As the swamp turns into a battlefield for the new tags...
I can literally cast farther than I can see.
It's like trying to hunt alligators
with your eyes closed.
Gator season faces a death sentence.
Last night it got down to 58, 59 degrees.
A cold front
threatens to freeze the region in its tracks.
Gators don't like cold weather.
And only the smartest will survive...
They think they can hide from me, but they can't.
and thrive...
-Oh, Lord have mercy. -Whoo!
...in the struggle to win it all.
I got him, pop!
We might not be able to get outta here.
Hell, let's go for it, T. Hold tight, brother!
Go left! Oh!
♪♪
It's 6 A.M. in south Louisiana.
Freezing this morning. Look at the north wind.
The wind ain't never blow in this direction.
And temperatures have plummeted to a chilly 55 degrees.
I'm not expecting to catch one gator today.
With a cold front strangling the swamp,
the Edgars rule in a two-way tie for first
with Leron, Porkchop, and Bruce,
while Ronnie and Ashley cling to third
and the Landrys and Willie battle it out
in a tie for fourth place.
In the Atchafalaya Spillway...
All right, Pee-wee.
King of the Swamp Troy Landry
and his deckhand Pickle Wheat
start the day tied for last place,
and even Mother Nature seems intent on holding them down.
Y'all ready?
Dude, it's kind of chilly this morning, huh?
I could've used a long-sleeve shirt.
A hoodie.
With this cold weather,
I don't think we gonna catch too much on them lines today.
I'm gonna have to treble hook or snipe.
Do something to keep the average up.
-All right, P. -Good luck.
It's tough, because when cool fronts start coming down,
these alligators get lockjaw, they won't eat.
They will not bite on the lines, and it just shuts things down.
Even with the cold,
Jacob Landry and his deckhand Don Brewer
still have 70 lines to run today.
Not good, Don, not good.
But with line after line of hanging bait,
they'll need all of their swamp knowledge to save the day
and more importantly,
their chance to get back to first place.
Gotta be this cold water.
Yeah, it's too chilly.
The wind should be blowing out the south right now,
not out of the north.
Well, what we gonna do?
And look, every darn line is up.
Oh, that's like ice water.
Oh, look, there's one swimming out there
right now, in the middle of the bayou
-I see. -where it's deep,
where the water's still warm.
You seen where he went down?
Yeah, about.
Right in front of us.
I can see him making a ripple.
More towards the bank. He's way over here.
Come on, big D.
-Got him? -Got him.
There he is, there he is, D.
Dang, that's a good one.
-Ooh! -Feisty fella.
There he is. Watch him, Don.
Watch him, watch him!
There he goes.
Coming up, coming up, coming up.
Get him!
Oh, yeah, baby.
Cold spell ain't gonna stop us.
Good job, Don Brewer.
Damn, we made something happen today, didn't we?
Yup. Ready?
One, two, three.
Ah! Good job, my buddy.
Pretty dang sure needed that one, didn't we?
More than ever. These lines ain't paying off,
thank God we have something to bring back.
We fixing to come out skunked on this deal.
This 10-footer is a welcome catch,
but they need to find a way to get big gators on their lines
if they want to regain the top spot for the Landrys.
Gators don't like cold weather.
They don't feed.
If they don't feed, they don't eat chicken.
If they don't eat chicken, they don't bite the hook.
If they don't bite the hook,
our average goes down.
We need something to pull 'em to the chicken,
so that's what we gotta figure out what to do.
Something's gotta change. We gotta regroup.
I got an idea.
Three miles south...
Nothing again?
It's too cold for 'em.
Troy and Pickle
are running into a similar challenge.
Alligators don't like the north wind.
This is a strong front for this time of the year.
But we have to go and run the lines
and say our prayer
that we catch a little bit at least.
Another limp line.
-Nothing? -Nothing.
Oh, wait, hold on.
What's that?
Oh, no, you got an alligator on here.
Heavy?
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
We'll take him, we'll take him, Pee-wee.
We're gonna take him. Whoo, watch him.
Watch him, Pee-wee, watch him.
Show him who's the boss.
Show that alligator who's the boss!
-Whoo! -Whoo-hoo!
All right, baby girl, show him what you can do.
Fight him, fight him, fight him, fight him.
Shoot right there, right there!
[gunshot]
Whoo!
-Awesome. -Good job, Pee-wee, good job.
Good job, good job.
Not a giant, but we gonna take him.
This seven-footer is a lucky exception in the cold,
but it doesn't help their average.
If they want to get back on top,
they'll need to do something right now.
We gotta move from here, Pee-wee.
We gotta go to a place where the water's clear.
