A Florida man says an alligator attacked him while he was fishing behind his home, pulling him from the bank into the canal.
The 71-year-old says he got free by going after the animal's eyes, according to CBS12.
What happened?
James Grayson McMicken of North Fort Myers said the attack came Friday night after he went outside with his dog and made a single cast into the canal behind his house.
He said the gator clamped onto his right leg and rolled him off the bank into the canal.
McMicken said, "I started reeling, and it jumped out of the water and grabbed me."
McMicken said he fought back with both his hands and his fishing pole until the alligator released him.
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"I stuck my thumb in his eye, and I just took that fishing pole and jabbed him in that other eye and jabbed him and jabbed him and jabbed him," he said.
He said his dog then helped him stand and make it back inside.
Why does it matter?
Although serious alligator attacks are relatively rare, they can be devastating when they do happen — particularly in Florida, where homes, canals, and retention ponds often overlap with gator habitat.
Human development has reshaped the landscape in ways that bring people and wild animals into much closer contact, especially around manmade waterways and residential canal systems, where nighttime activity, pets, and fishing can increase the risk at the water's edge.
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By Thursday, the alligator still had not been found after last Friday's attack, which the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said officers and contracted trappers were investigating.
What are people saying?
McMicken said knowing to go for the alligator's eyes helped save his life.
"I've always heard that if you've got no other choice, get them eyes. And that's what got him off of me," he said.
McMicken also said his dog was critical in helping him escape the canal.
"I'd have never made it crawling this far, so I called my dog over, and she stood there and let me get up on her back to where I could get stood up."
Even after the attack, he said he does not plan to stop fishing.
"No gator is going to run me off."
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