As gator season kicks into high gear,
hostile monsters continue to ravage the swamp.
One family has a power struggle...
I'm the captain of the ship, and he got to do what I say.
So it can go good or it can go bad.
I'm curious how it's gonna go myself.
...While another looks for revenge.
The alligator that took this one away from me owes me one.
If a larger alligator can catch another one,
he's gonna do it.
And when a legend takes the back seat...
- You ready for this? - Please watch over me today.
...The fight only heats up.
Shoot him! Come on, give me a shot!
- ♪ ♪ ♪
the sun rises over the bayou,
marking the halfway point of gator season.
In bayou sorrel,
veteran hunter willie edwards
is preparing for a day without his son little willie,
who is still recovering from a bout with heatstroke.
I got my dad coming to be a deckhand with me today.
You gonna get fired right quick.
Willie's brought his dad junior edwards
to fill in as deckhand.
But willie knows they don't always see eye to eye
when it comes to hunting.
My dad, when he hunts alligators,
he always likes to run the hooks and get it over with
and get the day done and get back to the house.
Me, I like to run the hooks, treble hook,
snipe, shoot, open water, and everything I can
just to catch the alligators that we need.
- Huh? - Yes. [laughs]
...Put your hook on it and go on to the next one.
I mean, it works out better than just trying...
...Be there an hour chasing him and don't get him.
I had him in my boat a couple times, my dad,
but not, like, working.
Just like either going hunting or something like that
or just playing or just going joyriding.
Well, let's see what this morning looks like.
But he's a deckhand, and he don't like it.
I can see it already.
But it can go good or it can go bad.
And I'm curious how it's gonna go myself.
There you go.
Let me get over here behind you.
Oh, yeah.
- Huh? - Yeah, he's a big one.
Oh! A bull.
Oh, it's a bull.
Oh!
Booyah!
You ready?
Let's go, let's go. I'm going up. Let's go.
Yeah, he done messed up now.
This nine-foot feisty gator is a good start,
and willie is enjoying the role reversal
of having junior as his deckhand.
It's gonna be a good day.
I mean, we got a lot of hooks to run
and we just gonna have to keep going with it
and he's just gonna have to toughen it out.
Now I'm the captain of the ship,
and he got to do what I say.
One down.
17 miles south on grand lake,
jacob landry's deckhand don brewer
prepares for a day of alligator hunting.
But today he'll do it solo without his captain,
as jacob is stuck at home dealing with busted pipes.
It's gonna be a different day for sure.
So I got me a phone call last night.
Jacob calls me, said think you can
run the lines by yourself this morning?
Automatically I'm gonna say yes.
Come on, get him, jacob.
Get him, get him, get him, get him.
Jacob and don have proven to be a formidable team
and this season are on their best pace yet.
I say he's a swamp donkey, huh?
I've hunted and fished and everything
by myself for a long time, but never like this.
Hunting solo, it's not gonna be easy,
and it can be very dangerous.
I mean, what if something happens?
What if you get chomped on?
What if you fall out of the boat?
It's dangerous enough as it is without going solo.
Gonna try to do it just like jacob does it.
But there's no possible way
that I'm gonna tell jacob I can't do it.
With an ambitious 60 lines to run,
don knows it's gonna be a long, tough day.
By myself, it's gonna take all damn day long.
I'll be lucky to make it in for dinner tonight.
Troy and them invited me down here to hunt,
to come help them out,
and the last thing I wanna do is let them down, you know.
I don't wanna be the guy that, yeah, don went out here
and he done this and done that.
I want it where they sit there
and say, yeah, hell, don went out there yesterday
and he done it by himself yesterday.
That's what I wanna hear.
Here's something.
There he goes, there he goes.
Come on, son of a bitch.
Uh!
Damn.
[rifle clicks]
damn!
[gunshot]
one down.
Pull him back up here.
Don knows this six-foot gator
will not satisfy the landrys' expectations.
The pressure is starting to mount.
This is gonna take me all damn day long.
I got one line run and one little gator.
Trying to do everything right.
I've been nervous about everything.
I've been nervous about driving the boat.
I don't know which tag goes to where.
I don't wanna stick the wrong tag
on the wrong damn gator for the wrong spot.
I got 10 different things going through my mind
to make sure I don't mess up on anything.
But the day's not starting that great.
It's gonna be a long day the way it's gonna look.
Just do the best I can, I guess.
21 miles northwest, in beau bayou...
Daniel edgar and his grandson dorien
are running lines
in an area locals refer to as cannibal bayou.
Where the big ones at, pa?
Right here somewhere.
At any given time in the swamp,
if a larger alligator can catch another one,
he's gonna do it.
They always chase the feed.
But when the fish start getting thinner,
if these small alligators don't get out of that pond
or that part of the swamp, they will be eaten.
Got one right here, pa. First one of the day.
All right, pa, let's hurry up.
Oh, it got eaten.
Just ate the whole head of the alligator off.
- God dog! - What did this, pa?
Big alligator just came.
See, doesn't want to eat him, right?
He's a little tough. So he just came...
Killed him.
In three days, he's gonna soften up a lot.
Start to decay a little bit and then he'll come eat him.
The alligator that took this one away from me owes me one.
You know, at this point,
it's obvious he's already eaten all the nutria.
There's nothing else but another alligator.
Well, I'm gonna just go ahead
and let him have another piece of alligator.
Cut a piece, put it on the hook,
and I know I'm gonna get something.
We're just gonna take a piece of him
and try to catch an alligator.
