To be fair my family lives down there now and we go fishing a lot. Last time down 2 gators were sunning about 30' away. One was around 8-9'. Decent sized gator and my dad and brother had no reservations at all being near him. Bro said the small ones are the worst because they are young and dumb. Big ones stay away.... small ones harass them and charge once in a while, but thankfully they are small enough he can just smack them with his fishing pole or his fishing net....beats them over the head with it and they run lol