- Whoa, watch yourself, cuz! - Watch him!
With water levels at record highs...
It's driving me nuts.
How we supposed to adjust for that?
And the end of gator season
fast approaching, the King of the Swamp
ventures into a forbidden honey hole...
Don't look like no boat been back here in forever.
I know what Cypress Island is all about.
Oh, Lord.
There's some giant alligators in there.
Jeez!
While two hunters come face-to-face
with a legend...
God, Timmy!
All I can think about is this alligator
they call Sasquatch. Whoo!
One team gambles on a remote bayou
only high water can unlock...
Our high water honey hole
turning into a low water nightmare, cuz.
- Let's get it. - For another,
a friendly bet creates big pressure...
I hit him?
And with time running out,
a swamp vet tries a desperate gamble...
Nothing like a fish kill to get some gators going.
Alligator hunting is like gambling.
You don't win all the time.
Oh, my-- he's huge!
With livelihoods on the line...
Good God almighty!
The swampers are forced to think on their feet...
Get him, get him, get him, get him, get him, get him!
To keep their season afloat.
- Why you let it go? - Oh, my God!
It's a big one! Shoot him!
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ You run these back roads all of your life ♪
♪ All the pain through the struggle and the strife ♪
♪ Now there's just one thing you got left to do ♪
♪ Light a match, let it burn, and break on through ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Like a wild horse running out of control ♪
♪ Like a loaded pistol, like a raging storm ♪
♪ You got thunder in your veins ♪
♪ You won't stop till your dying day ♪
♪ Comes your way ♪
The sun rises on southern Louisiana...
With only three days left in gator season...
Over in Bayou Sorrel...
Don Brewer and his deckhand Calum Landry
are ready to make a dent
in the Landrys' 135 remaining tags,
and Calum's brought along some extra firepower
to get the job done.
What you got there?
I got my gun.
Oh, if that thing's as pretty as that case is,
that oughta be a pretty thing.
No, it's just an old .270 I got here.
You pullin' up beef-- let me see.
This is a-- This is an old .270.
You even got an old Leupold, old gold ring on that thing.
Yup.
The scope's nice, feels good.
With five tags left to fill in Bayou Sorrel,
the second year captain gets an idea
to supercharge their day.
I'll tell you what, how about a little challenge today?
You shoot yours, I shoot mine.
But we gotta take turns.
Whoever brings in the most gators today,
the loser buys dinner tonight.
So it sounds like we got a competition.
I got shrimp tonight by the way, too, did you know that?
Let's get it.
So I come up with a little bitty test
or competition for me and Calum.
Whoever can snipe the most gators today
is gonna get a shrimp dinner.
And the reason I'm doing this
is it makes him look more,
it's gonna keep him on his toes,
it's gonna make him look harder,
and it's gonna make him hunt harder and faster.
Even if I lose, it's gonna make him work harder
on the front of that boat.
So it's gonna work for me either way.
To kick things off,
Don gives his deckhand the first shot.
Why don't you get your gun,
get ready and set up on the front?
Oh, there you go. That's perfect right there.
I deer hunt all the time, rabbit, squirrel hunt.
I'm pretty good with a rifle, so I was like, oh, yeah,
that'll be easy, bring it on. I got this.
One right up there on the left.
See him? Going across.
I'm gonna go up there, like,
where so you can shoot toward the bank.
I'm gonna put you right on him.
What the--
Hell, yeah, that's a good'un.
No way.
He's going away from you.
Grab the .22, grab the .22!
- Dang it-- he went down. - He went down, that one.
Dang it.
I don't know if it was the gun,
the bullets. I don't know what it is.
Next time, throw the gun at it.
I could've, it was right there.
A good gator, perfect, right here in the shallow.
That was something. Lord mercy.
Hot dang, I thought we had an 11-footer
in the boat just then. You know what this means now, right?
My turn.
This giant could've given Calum an early lead,
but the young deckhand has learned swamp sniping
isn't as easy as it looks.
Oh, it was very frustrating to miss it,
just being so close to such a big gator, I mean,
this was my chance to prove myself,
and to get one gator above, and I missed it.
That boat's moving, the gator's moving,
you got a lot of stuff moving.
And you got a lot of pressure, especially on a competition.
So it was more difficult than what I thought.
Well, I messed that one up. I'm sorry.
Ah, don't worry about it. We got others.
Over on Grand Lake...
King of the Swamp Troy Landry's
135 outstanding tags are top of mind
as he and his deckhand Pickle Wheat hit the water.
Whoo, the water's high today.
But rapidly-rising water has Troy on edge.
Look at the water lilies.
- You think it fluctuate? - Mm-hmm.
How we supposed to adjust for that?
No idea.
I mean, look at the difference.
Peewee and I, we coming to the end of the season.
We just got a couple of days left for hunting.
And you expecting the river to be at a certain stage,
and, next thing you know, it's three foot higher.
When the water's high,
it makes it a lot harder to hunt,
especially for the big alligators.
They stay way in the swamp when they can.
That line look tight, Peewee.
Oh, yeah, it's tight. Coming out, too.
Coming straight out.
Oh, come on.
I can't get him off the bottom.
You can't get him off the bottom?
No.
Might be a real good one.
Whoa!
Whoo, it's a good one!
Whoo, bring him up, Peewee.
- Bring him up! - Aah!
