out is gonna be tough.
That's that horsepower, come on.
Let's go kill some alligators.
With the extra push, they reach their hunting grounds,
but with the water dropping fast,
there's no time to waste.
Line's down, Zak. Oh...
It's a little deeper over here, too.
Oh, might have this one.
Might be a good one.
Oh, yeah.
Whoop.
It's a big alligator, pop. Get the gun.
Get the gun.
Whoa!
- Whoa, he's strong. - Yeah.
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!
Ah!
There he is, there he is. Come on!
There's that death roll.
Oh! Oh! Come on.
You can get that shot off.
Aah! Death rolls. Death rolls.
I ain't gonna play with him.
I missed him.
Big alligator! Come on.
Give me a shot. He's rolling.
[Zak grunts]
I don't want him to break that lead.
Come on. Just shoot him. Take him out.
Ooh. [laughs]
What a death roller.
That's a big one. Oh, my God.
This 11-footer is a welcome prize,
but the water continues to drop,
and they'll need to work fast before they get stranded.
Oh, man.
Nice. Whoa!
Oh, that's a fat alligator.
- That's a fine one. - My God.
You know, we just caught a nice alligator,
but I'm worried about this water falling.
We got to try to get these alligators killed
as quick as possible.
And I don't know what we could do to come out.
We'll figure that out when it happens.
We just gotta be careful.
We got an ever-changing environment right now,
and Mother Nature,
she's showing us that we not in control.
75 miles east, in Bryson,
veteran gator hunter Willie Edwards
and his son Little Willie
are trying to use the low water level to their advantage
by hunting one of the family's favorite honey holes.
Man, back there by Bryson, if we can get back there.
and lots of them.
I don't wanna take a chance of going back there
and tearing that motor up,
but looks like that's what we gonna have to do.
We always got low water this time of the year.
And Bryson is a hole off in the woods,
like a big lake off in the woods.
If the water's low, that's the only hole
they got to go to to have water.
That's my time to catch 'em.
I mean, if you ain't back there right when they do all that,
you ain't gonna catch no alligators back there.
They'll disappear like you're hunting ghosts.
For Willie, the low water creates an opportunity
to catch big bulls in Bryson,
but it also makes getting there a challenge.
Now hold on. We're about to make a little trip.
Hope we don't tear nothin' up.
Oh, Lord.
Hold on, hold on.
Hold on!
Made for gator tails and stuff and it's like mud motors.
It's just a struggle to get in there.
It ain't his first rodeo.
But it's beautiful back there.
I mean, it's quiet and big alligators everywhere.
Little one swimming out there.
- One right there swimming. - That's little.
We gonna go this way first.
Caught one right there one time.
He was 11-7, but he was about that thick.
He should've been a 13 or 14-footer.
Set of bubbles over there. Over there, look.
Yeah, right over there. I see him.
- Right there. Get your hooks. - Yeah.
I know for a fact, a scientific fact,
something right here.
- Go ahead and throw it. - OH, he's caught this time.
The treble hook
is a tried and true method to hunt gators
and an Edwards family favorite.
Pull it. Pull it, Willie.
Snatch.
Soon as you feel it, don't reach and grab for it.
You gotta snatch him.
- You got him? - I don't know what I got.
Oh, he's a big one.
Eight foot?
- Oh! - Don't let him get off.
Let him head down. Don't--Don't force him.
Don't force him, don't force him.
Go ahead, get him up, get him up.
[gunshot]
- You all right? - Yeah.
Oh, let me help you, son.
Oh, he's barely hooked. Right in the toe.
Get him up right there.
- Good 10-foot alligator. - Oh, a good 10-foot. Boom!
Bryson is living up to its reputation
as a big gator haven.
Keeping that average up.
I mean, we gotta get more than that,
but, uh, we'll take him. That's a fine gator.
But as hard as it is to get back here,
Willie won't be satisfied till he gets a monster.
We made it back here.
Now we wanna catch some bullwinkles.
I wanna treble hook the biggest one they got on Earth.
I mean, I know they got one back there
that's 14, 15 foot.
Bullwinkle.
28 miles south, in Pierre Part,
like the Edwards, veteran alligator hunter Leron Jones
and his deckhand Anthony "Porkchop" Williams
are struggling to navigate the low water.
Whoo!
Oh, watch it there, cap.
Man, we barely getting through this, man.
It's gonna be hard to get to some of the lines, cuz.
It's gonna be hard to get to some of them, bro.
We don't need to get stuck, Porkchop.
That's the last thing we need.
But it gonna be hard
once this thing's full of gators, man.
Well, you know we gonna fill it up.
- You know we gonna fill it up. - Oh, you already know that.
To make matters worse, the hunters face
an even more serious danger below the surface.