We can't control Mother Nature, but we can control what we do,
and with a cold front like this, we just gotta move places.
We gonna go to where it's clear water instead of muddy water.
Clear water is stagnant water.
The sun will come up, and it'll warm it up that much quicker.
It'll reach the bottom, and them big alligators love it.
The water's too cold.
Across the bayou, in Grassy Lake,
Joey Edgar and his deckhand Zak Catchem
are deploying their rod and reel
to overcome the cold front.
Look at that fog, man.
It's gonna be tough. Ain't no doubt about it.
But the weather is not on their side.
Oh, my God.
Visibility is very short. Can't see far.
I'm worried about today.
This is some of the thickest fog I've ever seen.
You can't see a hundred yards in the front of you.
I can literally cast farther than I can see.
Oh, they're gonna hear us before we can even see them sink.
Yeah.
Giant straight ahead.
Straight ahead. It's moving.
-It's going this way. -Yeah, I see him.
That's what we're after right here, baby.
Under the grass.
Yeah, I think he went under the grass, dude.
I don't think he's there.
I can't see anything out here.
In this fog, it's gonna take a little bit of luck.
Should be right here.
It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
-This ain't happening, dude. -No.
With the fog like this,
it's like trying to hunt alligators
with your eyes closed.
-Sucks, dude. -Let's get outta here.
We gonna find something better than this.
In Bayou Sorrel,
veteran gator hunter Willie Edwards
is tied for last place with the Landrys.
His plan was to set lines
in an area known for its big bulls.
But the cold front
is forcing him to rethink his strategy.
Got a little wind this morning,
and it's coming down out of the north, and that's cold.
It's cool up there and everything,
and, uh, that ain't good on an alligator.
They don't wanna lift their head out that water for nothing.
I mean, it's gonna be hard
to put some alligators on tags today.
The weather done throw another curveball at me.
I mean, the weather done changed,
a cold front done started.
I had about 25, 30 hooks out,
and almost every one I pass is still hanging.
Look like this one's down.
Under these lilies.
Hooked in the leg now.
Come on, big boy.
Man, he's fighting.
[gunshot]
Man, it got chilly overnight.
This is not what we looking for,
but he's on the hook and we're gonna take him.
It's not looking well.
Something gotta change big time.
Just might have to just change up routines again
and go back to treble hooking and washing some lilies around
and see what I can catch out of that.
Something gotta change.
Oh, I say we try it again, if we can make it happen.
Over in Violet,
Ronnie Adams and Timmy Aucoin
have spent several hours running their lines,
but with the cold weather,
they've only got a few small gators
to show for their efforts.
I think them gators might've slacked off for a day or two.
I think you're right.
What we catching is a few small ones here and there.
I don't know how long this front's gonna stay around for.
It's putting me in a bind. I can't have this happen.
Let's pull up to this line here.
It looks like it's got something on it here.
High tide. Hopefully it brought one of them big boys in here.
Come on, T, give me something good here.
What we got, T? Got the line?
Oh, yeah, look at it right here.
-He's going back in the marsh. -Going to the back?
-Yeah. -Oh, man.
We gonna have to go in there and get him.
Ground's pretty hard.
Yeah, I'm sinking no matter what.
-I'm 280 pounds. -Yeah.
Where he's at?
His head's somewhere right here.
Ooh, I hear him hissing.
I don't like this, bro. Back up a little bit.
He might get one of us.
T, he's right here by our feet, T!
Where's his head?
Dude, his head is right in the weeds by our feet!
Right there, T!
That's his body. His head's under the grass.
I don't like this at all, T.
[growling]
I don't like this at all. Get the shot, T.
Moving too much.
Watch him. He got the pole!
He gonna rip my pole.
Whoo!
Hammer him, hammer him.
[gunshot] That a boy, baby.
-Whoo! That a boy, papa. -Yeah.
It ain't the biggest we looking for,
-No. -but he'll do.
This seven-footer won't help their season average.
Hopefully this is not a sign of what's ahead.
At the end of the year,
this contest is gonna be real close.
That's the way I'm feeling.
Clickity-clack.
Having a cold streak at the end of the season
can be real disastrous.
It ain't happening right now, my baby.
But our luck is gonna change.
It's got to. It's got to.
On Old River,
the cold snap may have killed the gators' appetites,
but Don believes he has a way to get 'em hungry again.
This right here is like a mating juice for a rougaru.
I don't know about the juice in it,
but I like your contraptions.
Earlier this morning, Jacob and Don got off the water
so Don can brew a batch of his very special choot'em juice.
When I run into a problem,
you gotta adapt and overcome is what you gotta do.