Aah! What are you waiting on?
- Whoo! - Good shot.
You got it yourself?
- It's an old one. - Yup.
Yup, yup, yup, very old.
This seven-footer fills a tag...
Come on, Peewee, we got it.
But Troy wants to catch monsters
in his final three days of the season.
The water's been fluctuating so much,
it's higher than it ever was during alligator season.
Yeah.
There's a couple of little spots
that I've been wanting to hunt the last few years,
and I haven't been able to get in them
because I don't have an airboat, number one,
and the water ain't been high enough.
So, I'm thinking now I can get in there
- with my big boat. - Okay.
It's in the middle of what they call Cypress Island.
There's some big holes, like duck ponds,
in the middle of the island,
but it's to get there.
You go back there before?
Years ago, yeah.
There's always water in the hole.
That's why them big alligators never come out.
- Mm-hmm. - But the water gotta be high
for us to get back there to them.
When the water's real high, you gotta be smart
and think, what's some good areas
that I normally can't get to
when the water's at a normal level?
Like Cypress Island.
On an average season, you can't get in there.
But now I see my opportunity to get into Cypress Island,
and we could get in there
and catch alligators like we've never caught before,
and I'm talking about big alligators.
And we gonna take advantage of it.
- Let's go hit it. - Cypress Island.
- Cypress Island, let's go. - Let's go.
I think we gonna do super good.
Over in Bayou Poisson,
lifelong swamper Daniel Edgar
and his deckhand Zak Catchem
are off to an unusually slow start this morning,
and the hunters are starting to worry
they won't be able to fill
their last 56 tags for the year.
Another one with the chicken hanging, man.
If it's not an iguana-size gator,
it's hanging chicken,
or an empty hook. They're just not eating
on this part of the canal or something.
- Look at this thing. - They're not taking
- that chicken, huh, Zak? - And it's rotten,
it's fresh. Look, it's dripping.
Let's keep looking on the rest of them.
If it's still like this, we gotta do something different.
Chicken just does not work
as good as it should sometimes.
Alligator hunting is like gambling.
You don't win all the time.
They win sometimes.
We're lizard hunting today.
What you got, captain?
Lizard.
Let's hope he's not too small.
They're just not getting on.
Oh!
Whoa! Come back here!
They all the same size.
Mm.
This small gator fills a tag...
Good enough.
But the hunters are still way behind schedule.
Man, these lizards are killing us.
Every day, it's a new challenge
in the swamp.
Adapt to this, the weather, the bait.
You have a problem, you wanna figure it out,
and you wanna win.
There are a lot of fish around here though.
Maybe they're just full. Let's keep checking the lines.
In Bayou Long, confident they'll be able
to tag out this season, veteran swampers
Ronnie Adams and Timmy Aucoin
are laser focused on catching giants.
So today, they're chasing a hot tip
from some locals.
T, bro, this morning at Duffy's,
sitting in the back, talking to all them old-timers,
they were mentioning about this gator
them old-timers were calling Sasquatch.
I'm 84 years old and I was 15, I saw it.
- Y'all call it the Sasquatch? - Sasquatch, yeah.
That thing's about maybe 15 or 16 feet long.
Maybe bigger.
I was fishing one time with my boat,
my boat is 16 by four and a half.
- Yes, sir. - And all of a sudden
my boat starts coming up.
It come out of the water. That thing came
underneath my boat, and it just raised my boat up.
- That's unbelievable. - Oh, yeah.
I'm excited about today because right now,
all I got is this Sasquatch on my mind.
That's all I can think about is this dang alligator
they call Sasquatch. This thing's enormous.
It's a legendary alligator
down here in the Pierre Part area,
and I'm excited to try to put him in the boat.
Even though Ronnie's eager to bag Sasquatch,
Timmy's not convinced the monster exists.
I think they pulling your leg, bro.
Oh, man, I don't know, bro.
Sometimes they pulling your leg,
but when you think they serious,
they telling the truth.
Some of them are good leg-pullers.
Well, maybe we oughta just give it a look.
Let's go. Maybe they'll prove me wrong.
I've been hearing stuff like that forever,
so I'm kinda skeptical.
Nobody really has any proof of it.
But we'll set some lines out in the swamp,
but we get a 12-foot gator
out of that area, that's more realistic.
Tree shaker, tree shaker!
Ooh, ooh, what we got, T? What we got, T?
That look like a big one.
Come on, big boy.
That sumbitch is shaking that tree though, bra.
He almost ripped that tree out.
Yeah, and that's a little cypress.
Ooh, he got that cypress sideways, son.
Oh, yeah, let me get the gun. Here.
- Come on, baby. Really? - I think-- oh, yeah.
- Yeah, baby, huh? - Oh, yeah.
Oh, I think we got us a dinosaur, baby.
Whoa, baby! Golly!
Whoo-whoo, che! Come on, T!
Drop the hammer! Drop the hammer, T!
In Bayou Long,
Ronnie and Timmy are battling a gator
they hope to be Sasquatch.
Drop the hammer! Drop the hammer, T!
Get the shot! Boy, that's a damn hammer, son!
Come on, big boy!
Get in the boat, get in the boat!
- That a baby! - Whoo!
This ain't Sasquatch,
but a nice little eight-footer.
- Mm-hmm. - No, he ain't big enough.