When the water high,
you can pass over stuff that's underneath that water
and you wouldn't even know it's there.
That's the kind of conditions
we gotta go through, cuz, low water.
Hold up, young man.
But the minute it start dropping,
there's a lot of horsepower behind us
and a lot of timber underneath that water.
That's a bad combination.
Come on. We gotta get in the back, cuz,
by any means necessary.
Oh, yeah, any means necessary, Porkchop.
Whew! Man!
Yeah, we out of the shallows now.
I can drive us over there.
Got the line down. Looks like it tangled up.
I see the rope.
Yeah, you see the rope over there?
Look at that, cuz.
All right. Gotta be careful now, cuz.
He on land now, you know.
What you think?
- Hold this gun for me, Porkchop. - Oh, yeah, cuz.
- We in a bad situation. - And hold on tight.
Imma drive us some more in there.
That's better.
Hold up. Come on.
[gunshot]
Come on, cuz. Come up here and get your gun.
Whoo! Hey, cuz.
- You bailed me out, cuz. - That's all right, man.
That's teamwork makes the dream work, man.
That's what we do, Porkchop.
Now we got a different situation.
He's just tangled up back there.
Hold on. I got it. I got it.
- You got it? - Yeah. Help me out, cuz.
All right, cuz. I got him now, cuz.
Whoo, man.
Look at that, Porkchop. Dead center, off the boat.
10 yards away, man. Whoo!
I was dead center, but I wasn't centered on him.
-Yeah, he-- [both laugh]
With these conditions making it hard
to land even a small alligator...
We got him in, cuz. Whew!
Leron and Porkchop know
they're in for a long day.
You can't predict the water.
When it's high, it's high, when it's low, it's low.
But, you know, you gotta be out there, man.
Gotta go out there and make it happen.
That's a lot of weight on this boat, boy.
Yeah.
- We gonna get it, cuz. - Oh, yeah, man.
- Almost to the promised land. - Almost there.
Across the bayou,
King of the Swamp Troy Landry...
- All right, Pee-wee, you ready? - Mm-hmm.
heads out with his deckhand Cheyenne "Pickle" Wheat.
Let's get moving, old man.
And for the lifelong alligator hunter,
the record low-water levels
are an opportunity he's been waiting for.
Ooh, that wind was blowing about 20 miles an hour.
Dropped about six or eight inches last night.
This is the lowest I've seen the water in years and years.
Yeah. I ain't never seen it this low.
- Hey, you know what that means? - Hmm?
We might be able to catch that big alligator.
Big Betaille.
Grand Betaille is an alligator
that we've been trying to catch I'd say for about 10 years.
We spotted him at least nine or 10 years ago,
and he got away from us that first year we seen him,
and we've been trying to catch him ever since.
He lives deep in the swamp.
Grand Betaille don't never come out of the swamp.
And some of them big alligators
that never come out of the swamp gotta come out now.
The swamps are drying up,
so this is our opportunity to try to catch him.
The line looks tight.
I see it.
- See what? - The line.
Yeah. What we got, Pee-wee?
That I don't know.
Feels like a little bébé.
- A baby? - Yeah.
Oh! Say what?!
Whoo! It's a big one, it's a big one.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
Show him who's the boss, Pee-wee.
Show him who's the boss.
- Whoo! - Watch him, watch him!
Knock himself out!
He's a big one, he's a big one.
He's rolling, he's rolling.
You ready?
You gotta get him.
Shoot him.
All right, Pee-wee.
Hey, hey, hey.
This nine-footer's not big enough to be Grand Betaille,
but the day is young and Troy won't be satisfied
until he finds the elusive gator.
I would've never dreamed
that we'd still be chasing this alligator 10 years later.
We would've caught him or shot him by now,
but he don't come out.
He don't come out the swamp.
You just gotta wait. It's a waiting game.
You gotta wait until the conditions are right.
Timing is everything, in everything.
All right, Pee-wee. Talk to me. You good?
Mm-hmm.
Hey, that's a nice gator. We catching good.
Yeah, we catching good.
52 miles southwest, in Franklin,
veteran swamper Bruce Mitchell is answering a call
to help a crab fisherman in need
after Hurricane Ida.
I made it. How you doing?
Mr. Edgar said you needed some help.
Yeah, I need some help today.
- Let's go. - That's what I'm here for.
- Let's go. - Let's go.
Careful, careful.
What happened? Your deckhand couldn't make it?
Yeah, I know everything's tore up.
Mr. Edgar called last night
and said you was having a little trouble
finding a deckhand and stuff.
So I said I'll come do what I can out here.
Try to help you.
- Let's go. - Let's get it.
- You ready? Let's go. - Yes, sir.