You gotta get outside the box, look in it,
and think what can I do to do this?
So this choot'em juice I made, when we put this out,
I want it to pull these big gators out.
That's what I want on our lines.
Hey, let's put this choot'em juice out right here.
Sit it back here, turn the valve on,
gonna spread this smell everywhere.
Just don't get none on you. It does stink.
It stinks for sure. I'm glad you had the lid on it.
Mm. Look, we're just gonna zigzag,
just go from line to line just all down through here.
Turn it on slow.
I mean, this crap is gonna be everywhere.
Well, we gonna see if it works, D.
The juice is on the loose.
The choot'em juice, it's ripe, I will say that.
I gotta give it to him.
He had a good little concoction there.
He's got a valve on it.
All we gotta do is open it up.
So basically we just passed along the baits,
cracked it open,
put the juice on the edges where the lines are,
and try to lure the big alligators to the banks.
I'm kind of doubtful, but at the same time
I know it's just a matter of time
an alligator's gotta pass by.
It stinks too bad for it not to work.
All them gizzard chunks coming out now.
Ugh.
Look like a bad night of shooting tequila.
All right, we gonna see if it works.
The old choot'em juice.
In the Atchafalaya Spillway...
See, Pee-wee, how far you can see down?
Like, you can see in the water right here.
Troy and Pickle hope
that moving their lines to clear shallow water
will get them the giants they need to reclaim first place.
It's trapped water and it's clear.
It's gonna be warmer, and that's what we gonna do.
We gonna go where it's clear water.
I bet you the water's seven or eight degrees warmer right here.
Mm-hmm. It sure is.
It's shallow, it's clear. Feel the difference?
Yeah, you ain't gonna get no clearer than that around here.
We gonna catch better, Pee-wee, over here
because the water's warmer.
And when you have a little cool snap,
them gators move to warm water.
And this is where we're gonna catch our alligators
for the next three or four days
while we got that little cool snap.
-Comprendre? -Mm-hmm. Comprendre.
I'm ready.
Look here, Pee-wee. Keep your eyes open.
Look, look at this line right there.
Oh, Lord have mercy.
That's a good one, dude.
He's tight. He's gonna pop the line.
He's tight.
This could put us on top. Don't play with him.
What the heck is going on over here?
Watch him, Pee-wee.
Watch him, watch him, watch him!
Whoo!
Shoot him or give me the gun.
Shoot, shoot, shoot him!
Watch him, Pee-wee, watch him!
Shoot him!
Whoo!
-That could be the big one -That was a solid shot.
that's gonna put us on top right there.
Awesome.
It's definitely helping the average today.
Oh, yeah, definitely gonna help our average today.
We needed this today bad.
All right, you ready?
-Tell me when. -One,
-One, two, three. -two, three.
Okay, let's go. Right there.
-Perfect, perfect. -They don't slide off.
Good job, Cinderella.
Right off the bat we starting to catch some nice alligators.
And, you know, I'm thankful we catching them,
but for us to catch up,
we gotta fill all our tags for this area right here,
and it has to be a good average.
We needed that one.
Yeah, that one oughta help a little.
Across the bayou...
I think you found us a good spot.
After losing precious hours to thick fog,
Joey and Zak have moved to a new location.
Joey believes the gators here
will be big enough to keep the Edgar family in first place.
Look like "Wild Kingdom." I seen three.
Ooh! There's a big one on that sandbar, man.
He swam back that way, though.
And that's the Bayou Teche.
This is the first time since we ever fished this area
that the locks are open.
Bayou Teche is an old waterway
along the interior of south Louisiana.
The water's dirty.
I don't know how well they gonna bubble, but--
If we can see 'em, we can catch 'em.
JOEY: If we can see 'em, we can catch 'em.
There ain't no doubt.
There's some really big alligators
that live on Bayou Teche.
With these locks being open
and this water moving in and out,
these alligators are gonna wanna come out.
Oh, that's him.
That's him, pop.
That's him.
Here we go.
Yeah, right there.
Back up.
Bury it in him.
All right, all right, all right.
Oh! Whoa! Whoa! Oh!
-You could fall overboard! -He's a good one.
-Mm! -Bury it in him.
Oh, he bit it! You got him?
Yeah. I got him, pop, I got him. Get your gun.
-You ready? -Yeah. Shoot this thing.
That's a good one. Put that thing on safety.
[exhales]
Catching an 11-foot gator in this cold weather
gives them a late but a very good start.
Aah!
Wait.
These Bayou Teche alligators are coming out.
Things are turning, to our favor.
Yeah.
These locks being open
is something that's a blessing for Zak and I,
and it's gonna help our average going forward.