I'm glad we got to him before Sasquatch did, huh?
Yeah.
Oh.
You know, coming up on this first line,
we got a nice alligator,
but this ain't what you would call Sasquatch.
This ain't what the old man was telling me about.
That was a good one.
Yeah, it was, dude. Good job, T.
He ain't the big monster we looking for, but he is nice.
Across the bayou,
Leron Jones and Anthony "Porkchop" Williams
still have over 50 tags to fill this season.
So they're betting on a distant honey hole
that can only be reached in high water.
- Cousin. - What up, cuz?
Water high, man.
See if this high water honey hole
paying off for us, bro.
Yeah, bro.
Oh, yeah.
Taking advantage of this high water,
me and Porkchop got some lines set up in this bayou.
Normally the water be too shallow.
We can't go in there and set lines.
But by the water being high, put a couple of traps in there,
hopefully got some big ones on there.
Look at that, man. Come through here with ease, cuz.
Oh yeah, cuz.
We in here, first line look down, right, cuz?
Ain't bad for the first line to be down, cuz.
You can see it?
Ahh.
Boy, we got something!
- Oh, yeah, cousin. - Whoo!
Gotta hold him, cuz!
Gotta get him!
- Aah. - Be careful, cuz!
- Give me a shot, Porkchop! - I'm trying, cuz.
What the hell you waiting on?
- Oh! - Come on, cousin.
Hold on, cousin, Imma get you one.
There you go, cousin. You ready?
Come on up, cousin.
- Pull him up slow now. - I got him.
Catching an eight-footer
right out of the gate is a promising sign
this hot spot will produce.
Yeah, cousin.
Yeah, man, we keep catching good, cuz,
we gotta mark this off on the GPS
and remember this, bro. You know?
We go ahead to the first line,
there's a nice size gator.
Got him in the boat and I'm like, man, cuz,
we on to something here.
You know, if we can get plenty more gators that size,
everything will work out for us.
Back in Bayou Sorrel,
Don and Calum are going head-to-head
to see who can snipe the most gators.
And with Calum's miss earlier,
Don now has a chance to pull ahead.
I sure hope it don't take all of these.
We're not batting a thousand.
You got that gun loaded?
All right, chief,
I'm ready to rock-and-roll, baby!
So we still got this snipe competition going on.
Calum is hunting harder, he's looking twice as much,
so like I said, it's working out great.
Well, now it's my turn.
On this side, over about ten yards.
Yup, I just saw something.
Let me get down and I'll see what it is.
It looks like a pretty good one.
Yeah, try to find it in the-- I can't see it
- in the binoculars, man. - Yep, lemme see about him.
I see it... with my naked eye, man.
- Turn in? - Yeah.
Right there, hold it.
Get him, get him,
get him, get him, get him, get him!
I think I got him.
Oh, it's so damn deep right here, man.
Wait... you're about to lose him.
- Got him? - I don't know.
Look at you, big boy!
Bam! Huh?
Beautiful.
You know what that means now, right?
That means it's 1-0.
Yup.
One, two, three.
Dang, look at the hole in that dude, huh?
This ten-foot brute fills a tag
and gives Don the lead.
Pull him over. Yeah, there you go.
Damn right, that's a good gator.
I don't know if he's 11-foot, but he's close.
He come way out in the swamp.
Dang. Look at the hole in that dude's head, huh?
- Yup. - Bam, baby!
Man, I can't wait to eat them shrimp now.
You gonna hang out with me while I eat them shrimp?
Well, Imma buy me a plate, too.
- Okay. - But I'm gonna tell you,
this day ain't over. It's still young.
- I hope so. - I at least--
I at least gotta kill two,
but three would be perfect.
- But even if I could tie you. - ...I tell ya.
Even if I could tie you, I'd be happy.
Them shrimp is gonna be good,
I ain't gonna lie to you, though.
I'm gonna savor every bite.
We finally see another gator,
I get up there, I just smoked him.
Whupped up there right quick,
pulled the treble hook, nailed him, put him in the boat.
Now I'm happy to say I'm ahead right now.
All right, your shot's next, chief.
I gotta up you.
Or at least tie you.
Hey, good luck.
On the edge of Grand Lake,
after catching a few small gators this morning,
Troy and Pickle pivot to Cypress Island,
a high water honey hole
where they hope to catch bigger gators.
We need to haul tail and get in there.
If we could pass through here,
I know we could catch some big ones in there.
Don't look like no boat been back here in forever.
No.
I know what Cypress Island is all about,
and there's some giant alligators in there.
Most of the time, for alligator season,
you can't get in there.
You gotta go down a little bayou
about three quarters of a mile long,
and you gotta go up and down a slough
to get to them lakes in the back.
Most of the year,
the little bayou is high and dry.
So with the water fluctuating like it is,
this is our golden opportunity.
Whoo!
Oh, yeah!
We can set here.
Oh, yeah.
We get to this new area, and the water is
tremendously higher than it normally is.
So we're gonna go set some lines,
we're gonna fish this new area, and hopefully it works out.
After setting 20 lines,
the hunters double back
to see if this hot spot has already paid off.
What we got, P?
That's a good one.
Talk to me.
You don't see him?
- Look like a nice one, huh? - Yeah, he's a good one.
Oh, he's bigger than I thought! He's bigger than I thought!