I met Mr. Sung Ly years ago through Mr. Daniel Edgar.
You know, he's a crabber.
He said his deckhand's house got tore up,
and he's working on his house.
So if I could come help him crab,
it would really help things out a lot.
That's what I've been doing since the storm,
basically helping people.
And the way you look at this, you know,
I'm not only helping Mr. Sung Ly,
I'm helping Mr. Daniel out, too,
because he sells his crabs to Mr. Daniel.
Mr. Daniel sells 'em to somebody else,
and that's the way the world rolls.
So actually I'm helping two or three people.
Yeah.
- One? - One.
Good heavy crab.
Yeah. All good crab right there.
Mainly what I'm doing today
is grading these crabs and sizing them,
putting different sizes in different buckets.
You have your big number ones. They good and heavy.
You got your lighter ones, little bit smaller ones.
Then you got your kites.
A kite is just a real light crab,
and they use that for gumbo crabs and stuff.
They all sell different, so you have to divide them up.
Crabbing's a lot of work.
Yeah. A lot of work.
Nothing in there. [laughs]
Sometimes it's a lot of work for nothing.
Yeah.
Ooh. Three.
I used to crab.
Me and my father-in-law used to crab.
And we'd run 500 pots every morning.
This is my crab puller, my arms.
We would pull these crab pots up by hand.
Mr. Sung Ly got an automatic puller,
so that thing is pretty neat.
If I had one of them, I might still be crabbing.
Just throw your string in there and it sucks it off the bottom.
You grab it, empty it, put the bait in it,
throw it back, and on to the next one.
It's a lot of work. Crabbing's a lot of work.
A lot, a lot of work.
Any kind of fishing's a lot of work if you do it right.
43 miles north, in Lake Fausse Pointe,
after barely making it to their hunting grounds,
Joey and Zak are racing to run their lines
before they get trapped.
- Look right here, pop. - The trees?
This is how much the water dropped this morning
since we been out here.
- A whole foot? - You see where it's wet?
Yeah.
That's how much the water dropped
since we been out here this morning, bubba.
We catching a few alligators.
We gotta make fast time.
We gotta hurry and get outta here.
Yeah.
It's dropping.
We don't wanna get hung up back here.
All you gotta do is look how fast the water's moving.
That's how fast she's falling.
She's running through here.
I'm seeing that the water marks while we are out here
that the bank and the water's falling.
You can see what was wet and was dry.
Now we taking a chance loading the boat with alligators
and then we gotta come out.
It's gonna be a hard day and a rough day,
but we have lines out.
We have to get it done.
Off the edge, you see it?
That's him, Zak?
Yeah. Head's up right there.
- Yeah. - That's him.
Watch yourself, pop.
Look at all them bubbles here.
Yeah, a lot of 'em.
I can almost reach that.
Got it.
- All right? - Oh, yeah.
He's a big boy.
- What? Oh, yeah. - Oh, yeah, he's big.
- Oh! - Whoa.
Oh, watch it. Don't get him in the motor!
You got him or he got you?
Oh, yeah!
Aah!
Man-eater.
Give me a shot.
Whoa.
Give me a shot.
Here he comes.
Ooh, come on.
[gunshot]
- What? - Nice one.
Oh, that's a nub.
Joey and Zak continue their hot streak,
landing a 10-footer.
That's how you do it.
We got a little color in the boat.
Yeah, baby. Look at that thing.
But Joey's concerned
their success might end up being a problem.
I'm excited that we catching well
and I'm happy that we doing that good,
but it's also a concern of mine
because I think that if we keep catching 'em like this,
we may have issues to come home.
And we don't wanna sleep in the swamp, we wanna come home.
We're stacking them up pretty heavy.
Water's dropping fast.
We may be in trouble.
If we catch too many alligators today,
we gonna be in trouble.
Back in Bryson,
Willie and Little Willie are banking on the low water
to flush out the giants.
They got a lot of fish right here.
They got so many in here, look at where they going across
that back of that dike right there.
See them trails going up that hill?
That's alligator trails.
Off the sides of Bryson,
you got main bayous that come in.
The water drains all down to that main hole.
That's where all your fish is at,
and that's where all your alligators gonna be at.
They gonna come to where the food's at.
When it's that low, that's to our advantage.
That means we can catch 'em.
You see that?
- All them bubbles right there? - Yeah.
What is this?
Waves coming out right there, out from that grass.
Yeah, that's a alligator, or something.
That's what I was about to say.
Yeah, big one. Get your hook.
Yeah, that's him right there.
There's one right there for sure.
Back up a little bit from the steering wheel
when you throw it, son.
See some bubbles underneath the boat right here.
He turned around. I watched him turn around.
He's right there against the bank.
See his back up in there against the bank?