That's what we needed right there.
Yeah, that's what we needed.
Over in Bayou Sorrel,
decades of swamp experience have taught Willie Edwards
that gators won't be biting in the cold.
Adapting on the run,
he's pulled all his lines to try a unique strategy.
Last night it got down into the high 50s.
It was like 58, 59 degrees,
and that ain't good for alligators.
Alligators going straight to lilies, get warm.
It's more warm in them lilies than it is in open water.
Gonna wash these lilies out right here
and see if we can get a big one out of there.
I know they're here.
We just gotta get in here to get them out.
The lilies is like a blanket.
It keeps them warm, and if you know what you're doing,
you can get them right on out of them lilies.
You can wash them right out of there,
find them right off the bat and catch 'em.
And I'm gonna try that and see if that works.
See a big one already.
Back over there underneath the lilies.
Yeah, I see him right here.
Don't know which way he went, but there's an alligator.
Got a big one.
Yeah, we got a fighter.
A good one.
Wants to go back underneath them lilies.
Damn.
I'm ready for you, baby.
[gunshot]
Ahh!
He thought them lilies was gonna hide himself.
Well, it didn't work out for him.
Didn't work for him at all.
He's in the boat dead now.
With a 10-footer in the boat,
Willie's confident his lily-washing strategy
is the right one.
Washing them lilies around
and catching him like that and everything,
it looks like it's gonna pay off.
Perfect size.
Let's go to the next one.
Outside Violet...
Man, with this cold snap come through here,
they stopped their bite.
Giants are nowhere to be found
in Ronnie and Timmy's usual hunting spots,
which forces Ronnie to consider a gamble.
You see all back up in there, T?
-Mm-hmm. -My little brother
fishes a lot back here.
It's called the Dynamite Hole.
He said it's loaded with big gators,
and the only way to get to it
is in through this little cut that's real shallow.
And if we load the boat up with alligators,
it's gonna be hard getting through that little cut.
I think we should do it.
Keep it trimmed up and we go slow,
or try to get up and stay on top.
Okay, well, let's do it, brother. I'm down.
You down? I'm down.
It's two holes.
There were well heads there
back in the fifties and the sixties
where they blew them.
They hold a lot of fish,
and when they got a lot of fish in there,
that's a lot of bait for a lot of big gators.
So I'm kinda worried
'cause I gotta go through a lot of shallow
to get to these two deep dynamite holes.
We gonna try to take the shortcut,
so hold tight, brother.
'Cause look at it. Here we go.
Ready.
We gotta hit this cut, T.
Hold tight, T! Hold tight, baby!
[crash] Lord!
This is the risk. We took it, T.
I just hope and pray it was worth it.
Because if we get stuck out here, bro, we in trouble.
Yeah.
-Golly. -Gol, we are shallowed up, bro.
If we overheat, that's it.
Will be a long day for us, brother.
Yeah, we'll be stuck a while.
Come on, we need to get to this channel, bro.
Lord, look at this, dude.
Golly, T.
-Yeah. -Whoo-hoo!
Yeah, baby, we in here now.
We gotta load 'em up while we can.
Let's just hope we can get back out.
Back in the spillway,
since they moved to warmer water,
Troy and Pickle have been filling the boat with giants,
and they're rewarding themselves with a quick break.
Where that come from?
Where you got that?
There you go. There's your energy.
Ha. Oh! That's not frickin' doughnuts, Pee-wee.
-[laughs] -What the hell is that?
Mr. Troy came into the season
complaining about a little weight gain.
You know, all of the bad things,
the bad sugary things,
pastries that you're not supposed to be eating
is his favorite.
But he really needs to start eating healthy,
and I felt like this was a good way to break the habit.
You the one that wanted to go on a diet.
There's your diet.
I need to go. I need to lose 70 pounds.
-What is that? -Edamame.
It's like snap peas.
-Eat the whole thing? -Mm-hmm.
The peeling, too?
I don't know if you're gonna like it. It's really like green.
You don't eat the peeling, though.
You just eat the seeds inside?
Yeah, these you do.
You look so cute eating your little veggie tray.
I was so pumped up.
I had to put it in that.
If I gave you a veggie tray,
you wouldn't have let me even open it.
Break time's over.
One more strawberry.
[laughs]
Thank you, Pee-wee. That was very nice of you.
You're welcome.
Outside Bayou Teche...
Pop, right here.
Right here. See him?
Joey suspects that the recently opened floodgates
will allow giant gators to come right into their hands.
His theory has already paid off with one big bull.
Straight in the front of the boat.
Yeah. Yeah, like 200 yards out.