Whoo!
It's a big one!
It's a big one, Peewee!
Oh, why you didn't shoot him right there?
Oh!
Bring him up, bring him up, Peewee!
- Whoa! - Aye-yi-yi!
Back in Cypress Island,
Troy and Pickle are trying to reel in a goliath.
Oh...
Bring him up, bring him up, Peewee!
- Whoa! - Aye-yi-yi!
What you waiting on?
He's hooked real good.
Good one! Why you waited so long?
It's a big one here. We winching him?
This massive 11-footer
is a great start for the new hunting grounds.
That's a big old alligator.
Nice.
Yup, good job, P, good job.
Way to hustle, way to hustle.
I like your little honey hole, Cypress Island.
It's starting to pay off.
Oh, this is a hot spot, I'm telling you.
It's just so hard, it's almost impossible
to get back here on a normal year.
It is impossible unless you got an airboat,
and then with an airboat, you're gonna struggle.
The first line we get to had a big alligator on it.
I'm talking about a nice alligator.
So, wow, we off to a good start,
I'm thinking, whoa,
we gonna load the boat down today.
This is gonna really pay off.
We off to a good start, little girl.
Let's go see what the other lines got.
Back in Bayou Long,
Ronnie and Timmy are still on the hunt
for the notorious gator known as Sasquatch.
Man, you see? We're not catching no Sasquatch-size alligators.
I agree, T. We ain't catching nothing
compared to what they talking about.
But I'm gonna say it's either a 12 or 13 or 14,
or just looks like a 14, maybe a monster 12.
But they said when you catch this alligator,
you gonna know offhand it's Sasquatch,
no ifs ands or buts about it.
I was always taught
the old-timers will never steer you wrong.
You know, in between lines,
me and Timmy's talking, and, you know, hey,
it would be really awesome to catch this alligator
and just to put the legendary Sasquatch in the boat.
And then on top of it, the Louisiana state record
on alligators right at 19'2".
I'm not expecting the Sasquatch to be 19'2",
but I feel like the Sasquatch
can break some type of record.
According to local legend,
the largest alligator ever reported in Louisiana
was an enormous male killed in 1890
that measured 19 feet, 2 inches long.
Today, harvested alligators rarely exceed 14 feet.
If the rumors of Sasquatch are true,
Ronnie and Timmy could shatter modern day state records.
- To the right, huh? - Yup.
Well, it's down.
- I see slack. - Do you? Aw, man.
No, it's going to the back tight.
Something big.
Don't tell me he's dead.
- Yeah, he's dead. - Somebody shot him, bro?
It looks like he's been shot, T.
Oh, no, bro, look at that. That's a bite.
No, that's a bite from a bigger gator.
That's got to be Sasquatch.
He's killing our gators on the line, bro.
Look at the teeth mark on him, bro.
Crushed his skull, killed him on the line.
- Yep. - T, that gator's
nine-and-a-half foot, bra. Can you imagine
what Sasquatch looks like?
I'd say probably about 12 foot or bigger.
Not only is he now killing our gators,
he's costing us money, bro.
Yeah, because we can't sell this gator.
Absolutely, bro.
Look at the size of this gator.
That dude-- That dude, I cannot believe that, bro.
Look at the-- Look at the bite marks in the back.
Oh, yeah.
You got teeth here and teeth here.
Clamp. And look at the gash here, bra.
Golly.
I know they say that crap
was legend about Sasquatch gator.
- Bro. - I believe it now.
The proof is in the pudding, dude, huh?
Bro, we got to catch this alligator.
Sasquatch has got to go down.
Let's set a bunch of lines on this dude.
We got to catch this dude.
- Let's get him, T. - Let's do it.
This gator is gonna be 12-plus
because the strength in his jaws is just shredding it.
So that's a telltale sign right now
that we are in the right area for 'Squatch.
And hopefully we can get Sasquatch in the boat.
We gotta go find him.
Whether we gonna catch him on the line
or we gotta treble hook him, but--
Yeah, we gotta get him
because he's gonna keep killing other gators.
We gotta get him out of here.
Over in Bayou Poisson,
Daniel and Zak's slow day has gone from bad to worse.
That chicken's still hanging, Zak.
Yeah, again.
Just wasting our time.
The line before was still hanging.
It's gotta be the fish.
There's too much feed, it's gotta be.
They want something different, Zak.
As we're checking these lines and they're not knocked down,
they're just hanging empty, it's-- it's unbelievable.
But I did notice how many fish are in this spot.
If we can get our hands on some of those fish.
We might be able to get
some of the bigger ones, huh, Zak?
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
Because that's what they're chasing.
For sure, they're not eating the chicken, man.
Most of these lines are empty.
When we do catch one, it's one of these little dinks.
That's not making y'all any money, huh?
- No. - I think I still have
my cast net in this boat from last year.
Well, we're gonna put it to use.
Nothing like a fish kill to get some gators going.
You know what I'm saying?
- Come on. - Get them excited.
Oh, dude, they'll be stacked up
right here if we can get some.
The best way I can think to catch these alligators
is by using some of these fish.
I mean, they're right there, they're everywhere.
I can just throw my cast net on them,
catch some fish, bring them in the boat,
and we can use them as bait. I mean, they're not
eating the chicken, so we have nothing to lose.
Yeah, look, there's a school of nice fish
right behind the boat.