He's right beside that log.
Right beside that log.
Grab it, son, grab it.
Oh, that's a bull.
He gonna pull hard.
What the hell?
Don't let him get back there.
Here it goes, here it goes.
- Big gator. - Big gator.
Gonna have to watch him.
[both laugh]
Loading the boat up.
That is how it's done.
With another impressive catch,
it looks like Willie's decision to come to Bryson
is paying off.
Oh, Lord!
When you hook a big one
and you snatch back and he snatches you forward,
instead of you going back,
you know you've got something on the line
that's worth putting on a tag.
And I hope Willie's hands are doing a lot better.
Because back in Bryson, they'll make him learn.
They'll make a believer out of him.
27 miles south, Leron and Porkchop
are navigating through a swamp minefield.
Whoa, whoa. Hold up there, cuz.
What the hell?
Back us up.
When I'm driving that boat on low water,
I know how dangerous it is.
And from experience, I be extra-careful.
I know what to look for.
You're still gonna hit something,
but you hit it on the right amount of speed, you're good.
You gotta respect these swamps.
You know, when that water's low,
you gotta respect it,
because you got a ton of stuff down there
that can hurt you by just traveling in a boat.
Whew! All right.
Let's go see what we got over there, cuz.
Oh, we got one over there.
Yeah, coming in hot.
Hold up here. Slow it down.
Slow it down. Slow it down, cuz.
Let me see something there.
It's hung up, cuz.
Big gator, man. See right there?
No, I got this here. You see that pole?
Don't put your hand in that water, man!
Move outta the way.
Don't put your hand in that water.
Hey, bro, don't do that.
You see the hook?
No.
Come around this tree right here.
Get back, get back.
Cuz, don't put your hand in that water.
- It's a gator, man. - Let me see.
Whoo! Whoo!
Whoo! Nice one there, cuz.
Whoo! Whoo!
Lemme get it right, cuz.
Get him, cuz, get him.
Gotta shoot him.
Good shot, boy.
Another one down, cuz.
All right, that's it.
All right, now look right there. You pull him.
I got a leg.
Landing this nine-footer wasn't easy,
but veteran hunter Leron knows the risk was worth it.
When that gator gets stuck down there on them cypress,
I mean, it's a huge pain in the butt, you know.
And if you're not built for this, it's scary as hell.
But we out here alligator hunting.
I know what's down there in that water.
Nobody put a gun to my head to do it.
But Porkchop always, "Man, don't stick your hand in the water.
Don't do that."
It's like, Porkchop,
sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do
to make it happen.
Thought I had to put my boxing gloves on
with you just now, man.
You try to make me get my hand out of that water.
That's right. Looking out for you, cuz.
10 miles away, in Pierre Part,
Troy and Pickle are tracking the colossal gator
known as Grand Betaille.
Look at the size of them tracks.
We don't normally see a lot of signs
along the bayou of Grand Betaille
because he don't come out other than in the springtime.
But right now the water's so low,
I'm seeing giant tracks along the bank, and I know it's him.
You can see where they climbing
up and down on the bank right there.
They got it wore out.
This is our little small window of opportunity.
Pee-wee and I are gonna take advantage of this.
Can you tell if they got one on that next line over there?
Look like I see something, huh?
Right there, right there.
We got something, Pee-wee. I just saw the water splash.
Until you pick up that line,
you don't know what's on the end of it.
It's making a lot of bubbles.
This is a good alligator, I guarantee you.
Whoo! It's a big one. Get the gun, get the gun!
Hurry, hurry, hurry.
Whoa.
Whoo!
Shoot him!
Give me a shot. You gotta give me a shot.
Oh, oh, oh.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, he's rolling, he's rolling.
Shoot him! Shoot!
[gunshot]
Good shot, Pee-wee.
Man, you're getting good with that gun, huh?
That's a big one, but that's not him, Pee-wee.
- Ready? One, two, three. - One, two, three.
Oh, yeah.
At 10 feet long, this is an impressive catch,
but it's not the quarry Troy's after.
I can't believe that ain't him. That thing is huge.
Pee-wee and I gonna do whatever we gotta do
to catch this big alligator.
This thing is giant, he's black,
he's gonna be full of slime.
Real slimy from living in the swamp.
We gonna get this alligator one way or another.
We have to.
I won't be able to live with myself
if we don't get him right now.
Might be 10 more years before we get another chance at him.
That's a nice gator, but that ain't him.
When we gonna catch him, you gonna know it's him.
Believe me.
Back in Franklin,
Bruce traded in his gator lines for crab traps
as he helps a fellow fisherman get back on his feet.
[speaking Asian language]
That's your cousin over there?
- Nephew. - Mm-hmm.