Even though this cold front slowed things down,
we're gonna try to capitalize on this situation,
hunt with the rod and reel and the treble hook,
keep our fingers crossed,
and hopefully they'll be on the line later in the day.
Right there, see the edge of that--
in that shade right here.
See a few bubbles right here. Go ahead.
Go ahead, reverse.
-Look right here. -Yes, sir.
-Look right there. -That's him.
See if this hook actually sticks, dude.
Hit him hard when you hit him, pop. We need him.
Oh, it broke off.
What is going on, dude?
-He still there, he still there? -Yeah.
Damn, look at those bubbles.
Look right here, look right here.
I think he's still moving.
He better be.
Oh, we might get him.
I got him, pop, I got him. Get your gun!
Don't lose him, don't lose him!
Slow down. Stop! Stop!
Way to go.
Slow down.
He done wrapped himself tight.
Way to go. Way to clean up, pop.
Come on, come on.
There you go, pop, there you go, pop!
You got him. Pick his head up. Whoop him.
Shoot this thing, pop.
I'll back up on him.
Here he come.
There you go, pop.
Shoot him!
Shoot!
That's how you do it, baby.
-Way to bat cleanup there. -Good shot.
Broke my line. Look, my line's all tangled up on that boy.
We're still out here, dude.
I thought we were done.
Dang, you got him good with that hook.
-Help me pull. -Yup.
-Yeah, we got him.
-Average is going up. -That's it.
And I got my hook back, dude.
[laughs]
-Yes, sir. -Way to find 'em, dude.
Joey's persistence pays off with a monster,
and the veteran hunter is confident
his new honey hole will continue to deliver.
It's important never to give up out here.
You just have to keep trying and stay with it.
This spot is the kind of spot you can catch anything here.
You can catch the state record here.
This is the spot where you can catch big alligators.
We gonna keep our fingers crossed
and just keep hunting.
That's what I'm talking about.
You're a monster.
-Come on. -But I'm a monster, too.
[both laugh] Always remember that.
Always.
On Old River,
Jacob and Don circle back to run their lines
after spreading Don's choot'em juice,
hoping to draw giant gators despite the cold snap.
I can't tell if it's gonna look good.
The juice ain't doing the trick?
No, the damn chicken is down, ain't it?
That means something bit it.
I guess.
That's what you want me to tell you.
I'm just saying.
You gotta think about it.
The chicken wasn't hanging, was it?
Jacob, he's not the most optimistic person
in the world, okay?
So what it is, you gotta prove it to Jacob.
Once you prove it to him, he's all aboard,
but you gotta prove it to him first.
that means you gotta fight with him a little bit
to prove it to him.
Look there. Got meat on the line.
Damn, that choot'em juice is working, boy.
They dying to get on this stuff.
What you got there, Don Brewer?
I don't know yet. Feels good.
[whistles]
Hey, now we're talking.
Ooh, yeah.
He's a good nine-footer.
Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Aah!
Come on, D.
Augh! Ooh!
Aah! Coming up!
[gunshot]
Oh, yeah. That's what I'm talking about.
That's a good'un right there, boy.
The cold snap may have killed the gators' appetites,
but Don has cooked up a way to make 'em hungry again.
Average is going up.
Little bit at a time.
I grew up following in Troy Landry's shoes.
You know, our motto is put lines, put lines,
and if you're not catching, put more lines.
So whenever Don comes up with these ideas,
I'm always skeptical.
But when you have an unexpected cold front like this,
I'm willing to try anything.
If it might work, let's do it.
Tell me that juice ain't working now.
We gonna rack 'em and stack 'em today, boy.
Outside Violet...
Right here underneath us is about 50 foot of water.
Oh, yeah, they gonna hang out in the deep water.
Hell, yeah.
After gambling on a narrow pocket of deep water
to salvage the day,
Ronnie and Timmy have been filling up the boat,
but they'll need a lot more to get to the top of the rankings.
Well, you know them gators will keep these holes deep.
Oh, yeah.
They swim in there
and they dig up the bottom and stir it up
'cause they know the deep hole hold the fish.
Right.
Wherever you got a good pile of fish,
there gonna be gators.
Right now the situation I'm in,
it's the risk versus the rewards,
and right now I feel like it's paying off.
We gonna catch big gators in here,
I'm gonna keep the faith, and we gonna keep on pushing.
Oh, we down. Ooh, look at the damage.
I told you this Dynamite Hole is loaded, dude.
We got something decent here, bro.
-Come on, we need a big one. -Hell, yeah, we do, Timmy.
Oh, yeah, he's pulling back.
Think that's a big one. He's under the boat.
-Is he? -Think so.
I felt him pull back for sure.
Feels heavy.