We might be in business right here
if we can get our hands on a school that big.
Look, they're coming right here, D.
Right to us.
There they are, they're right here.
- Try to get on them, Zak. - Right here.
- There it is. - Oh, yeah.
Aw, yeah, here we go!
- Yeah! - Payday.
- Fresh bait! - Fresh bait, son, come on.
- Oh, yeah. - Doesn't get much fresher
- than that, son. - Oh, yes.
Hold that up, baby.
- I'm telling you. - Yum, yum, yum.
- I'm telling you what. - Heading in.
- Oh. - Coo...
And now-- they can't turn that down, Zak.
No, no, no.
You know what we could do, though?
Let's chum this up, dude.
Throw some on the side of the bank
next to our lines.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah.
Good idea, they can smell that.
Mm-hmm.
We're taking all this fresh fish
and replacing our chicken with it.
Hopefully the gators are attracted to the fish
like they're out there chasing the fish on the water.
We're watching these gators do it.
And we're chopping up all this bait
and throwing it on the shoreline as well,
hopefully to attract some bigger gators
that we can cast our rod and reel on.
Spread some chunks out right on that waterline.
Where they can smell it, yes, yes.
Yeah... come on.
Fresh as it gets, pop, fresh as it gets!
Adjusting to fish
is gonna help us catch more alligators.
If that doesn't wake up them up,
I don't know what will.
Over in Gray's Basin,
Leron and Porkchop have already stacked up
six gators in their high water hot spot.
But Leron's noticing something isn't right.
- Cousin. - What? What up, cousin?
Hey...
Line after line after line,
I mean, we getting some nice gators outta there.
But as I'm noticing, where we catching the gators at,
you know, the water dropping.
Low water and heavy weight in this boat...
Oh, yeah, cuz.
If that water dropping--
keeps dropping the way it is, we gonna get stuck in there,
and no way in hell we can make it out of there
with them gators.
So me and Porkchop, we gotta hustle and tussle now
to hurry up and check these lines
and get these gators the hell on outta here.
- Cousin! Line down, cuz. - Oh, yeah, cuz.
Hold on tight now, cuz, I gotta pull up some.
We gotta get in and out, cousin.
- Whoa! - Oh, Lord!
Hold up, cuz! Watch yourself!
Hey, I got it!
Don't let him pop that rope!
- Whoo, boy. - Be careful, boy.
- I got it. - Boy, watch yourself, cuz!
Whoa! Oh, Lord!
Back in Gray's Basin,
Leron and Porkchop are in a race against time
to pull in a feisty beast.
Whoo!
Boy, watch yourself, cuz!
Oh, Lord!
Whoo!
Trying to bite the gun?
- Give me a shot, cuz! - I got ya, cuz.
- Give me a shot, Porkchop! - Hey, come on now.
Give me a shot, Porkchop!
I'm trying to get you one, cuz!
Oh, yeah, cousin.
Oh, yeah...
The hunters are on a roll,
but with the water levels dropping,
they know time is not on their side.
Ah, yeah, man.
Oh, yeah.
We got to this other line, another nice gator.
But we don't have a helicopter on top of this boat,
so we just gotta run these lines faster and faster
and give it the best we could.
You know, if we get stuck, we doomed.
We gotta capitalize on this high water
- while we can, cuz. - Yeah, cuz.
Oh, man.
In Bayou Sorrel,
Don leads the sniping competition 1-0
with Calum up next.
A good spot right down through here.
This is where we saw that big one the other day.
Man, get your gun ready.
Put that old .270 to work, young man.
That's what I'm trying to do.
For the competition, he's beating me
because it's hard to snipe a gator out of a boat.
So I got a lot of pressure right now,
especially if we're only doing shot for shot.
So therefore if I miss one gator,
it's his turn again.
He already got one on me.
He gets one more, I feel like
I'm gonna be in the hole for a shrimp dinner.
All right, straight in front of us.
See some floating lilies way down there.
Farthest one up against the bank.
If it is, he's right behind it.
We sure need him.
I'm gonna come to the left.
I'm gonna come into the right just a little bit.
Just shoot towards the bank, okay?
Going to the right.
- Bam! - Did I hit him?
Hey, good shot, bro. Good shot.
Good job, bro, good job!
- Bam! - I got him.
Look at you smoke!
Boy, I mean you put the whoop down on that one, didn't ya?
- That's what I'm talking about! - No doubt.
Tied it up, big boy, you tied it up.
Good nine foot, bro.
That's a tag.
That's a nine-foot tag, too.
I'm back in action now, boy, look at the smackdown.
This beast puts Calum on the board at last.
That's 1-1.
You know what's bad about it though?
- It's tied up. - My shot next.
But still, hey, hell of a shot, bro, hell of a shot!
- Thank you, man. - Bam!
I shoot and I drilled this thing.
It felt so good.
It was like a relief right there
to have that gator floating right there.
Threw him in the boat, didn't even have to treble him.
All right, well, it's your shot now.
- Just need another one. - That's it.
Deep inside Cypress Island,
Troy and Pickle have piled up a load of giants,
but the high water brings a new problem.
Look at that.
That's that high water,
pushed all that grass in here.
It's not even, like, all lilies.
Like, that's like prairie. Look at it.
It's that high water pushed all that in.