He talks back and forth to his nephew,
checks on his nephew,
and a little while later,
his nephew will call back, check on him.
They're just making sure
everybody's all right out there on the water.
Water's dangerous out there.
Not bad.
Feels good to have a fishing buddy out there, for sure.
So where you from?
- Oh. - Yeah, born in Vietnam.
South Vietnam.
How long you been here?
Uh, 32 years.
- 32 years. - Yup.
A lot of these Southeast Asians
come here from the Vietnam War,
and they become shrimpers, crabbers, and fishermen,
just like they was in their homeland.
One good one.
They Louisiana people now.
Following the fall of Saigon in 1975,
nearly 150,000 refugees,
many of which were women and children,
fled Vietnam and Cambodia
for a better life in the United States.
Thousands of these refugees
settled along the coast of Louisiana,
where they could work as commercial fishermen
like they did in their homeland.
You been doing this for about 20 years?
Yeah, about 20 years. 20 years.
How did you learn how to crab?
- Oh, okay. - Yeah, I have two boats.
Yeah.
Mr. Sung Ly seems like a pretty happy fellow
all the time.
He likes what he's doing, you know.
I guess that's what he's done his whole life.
His daddy's done it. His daddy's daddy done it.
They just hard-working people.
That's all they are, hard-working people.
About how many traps you run a day usually?
- About 500 traps. - 500? Whoo.
Crabbing's a rough life. It's just a lot of work.
Yeah.
24 miles north, in Lake Fausse Pointe,
Joey and Zak are rushing to run their lines
before the water drops too low
and they're trapped in the swamp.
Look at the roots. Look at 'em all.
That water's running through here.
The current, dang.
Dude, I don't know.
Boat's riding really low.
The water's dropping so fast, Zak and I have to move fast
and we have to get these alligators killed
and we have to get outta here.
Losing this much water this fast is bad news.
If Zak and I don't move fast,
we may not be able to come out of the swamp.
Line's down, bubba.
Right there.
That's a solid alligator.
Hope he's not wrapped up.
He's good.
Ohh.
Oh, my God!
Whoa! He's pulling the boat. Come on.
Whoa.
He's trying to get in the boat?
Pull him up!
Shoot, pop, shoot!
[gunshot]
- Nice! - Bring him up.
- Sucking water. - Yeah.
I'm not messing with these things anymore.
He's bigger than you think.
Come on, little nub.
Good job.
Another big, big, big boy.
- Yeah. - Nice, man.
This 11-footer put up a good fight,
but Joey knows the biggest battle of the day
is yet to come.
The more you catch, the worse it is
because this ditch is shallow and the water's falling.
And if the bottom of the boat touches,
I don't know how we gonna come outta here.
You know, usually I wanna fill as many tags as I can,
but right now with this water falling,
whatever's on the line, we gonna get that killed
and try to get outta here.
We gotta hurry up and get these gators caught and get back.
Because fast like the water's dropping,
I don't know if we gonna make it out.
Meanwhile, in Bryson,
the Edwards are treble hooking
the behemoths that come out of their holes
when the water drops.
See how muddy this bank is?
That's a big alligator coming out here,
back and forth in here.
It's muddy, too.
That tells you what they got in that area.
Back off in them woods, if you got a little pothole back there,
that water gets hot in that pothole,
and he don't like staying in that kind of water.
That tells me they got big alligators back there,
and that's all I'm after is straight big alligators.
[imitating baby gator]
This big old thing
been coming through this ditch right over here.
See where his track went in the ground.
That's his tail dragging.
And that's the slide where he been coming in and out.
He's way bigger than anything we got in the boat right now.
Yeah, that's a big old gator right there.
- Bet he's 12-foot for sure. - He's in there?
He's out of there right now.
Willie's tracking skills are unmatched in the swamp,
and he knows there's a prized gator close by.
We got one right here, Willie.
Got some bubbles right here gonna come up.
He's right here somewhere. Right out there.
Yeah, that's a big one.
We'll take him.
[gunshot]
You gonna go up? Come on up with him.
Grab his head. I got him.
Willie's strategy to use the low water to his advantage
is paying off.
Yeah, I want an alligator bigger than that.
But the veteran swamper isn't satisfied just yet.
Going to Bryson, I wanna catch 10-foot and up.
I mean, the alligators are huge.
I like to catch the biggest thing they got back there.
But when you treble hooking, you can't tell what it is.
I mean, you can be trying to hook for a 10, 11-footer
or 12, 13, 14-footer,
but you wind up getting an eight-footer, nine-footer.
You never know what size he is
until you actually get him up and see him.
Look at that now. That's how it's done.
I'm still looking for that 12 or bigger.
Back in Pierre Part,
Troy and Pickle are still on the hunt
for a legendary gator that rules this bayou.