Oh, there we go.
-You got it? -Yeah.
Let me grab it from you.
He feels heavy, boy.
All right, I'll get the rifle.
Timmy, Timmy, we got a hammer, boy.
-Oh, wow. -Ooh-whoo!
Baby, that's a monster, papa.
Golly.
He's rolling up on me.
Hold him steady.
I'm trying, Timmy.
I just don't want him to pop the line, boy.
Hold tight, brother.
We got rough--
That's a big son of a gun there, papa.
Come on, get the shot, baby!
Boy, that bad Dynamite Hole is the bomb, boy.
Get him, T. Get his ass.
That a boy!
Whoo! What a gator.
-He's another 10-footer. -Oh, yeah.
We catching land of the giants today, boy.
Oh, yeah.
I told you this Dynamite Hole is loaded with big gators,
but it ain't been fished in several years, you know.
Get in the boat, boy.
Another nine-and-a-half-footer on the pile
grows their average,
but the added weight may cause a problem.
The only bad issue with this, T,
is if we get too many gators back here,
-we gotta go through that cut. -Yeah.
If we gonna keep catching, we load the boat up,
we might not be able to get outta here.
I feel like my average may have grown a half inch to an inch,
but now with the boat starting to get loaded up,
sitting a little bit lower in the water,
I'm getting a little nervous.
Let's see what else the Dynamite Hole
has got in store for us, T.
All right.
Back in Bayou Sorrel,
Willie Edwards is trying to flush out gators
hiding under lilies.
Oh, they love hiding underneath them lilies to keep warm.
He's already landed one giant,
and he's hoping his good fortune continues.
He's right here somewhere.
Think they can hide from me, but they can't.
With the cool weather like it is,
that's where they gonna be right now,
hiding in them lilies to stay warm.
And just gonna have to wash them lilies around and try that.
Right over here in the corner right over here.
Another one right there.
See him bubbling alongside them lilies, going down the side?
That's a big one.
About to pull the blankie off of him.
Oh!
He's a big one, he's a big one.
He's not gonna be hiding under these lilies now.
[gunshot]
Man, what an alligator.
Keep them like that coming,
I'll have a boatload here in just a little bit.
Getting two right back to back like that quick,
it gets you pumped up excited
when everything starts working out
and everything starts going right for you.
Look like I'm gonna get back in the competition,
because it's working out now.
Big gator. They wearing me down, I know that.
Man.
In the Atchafalaya Spillway...
Moving into them shallow spots pays off.
Oh, yeah.
Since they moved to clear shallow water,
Troy and Pickle have caught nine big gators.
Cold front days are hard as it is,
but being able to adapt, you know,
it keeps our season rolling.
It keeps us going.
And it's really putting us ahead in this competition,
I'll be honest with you.
We steady pushing through,
and I think we gonna come out ahead.
What we got, Pee-wee?
What it feel like? Limp?
It looks limp, yeah.
-Oh, no, hold on. -Huh?
Uh-uh. We got a gator on here.
-You got one? -Yeah.
Whoo! It's a big one, it's a big one.
Damn, what you got?
Bring him up, Pee-wee.
-What you got, Pee-wee? -A fighter.
Watch him, watch him, Pee-wee!
Get him! Shoot! Shoot!
-In the Spillway... -Whoo, it's a big one!
Troy and Pickle
battle with a swamp monster.
-Watch him, watch him, Pee-wee! -Get him! Shoot!
Ooh, watch him, watch him.
-He's tough. -Bring him up, Pee-wee.
Ahh!
Whoo!
Unh!
Shoot, shoot, shoot! Shoot!
Whoo!
-That's what I'm talking about. -Good shot.
I think I could've been a John Wayne back in the day.
Almost got myself.
Wait, Pee-wee. You gonna hurt yourself,
and then I ain't gonna have no helper.
Let's go, One, two, three.
Oh, don't hurt yourself.
Thing is heavy, huh?
Yeah, yeah, he's heavy.
This 10-footer
builds on their stunning turnaround
despite the cold,
and gives them a chance to regain the lead.
We can't control Mother Nature,
but by quick thinking and being able to move quick,
things are turning around for us.
-You good? -Yeah.
Let's stay on course.
In the Dynamite Hole near Violet,
Ronnie and Timmy have filled the boat
and increased their season average,
but they have a unique problem on their hands.
Boy, we catch too many big ones back here, we might not get out.
I know. I told you that's the chance we gotta take, bro.
We got this one last line to come to,
and I'm kind of nervous about it all
because if we get one more huge gator,
that might be the quitting point to where I can't get outta here
and we can't take
that extra 500 or 600 pounds of weight in the boat.