The place is awesome, it's phenomenal,
it's the best alligator hunting place in the world,
but you almost need a helicopter to get back there.
There's a lot of water lilies once you get in them lakes
because that water's trapped in them lakes.
That's why there's such big alligators back there.
But once you get back there, it's worth all the trouble.
- Oh, there's a line. - Yup.
We're stacking them up one after the other.
Watch your little fingers.
Can you find the line in the water lilies right there?
Look in front the boat.
Yeah.
Talk to me. Is there something?
Yeah, there's something on it.
It's just all in that grass.
Ooh, we got a fricking mess, huh?
Maybe I oughta go in there and dig, huh?
Yeah, I think we got to.
Hold the line up, and I'll work on it.
Gonna take me a minute.
We gotta just assume that there's one.
Let me see if I can separate
all this tail end stuff.
Oh, no!
Popped.
No way.
Look.
We have a popped line.
That's a big old alligator, dude.
We had a big one here. Motherfricker.
- Damn! - Popping a line
is no easy task, and for the hunters,
losing what might have been a monster in Cypress Island
is a real gut punch.
We pull up on a line,
and I'm having trouble finding it in the water
and sure enough, it's completely frayed.
And this line is super, super strong,
so for an alligator to pop these things,
it's a massive, mean alligator.
It's disappointing, you know, because you know he was here,
we had him on the line, we lost him.
Ooh.
That's a lucky one there, huh?
Lucky for him, unlucky for us.
Probably would've been
the biggest gator of the year right there.
Wow, I can't believe we lost that.
In Bayou Poisson,
Daniel and Zak hope their new baiting strategy
can help turn their day around.
Oh, I see him.
That was him over there?
Maybe, I don't know.
I see a couple behind us.
A lot of big fish here.
As we're waiting for our newly-baited fish lines
to produce, the chumming is attracting big gators.
They're smelling it downwind, for sure,
and they're all looking to find these dead fish
that are right on the shoreline next to our lines
and right next to our boat.
They're almost coming into the boat for us.
They're looking at us like, where's the fish?
Keep going, keep going.
All right, cut it, let us drift.
- Oh, you see him? - I don't see him,
but I know where he went down.
Can you see where that log is going from there?
Hold on.
You gotta throw it right on top of them bubbles.
He's right underneath that log.
He's under the log, huh, Zak?
I'm gonna try, but I hope I don't hook the log.
- I got him. - You got him?
Yeah, it's right on top of his back.
Whup him, whup him. You got him?
- Yeah, I got him! - Come on!
- It's a keeper! - Oh!
Yeah, it's good one!
Oh, he's huge! Oh!
Over in Bayou Poisson...
It's a keeper! Yeah, it's good one!
Oh, he's huge!
Daniel and Zak's fish chum
has snagged their first monster of the day.
- You still on him? - Yeah, yeah!
I got the gun, I got the gun!
You got it, you got it, you got it!
Oh, that's a good one! Oh, hold on!
Come on, that's all you, pop!
Shoot him!
- You got it! - Shoot him!
Yeah!
Baby! Come on.
Come on.
- Just right there. - Okay.
I'll hold ya until you get up.
- That thing is big. - Now I'm getting excited.
The hunters' change in strategy pays off big
with this monster ten-footer.
Aah. Looks like our little fish buffet
worked out as planned. I know that boy ate fish
because it just splashed up right in my mouth.
This giant alligator we could tell was after fish
because his breath smelled awful.
Monster gator on the surface,
that's a fish-eater all day long.
Our strategy paid off, chumming for these alligators,
catching them with the cast net.
That's why it's good to have me in the boat, Mr. Daniel.
They're hungry for some fish.
These gators are from the bayou, man.
Need to bring the right restaurant to them.
Over in Bayou Long,
after setting lines to catch a mythical beast,
Ronnie and Timmy haven't seen any sign
of Sasquatch in the area.
Looking for Sasquatch, bro,
I don't know where the hell he's at though.
Come on, baby, where y'all at, daddio?
We've been concentrating
on trying to catch this legendary big gator,
and we haven't got him yet.
And we don't have many other gators in the boat,
and hopefully it's not a wasted day
because we concentrating and trying to catch this one
when we got a whole bunch of tags to fill.
We down here, baby.
I hope it's something decent.
Is that him or is that...
No, that's a stump.
Yeah, the line's in the tree, huh,
all tangled up? No?
Oh, look, oh, it's coming over there.
Here, give me that line.
I'll take care of that for you and pull it out.
This is stump heaven, bro.
Let's get another one, T.
Whoo-whoo! Get the gun!
Whoo, get the gun, T!
Oh, we got us a good one here, papa!
Boy, he's a good one, baby!
Whoo-hoo!
That's the good one, that's the good one.
- Watch him, T! - Oh, Lord!
Come on, T! Come on, T, right there!
That a baby!
He's done in one.
A slim eight-footer fills another tag,
but it's clearly not the one they're looking for.
This is still too small to be Sasquatch.
- Oh, yeah... - This ain't Sasquatch.
- That's not Sasquatch. - No way.
Nice gator, but not Sasquatch.
I'm just shocked that Sasquatch didn't get to him yet.
It's a blessing because we got us a good gator.
Yes, indeed.
Right now we catching quality gators over quantity,
which I'm very impressed with.
But we're not catching Sasquatch just of yet.