Pee-wee, this is where the Grand Betaille is at.
This is the swamp he lives in.
Mm-hmm.
And with the current water conditions,
they might finally have a chance to catch him.
He ain't got no water back there.
He ain't got nowhere to go.
It's about 1,000 acres, 1,500 acres right here
that you can never get in.
Now he's got to come to us.
He's got to come out.
This alligator, we named him Grand Betaille
the first year when we seen him 10 years ago.
I would've never dreamed
that we'd still be chasing this alligator 10 years later.
I know he's living right here, so this is our opportunity.
Oh, I see the line moving a little bit.
- Alligator? - Yeah, got one.
Hunh!
- What? - It's a good one.
- A good one? - Yeah.
That's a big gator.
Whoo, I think that's him.
He's gonna pop the line. I can't--
I can't see the head.
There he goes. He popped it.
Motherfricker.
I see some bubbles that way. You see 'em?
Where?
I smell him.
We lost a big one.
I knew we was going after Grand Betaille,
and I knew we'd be lucky to have one chance at him,
and he got away from us.
Because the water's so low,
we might have a chance again,
but we gonna be lucky if we do.
If you miss that first chance, you're really screwed.
It is what it is.
Won't pay to cry about it.
Meanwhile, Leron and Porkchop have been catching well so far,
but the trees beneath the surface
are putting them in peril.
Porkchop, look like... like we riding
- in inches of water, buddy. - Man.
Got the jack plate all the way up,
got the motor trim all the way up.
Yeah, look at that.
You know, and we barely getting through here, man.
Yeah, that water low, baby.
When you get out there on the water with that low level,
the challenge is when that water level low, we catching good.
And when our boat fill up like that and the water level low,
man, it's too much weight in the boat.
Man, you get stuck back there, it's hard, man,
'cause ain't nobody know you're back there.
Get in there.
I am. See what I'm kicking up behind us there.
That's why I'm coming in here.
I got better eyes than you, Porkchop.
- Man, shut up, shut up. - [laughs]
Man, come on, where you going?
Come on, don't get on top of him, cuz. Back up.
Do what you do, Porkchop.
Get ready now, cousin.
Watch yourself, cuz.
Already got a big winner here already.
Oh. Watch it. Hold up. Hold up.
- Whoa! - Whoo!
Hold him, cuz.
Whoo-hoo!
That what you wanted, eh?
Come on.
He gonna wrap around the motor, cuz. Hold on!
Come on! Come on!
Whoo!
What you waitin' on?
Whoo. Gimme some.
Just like that.
All right. Hold on, big boy.
You hold him tight. Just hold that.
Don't worry about him being a big boy.
Worry about flipping his big ass over.
All right, we got the head in.
Hold on. Let me get the other leg.
I got this, boy.
This 12-foot colossus
is a great way to finish the day,
and for Leron,
it's proof that all the struggles were worth it.
We did real good today.
It started off...
And, you know, at the end of the day,
it was way better than the way it started off,
and that's how alligator hunting's supposed to be.
You know, it makes you come out there,
not knowing what to expect.
It's a challenge.
That will make you a real alligator hunter.
We gotta move it on on, cuz.
I know you can't go too fast, but go as fast as we can.
Ooh, man.
Meanwhile, in Franklin,
Bruce is seeing the lasting impact of Hurricane Ida.
See? Nothing. Nothing there.
Look like the storm affected a lot of the crab.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The water, you know, the water.
Yeah, the water's kind of bad over here.
Yeah, real bad, bad.
See, this crab just died.
Yeah, see?
You get all the waves and the wind...
Wind changes everything on the bottom.
- People don't see it. - Right, right, right.
Everything changes. Nothing.
- The bottom not good, you know. - Yup.
It might take a month or two for this to get right again.
When we have a storm like this, a big storm,
it just-- It messes everybody up.
So that's why we do--
We just come out of the woodwork and start helping.
Everybody helps everybody.
We're getting some traps
that don't have nothin' in them.
They'll be dead crabs.
Just after a storm like this,
shakes the bottom up pretty bad.
It's just a struggle right here,
so I think what we gonna do, we gonna switch spots.
He got more crab pots further down.
We gonna go run them.
- Well, got one, huh? - Yeah.
I'm thinking the water is a lot better over here.
Look better.
How much will you get for that?
- Oh, that box? - Yeah.
- About $200. - Oh, really?
You might make enough to cover gas.
Yeah, yeah.
- Really? - Yeah.
This year, no.
No, this year not good.
Wind's starting to blow a little bit.
It's gonna get a little choppy, huh?
Yeah.
I know he can't come out here by himself
and do this by himself,
so that makes me feel good that I'm helping him.