I was gung-ho in the beginning,
but now I'm really nervous on how I'm gonna get outta here.
Oh, what-- That cane pole looks destroyed, huh?
Oh, he got it all tore up.
That look like that might be big old Medusa.
That's a big motherhumpin' hole there, papa.
Ooh, boy, that is a hammer, boy.
Whoo! We got a giant, baby.
Let's see what we got here.
Come on, big boy.
Here, let me get the rifle.
Make sure we got bullets. Yup.
-Gol-- You all right? -Yeah.
Come on, get the shot.
-Whoo! -Good job, brother.
He must be 12-foot, bro.
One, two, three.
Right there, let him roll.
That's it. He's in the boat now.
Another giant in the boat
helps Ronnie and Timmy add to their average,
but it remains to be seen
if it's enough to move them up in the rankings,
if they can make it back.
I hope we can get outta here with them shallows.
If I blow my engine or if I get stuck,
we'll have to walk every one of these alligators out.
Lord, this ain't good, T.
Dude, we got a lot of weight in the boat right now, T.
Lord, look, we hitting all kind of bottom.
-Hope we don't overheat. -Me, too, bro.
Hey, why don't you get over to that side of the channel?
It looks a little deeper.
Hit it hard.
We got a lot of weight.
Come on. Look. Uh-oh.
Come on, boat, get up, get up, get up.
Come on, baby!
-Pull left, pull left! -T, T, T!
-Pull left! -I don't like this! Whoo!
Lord! We made it, baby!
-Whoo! -Yeah!
Man, I was scared we was gonna sleep back there tonight.
Whoo, Lord.
Lord, I can't believe we just came through that.
Let's get home and sell the gators now.
Outside Bayou Teche...
This is going good. I ain't complaining.
After their early success with the rod and reel,
Joey and Zak's lines
are now producing a steady stream of giants,
but there's always room for more.
Pop, as long as those locks are open,
we're probably just gonna keep filling the boat up.
All these alligators are cold-blooded,
and the bigger the gator, the longer it takes
for them to warm up and start to move.
So hopefully we can stay out here long enough
to catch some solid ones.
Oh, yeah.
Ain't no telling what we got on this line, bubba.
Come on, man.
Whoo. Nice.
Oh, yeah.
-Outside Bayou Teche... -Oh, he's a big one!
Hold on to that bad boy!
Joey and Zak are fighting a swamp beast.
[thud] -Whoa!
-Look at that death roll. -Oh, my God.
Hold him up, hold him up.
Stop him, stop him, stop him! Stop him!
Come on, get his head up!
Kill that thing, kill that thing.
[gunshot]
Whew. Good job.
-Come on. -Good job.
-[exhales] -Whew!
Bayou Teche.
Oh, Bayou Teche paying off, huh?
Helping our average, bubba.
-There you go. -Not that bad.
-Solid. -There you go.
We'll take that.
Come on.
The hunters have loaded their boat
with Bayou Teche giants,
and Zak couldn't be happier.
That was my biggest worry,
that we were gonna come out here and get skunked double.
But we made it happen,
and it was totally worth the move out of that fog
and into some warmer area
to catch these big alligators and lift up our average.
It's a nice average.
Look at that stack.
We done good.
-We done good. -Yeah.
Let's get outta here.
Over on Old River...
Choot'em juice all over the boat.
Don's choot'em juice has brought in a pile of big gators
and a powerful odor.
[retches]
Damn.
But it's hard to argue with success.
So when you make something and you adapt
and overcome a deal like we just done
and we're catching big gators again
over something that I made and my idea that come up,
I'm pretty satisfied now.
I mean, I said I don't really care about the attaboys,
but I'm gonna get me one on this one.
We got a tree shaker!
-Really? -Something.
Yup, he's on the other side of that one tree right there.
I don't know how big he is, though.
He'll tag.
He'll tag, tag and bag.
Whoa!
Aah!
Think it was your juice or the spot?
Whoa, watch the gator, watch the gator!
Watch it!
Son of a bitch is mad, ain't he? One more time.
Aah!
I see him.
[Don laughs]
-Aah! -Don't wanna lose that sucker.
Yeah, that juice is working, huh?
Do something there, Jacob!
Come on!
Don, he's about to pop that line.
Shoot him, Jacob, shoot him!
Lord have mercy.
Damn, I thought it was a little one.
[alligator belches]
That sumbitch got bad breath, too.
[Jacob laughs]
Must have burnt my face.
[both laugh]
Hang on a second.
-[clears throat] -Time out.
Ready?
One, two, three.
Gotta wait until we get him in the boat
before you say something like that.