This ain't the gator
the old-timers been telling me about.
Sasquatch has got some smarts to him, bro.
We got to outsmart him.
He's got to be put in the boat.
Across the swamp,
with the day winding down,
the score is tied at 2-2, as Don looks to fill
their last tag in Bayou Sorrel
and win the competition.
It's your turn to shoot, Don.
Well, I guess I need to find something to shoot at
because if not, we're tied up, right?
- Yeah, oh, yeah. - Then neither one of us win.
That means we both gotta buy our own, huh?
Yeah.
So the day's almost over.
It's my turn to shoot,
it's tied up 2-2, all right?
And if I can win this contest,
now I'm thinking I'm gonna get a taste of a shrimp dinner
that Calum's gotta buy.
Don, on that log, it look like they got one sunbathing.
- What log? - The big branch
coming across, he's way up there.
Big branch, talking about right there?
Yeah, that big limb coming across the bayou.
You see him?
There is a damn gator on that thing.
I'll probably choke on this one.
Fire in the hole.
In Bayou Sorrel, Don has a gator in his sights
that could win the competition.
I'll probably choke on this one.
Fire in the hole.
- Oh, got him! - Oh, dude, you smoked him.
Smoked him!
Hey, watch them branches.
Blood everywhere, look.
Oh, you got him.
Bro, good job, good shot.
We ain't got him in the boat yet. Hang on.
Let me get him for you.
Get a leg.
- Bam! - Good shot, man.
Don's sharp eye wins the contest
with his new deckhand in the final hour of the day.
You got three, and I got two, so...
We done good though, huh?
- Shrimp dinner's on me. - Bam.
He's not a monster gator, all right?
He's only about seven feet long.
But what that gator was is Don is now ahead,
and this right here is gonna be it.
Big boy's buying.
I couldn't think of anybody better else
I'd want to beat that way.
Well, let's go get that.
All right, let's get it, bro.
Across the swamp in Gray's Basin,
Leron and Porkchop are stacking up beasts,
but with water levels dropping fast,
they need to finish running their lines soon
or risk getting stranded.
If we do get something on the line,
hey, bro, we can't bullcrap around.
We gotta make it happen, cuz.
It's still a race against time.
It's almost like each gator we catch,
it's like the water keep dropping damn near a foot.
It's like they matching our catch
by dropping lower and lower.
We just have to get it, make it happen,
and try our best to get out.
All right.
We gotta get him quick now, we gotta get him quick, cuz.
Whoo! Oh!
Oh, Lord!
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, cousin.
Oh, that fish rolling, boy.
Give me a shot, Porkchop!
I'm gonna get you one, cuz.
Boy, I'm excited for this, cuz.
Let me get you right, let me get you right.
Hold on, hang tight.
Good job, cuz! Whoo, boy.
Oh, man.
This seven-footer fills another tag,
but the hunters have bigger concerns.
We catching gator after gator.
The honey hole is really paying off
for me and Leron today, but, hey,
the water level is dropping real fast,
so we gotta pick up our step.
Because if we don't get from back here
and we get stuck back here,
all these gators are gonna go bad,
and we gonna lose out on a lot of money.
Back in Cypress Island,
Troy and Pickle's midday shift
has lead to a boatload of giants
as they close in on their final line of the day.
Maybe next year, we could try a new spot.
I mean, this place hasn't been fished in forever,
and so Cypress Island, it really paid off.
We caught a bunch of giants back there.
He knows too much.
I think I'm smarter than him sometimes,
but I always get slapped with reality, you know.
I'm just a young gun, still learning from an old man.
- Talk to me. - I don't see anything.
Oh, look, way over there, look.
Oh, I see it.
What we got, Peewee, what we got?
Hold on.
Jeez!
What is it? Under the boat.
Can you bring it to the side of the boat?
Watch the line, watch the line.
Whoo, bring him up, Peewee, bring him up!
- Whoa! - Oh!
- Why you let it go?!
It's a big one, it's a big one!
Shoot him!
In Cypress Island...
- Whoa! - Oh!
Troy and Pickle are trying to take down a leviathan.
Shoot! Shoot him again!
It's Moby Dick!
Wow!
Hurry before he pops that line!
Whoo! Shoot him!
- He's gonna pop it! - Shoot him again!
Oh!
Holy smokes!
How many times, man?
Whew!
Dude, that's a whopper.
What?
I think we gonna use the winch, huh?
I think so.
Right on top of the stack.
Right on the top.
This massive 11-footer
caps off a great day,
but Troy knows the job isn't done yet.
I just hope we can get out of here
now that we got some alligators.
We did very good in Cypress Island
and I had no doubt in my mind.
The only doubt I had was
I was worried about getting out
after we caught a boatload of big alligators.
I don't like this set but I ain't got much choice.
We going back the same way we came.
- Hold on, Peewee. - I got it.
I can't go.
Can you get any speed or you just--
Give me the strength, good Lord, give me the strength!
Go, go, go!
Whoo, we moving!
Getting out of Cypress Island was hard.
It was a fight from the get go.
But was it worth it? Yes.
It was worth every minute of it.
We caught good gators
that we wouldn't have been able to normally catch
on a regular season.
Okay, let's roll. We done!
Back in Bayou Poisson,
Daniel and Zak's fish chum turned their day around,
and they're hoping to snag one last monster
before they call it.