But these waves is starting to pick up out here.
Mr. Sung Ly's starting to kind of worry about it.
We got a good many crabs.
I think he can go on to the dock and sell them.
At least he gonna make a few dollars.
- No problem, no problem. - All right.
But we gotta keep going.
- Tomorrow will be better. - Yeah.
Hopefully.
Meanwhile, in Bryson, Willie and Little Willie
have been loading up the boat with 10-footers,
but they're expecting even better
from their favorite honey hole.
Them alligators always come
to this back corner right here and right over there.
It's what we had to do last year, wash 'em out of here.
Hold on, now.
Uh-huh.
We normally go back
to catch all the 11-footers you wanna get your hands on.
They got monsters back there,
something that'll size up the boat,
something that you don't see every day.
It's a total different ballgame.
Yeah, you catch a 10-foot alligator.
People call that humongous.
But we're hoping to come back here
and catch way bigger than that.
See where them bubbles is at over there?
Throw your treble hook out there if that's his bubbles.
- That's his bubbles. - Yup.
What you got out there?
Eh? He got off?
Ooh, yeah.
- That's an alligator. - Watch him right here.
We got a big one.
Don't pull that hook out.
- Talking about a big one. - There we go.
After hunting all day, Willie and Little Willie
have finally landed their Bryson beast.
Oh, this thing got a big old head.
But the hunters still need to navigate through a shallow cut
in order to make it back home.
Man.
Damn. [motor grinds]
Might not be able to get out.
Coming back out, we got a load on the boat,
and it's sunk down in the water, a foot and a half, two foot,
and you ain't got but a foot of water.
Come on.
Let's go, baby.
Too shallow.
Too much weight in the ass end.
When you put your weight in the back of the boat,
you're drawing too much water and your foot's down in the mud
and you can't get out and run it like you're supposed to.
Yeah, we gonna have to get the alligators out the back.
Grab them by the head and swing them this way.
Put them all against the front.
Once you put your weight in the front of the boat,
get all the weight toward the front of the boat,
it'll push a wave,
and you'll break over on top of that wave
and it'll pick the foot up.
- The shallow channel... - I got it, Willie.
and a full boat is a recipe for disaster.
There we go!
But thanks to some clever maneuvering,
the Bryson gamble pays off.
I didn't think we was gonna make it,
but, uh, it paid off going back there.
We caught some big alligators and brought my size up.
And I was tickled when we got outta there.
Back in Pierre Part,
Troy and Pickle are regrouping after losing Grand Betaille.
Look real good along the bank
for that big one we lost earlier.
The King of the Swamp knows his target is still nearby.
Big alligator's never gonna die in the water.
He's gonna get on a log or crawl on the bank and die.
Might be our only chance for the next 20 years to catch him
if we-- You know what I'm saying?
You can't afford to let a alligator like this
get away from you.
He's not gonna keep giving us them opportunities, you know.
We messing up big time.
He slipped away from us twice already.
He might not take the bait again forever.
Oh, look, we got one on that line.
Look at the water splashing.
That might be him.
Might be.
- Might be him. - I hope so.
Oh, yeah, look like a good one.
Look like a good one? You saw him?
Yeah, I saw his head.
All right, Pee-wee, show him who's the boss.
That's him, Pee-wee! That's him! That's Grand Betaille!
Don't let it go, whatever you do.
We got him.
Hold on to him, Pee-wee, hold on to him.
We got him.
Whoo! Don't panic.
Yeah, don't panic. Rolling, he's rolling.
Oh, Lord, oh, Lord.
Let him go, let him go, let him go.
He's gonna pop it. If he rolls, he's gonna pop it.
We gotta shoot him.
This alligator is a pain in my behind.
He goes back under, likes to rip my fingers off,
so I let the rope go, which is a big, huge no-no.
He is not so much as Mr. Troy's problem anymore.
He's starting to be my problem, too,
and I'm tired of losing him.
I have to take him out, and I have a vendetta now.
Show him who's the boss.
Get him, Pee-wee, get him.
Want me to fight him? You got him?
- You got him? - Yeah, I got him.
Bring him up, bring him up, bring him up, Pee-wee.
- Just need to go for it. - That's a freaking dinosaur.
Don't move, don't move, don't--
Bring him up, bring him up, bring him up.
I hate to lose this gator.
You gotta get him!
You ready?
Watch him, watch him!
[gunshot]
Whoo, Pee-wee!
Man, you turning into a killing machine.
Tell me when you're ready.
- One, two, three. - One, two, three.
Thank you, Jesus.
Pull that towards you.
I don't know how Pee-wee held on to that giant alligator,
but she did.
You know, I'm so pumped up right now,
words can't describe how pumped up I am
after 10 years of waiting to catch this alligator.