He burped right in my damn face now.
I ain't lying to you.
Sumbitch got bad breath.
The average is great.
It's probably one of the best I've seen in a long time.
It's what we need
for these other tags that we trying to win.
Hopefully we can finish out the season just like this.
I tell you what.
You see that pile of gators in the boat?
Tell me that choot'em juice don't work.
-Never had a doubt in my mind. -Uh-huh.
[Don chuckles]
Back in Bayou Sorrel,
Willie is trying to up his average
and climb the rankings
by fishing for bull gators hiding from the cold.
Let's go over here in this pocket right over here.
Might be able to get a couple out.
Go back up here one more time. Back in the front.
Washing them lilies around and everything,
I mean, when you chasing that alligator,
he knows you after him,
and he's not gonna stay in one spot too long.
You only got one chance
and if you get him out away from them lilies
where you can get your boat between him and the lilies,
you got a better chance that he'll go the other way.
He gonna go plum away from the lilies.
Treble hooking time.
Big old boy.
Damn! Trying to get off.
Man, he's fighting.
In Bayou Sorrel, Willie is trying to land another giant.
I gotta get the gun.
He knows what's about to happen here.
Come on, big boy.
[gunshot]
That is one big old gator.
Now I gotta try to load this thing.
Golly.
Ah. Okay.
Back foot.
[grunting]
What an alligator, man.
Yeah, that made my day right there,
but I can't have too many of them.
Loading, like, one person like this, this is a lot of work.
Wish my son was with me, boy, I mean...
This 11-foot leviathan caps off a successful day
for the veteran hunter, despite the cold weather.
Today was a good day.
I'm hoping it stays like this
and steady come up instead of going back down.
Just keep your mind on what you gotta do
and how you gotta do it.
Man, what a gator.
In the Atchafalaya Spillway,
hunting warmer shallow water
has helped Troy and Pickle capture 13 big gators.
Normally when we kinda get down and behind,
we usually pass and get some lucky doughnuts,
and that pick us up.
But maybe Pee-wee's lucky vegetables
might've helped us out. Who knows?
Your vegetables brought us good luck, Pee-wee.
Yeah?
Look like I can see better, look like I can hear better.
Dude, I think you're only saying that
so you don't have to eat vegetables tomorrow though.
I think it's making a difference.
[laughs]
We got an alligator on the line. Look at him. Over here.
Whoo, it's a big one.
Ooh, this a monster.
You're running him over!
Look, he's running, he's running!
He's in front of the boat, he's in front of the boat.
Whoo!
Shoot him!
I missed him.
Shoot him again!
-Ooh, watch him. -God, sucker!
He's gonna pop the line.
Pee-wee, shoot him!
It's do or die, Pee-wee.
Oh, boy! Dude, that was a perfect shot.
You did it there, baby. That's what I'm talking about.
That was a good one.
I'm gonna grab that leg. Okay, hold him.
Against all odds, Troy and Pickle increase their average
during the cold snap,
thanks to quick thinking and deep knowledge of the swamp.
For the way the day started out today,
I didn't think we was gonna catch nothing.
I think we did good because we was flexible.
We didn't-- We wasn't stubborn and just stuck to our old place.
We hurry up and move lines.
We was able to catch a big load of good alligators.
We saved the day, really.
-Good job, P. -Good job, boy.
-Good job, baby girl. -Whew.
Over at Duffy's...
All right, go ahead.
Jacob and Don are unloading their day's catch
when the King of the Swamp makes a dramatic entrance.
[crunch]
What?
Look. Look at that front fender.
He caught that little pole right there.
[laughs]
Look how it's crooked.
Oh, man.
I didn't realize I was that close to that yellow pipe.
[laughs]
Me and that boat trailer don't get along.
It ain't my fault. That's all I know.
What's all that yellow paint?
What's all that yellow paint right there?
That's Pee-wee. Pee-wee did that.
What?
Pee-wee did that at the boat ramp.
Pee-wee, she backed into a post.
Jake, you know the boat ramp got some yellow paint like that?
Then she tried to blame it on me.
Well, you did it good, Troy.
Oh, but, Pickle, if you'd have did that...
Oh, if I had done it, boy, that'd been it, man.
I'd have been fired right then and there.
With only one week left in the competition,
the Edgars are holding firm in first,
but mere inches separate the top dogs
from the bottom of the pack,
and anyone could pull in the 350-tag prize
by week's end.
Oh, boy, I ain't saying nothin'.
Would you be quiet for once in your life?
I can't. I can't catch my breath over here.
Good times. Good times at Duffy's, huh?
Lyndsi, the price went up.
I have to buy a new boat trailer.