Pretty obvious
they want fish today, huh, Zak?
They biting on that fish.
Using the rod and reel and treble hook,
we're putting alligators in the boat.
Zak and I having fun catching these alligators,
but we really wanna go see if our fish bait's working.
There's one on there.
Come on, let's see it.
We got a fish-eater on the end of this line, baby.
Come on, we got something.
Oh, yeah, look, check this out.
- Whoa! - Whoa, watch him, Zak!
Whoa!
That thing is fresh off fish, he's strong!
Give me a shot, buddy!
Whoa!
- Hold on, hold on! - Shoot him, shoot him,
shoot him, shoot him!
Whoa, that's my shot, hold on!
- Oh, you had him! - Gol! That was my shot.
Let him stay still. Whoa, whoa, whoa!
He's not staying still!
That's a decent fish-eater right there.
Aah!
This last catch is another reminder
that in the swamp,
resilience and ingenuity always pays off.
All those hanging chicken lines,
it looks like they actually did want the fish, huh?
I'm telling you, they just want fish.
Being able to adapt to a condition
when it's happening.
Those kinds of adjustments
is what makes you successful in life.
Winning sometimes is pretty good
because it's rewarding.
I love it when a plan comes together, baby.
Back in Gray's Basin,
Leron and Porkchop are racing to load in
their final catch before dropping water
strands them deep in the swamp.
We done ran all the lines.
Now it's time to get out of the bayou,
and the water keeps dropping.
It ain't looking good for us.
We got light at the end of the tunnel, cuz.
Oh, man...
Cousin, if we get stuck, we gonna be in trouble.
The entrance to this bayou
is super shallow and super narrow.
So when it dropping,
it almost impossible to get out of there,
especially with gators in the boat.
Oh, man...
In Gray's Basin,
Leron and Porkchop's worst fear is coming true.
Cuz.
And we gotta move fast, cuz,
because the water dropping only making it worse.
After the motor got stuck,
Porkchop knew what he had to do.
He understood the assignment. I did, too.
All right, cuz.
It getting a little deeper, cuz.
I think that's good enough, cousin.
Aah! Aah!
Cuz, I thought we was...
That old four stroke finally got us on out of there.
I almost had a heart attack, man.
But we made it happen. You just can't give up.
The high water honey hole paid off.
Whoo-whee!
Back in Bayou Long,
with the day almost over,
Ronnie and Timmy still haven't found Sasquatch.
The sun will be going down soon, bro.
I'm so stressed out right now.
I just hope and pray
that old man ain't lying about the Sasquatch gator.
It's been an up and down day. We catching quality gators,
nice, big gators.
This morning I was pumped up
to fish for this alligator called Sasquatch,
and there's no more signs of Sasquatch,
and we coming up to the last line.
Hopefully we can get this big boy in the boat.
Where is the Sasquatch at?
Come on, big boy.
I see the line.
It's tight, tight, tight.
- Tight and tangled. - Going around the back side.
I see the rope moving.
Now my pole's stuck. Can you do something with it?
Let me see, baby, give it to me.
Let me see what I can get here, bro...
- it is a monster. - Look at all the bubbles.
Yeah, that's a big one. Might be Sasquatch.
Timmy, this is a giant, bro.
Ooh, oh, he almost pulled me in the water, bro.
God, Timmy, look at the size of this dude, bro!
Look at him! Whoo!
Finally, baby!
Finally we got Sasquatch, baby!
Come on, big boy!
He's gonna pop!
Come on, cha-cha, come on, baby!
T, T, T, T! Timmy!
I'm gonna take him out.
You gotta shoot him, T!
- Whoo-hoo! Timmy. - Sasquatch.
Timmy, this might be Sasquatch, bro.
My God, bro, this thing is 12-, 13-foot.
He is monstrous, bro.
At almost 14 feet long,
they know this is the behemoth they're after.
That is definitely Sasquatch, bro.
- Oh, yeah. - I can't believe
nobody caught this dude over all these years.
I was just praying it really existed and he does.
Lo and behold, we got a giant on board.
I'm telling you, this gator...
fits the bill, looks the bill.
This has got to be Sasquatch by all means.
I am jacked up. It's been an unbelievable day.
We got Sasquatch in the boat.
Bro, that's probably
the biggest gator to date for me, T.
People talk about the giant legend of Sasquatch,
and I know me and you just put Sasquatch in the boat.
Over in Pierre Part,
Don is ready to cash in on his prize,
but Calum has something special in store.
Oh, dang, is that thing full?
Oh, let me see, I wanna see.
Whoo-whee!
So Don won the competition,
so therefore I had to buy the shrimp.
But I think they'd be a lot better tasting
if I just boiled them rather than go and buy them,
and it'd be a little more special to him, you know,
knowing I took the time to do it and all.
I didn't know you was gonna make it, I thought
you were just gonna go to the restaurant and buy some.
Well, I tell you what, I'm glad we done that.
It reminded me of almost childhood stuff.
But I did, I had a blast.
Yeah.
I'm glad we did the competition.
I think it brought us together closer.
We know more about each other now.
I would say we're gonna work better together,
and it was a nice afternoon.
We kicked butt, and we done it as a team.
I can't wait to see how it works out tomorrow.
- We gonna kick butt again. - Ain't no doubt.