That's him, that's him, baby girl.
- We finally got him. - We got him!
I ain't never seen one that big.
I'm so glad we caught him.
This thing been here for years and years and years.
If that stops pumping you up,
you might as well just quit fishing 'cause... Lord.
In Lake Fausse Pointe,
with the water falling fast,
Joey and Zak are trying to make it out of the swamp
through a shallow canal with a boatload of gators.
Oh, no, pop, it's looking a little shallow back there.
I bet we'll be all right.
And if we're not, who's pulling the boat?
You.
We had a really good day hunting,
but we got our work cut out for us.
The battle ain't over yet.
We're fixing to try to come out of this shallow ditch.
I'm worried.
This is not looking good for us.
Send it.
Come up.
Send it, send it, send it, send it, send it.
Ah!
I feel like the whole "send it" part didn't work out.
I tried.
We're stuck, pop.
What we gonna do?
Don't look at me like that.
Don't even look at me.
I'll pay for the pedicure.
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you.
I'll pay for the pedicure.
I don't want you to pay for it.
I just want you to do it yourself.
- No. - Yeah?
- No. No. - Damn it.
Oh, my God, we messed up.
We got this boatload of alligators.
Now we're stuck.
My boat can probably float in six inches of water empty.
But if you have a thousand pounds
of alligators on the boat, it's bad.
Would it be better if I drag it?
You can try.
Whew.
It's like back in college.
This sucks.
This thing ain't going anywhere.
Sure it gets better once you get in there.
We got to drag this boat across this sandbar
or we ain't gonna make it out.
[Zak grunting]
The boat's heavier than it looks.
I know it is.
You're really not helping with that little stick.
No, I'm helping.
[Zak laughs]
I'm helping.
If I step on a 12-foot alligator,
can you please shoot it?
They don't have enough water
to hold a 12-foot alligator right there.
Starting to sink.
Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa.
No!
Come on, man.
That alligator ain't big enough to mess with you.
[scoffs] Think there's 200 pounds
that you can get rid of in the boat?
- Maybe help push or pull? - Oh, I'm good.
[Joey laughs]
The boat is still floating a little bit,
but somebody's gotta pull the boat while I drive the boat.
Imma just bump it with the motor
and try to get a little bit to help him.
I'm really worried we may be stuck back here
for the rest of the night.
That did a whole lot of nothing.
Feel like we might not make it.
[exhales]
If you can just get me past this spot,
once I get to that spot, I can work it.
I don't have anything to dig into.
Zak's pulling and we making a little ground.
Thank God he's a young man.
There you go.
You enjoying your vacation up there?
Good.
Three years ago, I don't think he'd ever do that,
but he's progressed as a deckhand and a swamper.
Now he's a horse.
Aah! It's called manpower.
No damn horse.
Starting to get deeper.
Good job.
I'm good. You can get in.
Damn it.
Zak's hard work pays off
as the hunters barely make it through the shallow passage.
I'm relieved that we got this boat out of there.
We had a good day alligator hunting,
but I don't think we'll be able to hunt this again this season.
It's over for this season. Not enough water.
We made it, son. Thank God.
Only a few leeches.
- You got a few leeches on you? - Yeah, a few.
- That's good. - A little workout.
That's all we can do.
Let's go home, baby.
My toenails feel so uncomfortable.
[both laugh]
Back in Pierre Part...
Mmm. Smells good.
The Landrys are celebrating a successful day of hunting
by having a family meal with a swamp twist.
Hog spaghetti.
People call it wild boar.
- Boar. - Wild boar spaghetti.
But besides wild boar spaghetti, we got award-winning cornbread.
[laughs] Award-winning.
To me, there's nothing more important than your family.
I don't want no success
if I can't share it with my family
and my kids and my grandkids.
Try that, bubba. Here.
Boy, that's some good stuff, huh, bubba?
Ridge, be careful now.
Get you a cup of water when you eat.
Ridge, get him some water. Hurry, hurry.
- I don't need no water. - Hurry.
What, Mama?
Isn't that the best cornbread you ever ate in your life?
I need water.
[laughs]
That's what you live for, your family.
You all right? What happened, Ridge?
He ate the cornbread.
Hey, hurry up and drink your water
so don't dehydrate.
What's the use of being successful and getting somewhere
if you don't have somebody to share it with?
Oh, no! Oh, no!
Don't choke.
[all laugh]
Need something to moisten up your throat?
Yeah.
- It scratched you? - Yeah.
Let me tell you something.
I've eaten cornbread all my life.
Mine is the best.
At least Don likes it. Don got good taste.
Ain't that the best cornbread you ever ate in your life?
That's so good.
-Do I get my paycheck now? Mm-hmm, yeah.