This strategy my grandpa thought about
is definitely gonna be effective,
and I think we're gonna catch him with this.
They got some cannibal gators over here.
10 miles south on lake fausse pointe,
halfway through their first season as a team,
king of the swamp troy landry and his rookie deckhand pickle
have gelled so well,
they're starting to act like family.
Look at the ants on it.
- Hey. - Hey, what?
Wake me up, granny, when you finish baiting the line.
I'm slow 'cause you wear me out.
What you mean I wear you out?
I'd like to see you run the front of the boat.
That's all I'm saying. Come bait this.
You're about to get up here. Come bait this chicken.
Come on, let's trade jobs.
Hey, my grandma was slow, but she was like 96 years old.
Yeah, well, your grandma teach you anything?
Because you're about to get up here.
One of the things she taught me was how to not be a slowpoke.
Come on, let's trade jobs. See if I got it.
- Listen, I can do your job. - Come on, give me one day.
Finally I get fed up and I tell him
that I'd really like to switch it out for a day.
Like, I don't know when's the last time
you've been up here on the bow of the boat,
but with you dictating like that,
it's a lot harder than I think
what you were used to when you was a kid.
Okay, you wanna run the motor? Come on.
All right, all right. You ready?
- You ready for this? - Not really.
You ready to work the front? Huh?
- Not really. - No?
Look at him, boy.
I haven't wore one of these in 50 years.
I bet you I was eight or nine years old
the last time I put a lifejacket on.
That ain't gonna do you no good.
But if you're driving, I'm putting it on.
You can't even zip that thing up.
I'm gonna act a lot more crazy back here behind this motor
now that he put that lifejacket on.
I kinda took a little offense to that.
I mean, he puts me in the trees all the time,
so why can't I do the same to him?
Please, lord.
Please watch over me today. [laughs]
I don't ever remember
letting somebody else be the captain in my boat.
Even my kids, I don't remember
ever letting them be the captain.
But she's at the point
where she thinks I'm just being hard on her.
So I'm gonna do her job
and, hopefully, she's gonna see how I do it and learn.
And I'm gonna let her do my job,
and she might respect what I do a little bit more.
What we got?
Oh, yeah, it's limp. It's going straight down. Yup.
Looks like it's moving.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up, back up.
Okay, put it in forward.
Okay, all right.
What you doing? Whoa! Put it in neutral!
- Whoa, whoa, whoa! - Whoa!
Hurry! Pull it up!
Don't let that rope go now.
What you doing there?
You need some help, old man?
Got him?
I got him. Get your gun.
Whoa, watch it.
Whoo! Bring him up.
Ease him up, ease him up.
[gunshot]
this lifejacket, it's kinda hard
to shoot with a lifejacket.
Yeah, it don't fit your fat ass anyway.
[laughs] what?
Them big old asses. You heard me.
She was telling me
some of the same things I used to tell her,
stuff I was telling her when I was teaching her.
I guess she kinda held that at heart,
because now she's telling the same crap to me.
Hey, take that-- take it off.
[both laugh]
I gotta protect myself against your driving.
Okay, okay.
19 miles away in bayou sorrel...
With his dad as his hesitant deckhand,
willie knows he's got to keep up the pace
to run all their lines by day's end.
Gotta make some time.
We got most probably close to 70 hooks, 80 hooks,
and that's a lot of lines.
When you catching a lot of alligators and stuff,
that's a lot of lines to fool with.
And you gotta keep going
and just keep your head in the game and just keep rolling.
- Look at that big old thing. - Where?
- Right there at the line. - Huh?
Right there at the line.
Give me the gun.
That's a big one right there.
Yeah.
He's about to pull off that one.
Hooked in the side of the head.
Look at him going out there, that one.
The boys have stumbled upon an apparent gator goldmine,
with one on the line
and two more large gators close by.
I mean, his half-- his tail gone.
That ain't the same alligator that was right here.
[gunshot]
bull. Bull, bull, bull.
That's good. That's good now.
Let me get that hook out of his mouth.
I mean, a big one right here was gonna eat this thing.
That's what I thought,
and then I seen the one in the roots.
This eight-foot gator is a good catch,
but willie is still at odds with his father
about how they should be hunting.
You got more alligators in this area,
and I wish you had to catch them all with the treble hook.
Didn't have to fool with no lines on the bank,
and you could pick your big ones.
And you can take out what you wanna take out
and, like, manage them.
- You're a deckhand. - [bleep]
you the [bleep] captain?
...As you get it done and get on to the next one.
[laughs]
he can cry all he wants.
Let go of my steering wheel.
The old dad didn't like that not one bit,
with that boat, being a deckhand.
Not one bit.
Uh-huh.
As they hurry to their next line,
willie keeps an eye open
for the giants swimming in the open water.
17 miles south on grand lake,
don is hunting solo.
He now realizes the landrys' expectations
may be more than he can handle
with only a few small gators in the boat so far.
I ain't gonna lie to you. I got butterflies in my stomach.
I'm a little stressed out today.
I didn't know how hard this was doing this by yourself.
Not even no biggens, all little ones.
Won't even buy boat gas today.
You know, it's like the last thing I wanna do
is come back in with no gators in the boat
or three or four little ones
like come out of the daycare center.
You know, then troy's sitting there looking at me,
shaking his head.
I'm not saying I gotta have no 12-footers,
but I'd at least like to have some 10s and 11s in the boat.
If I come back with a bunch of little ones,
first thing he's gonna ask me:
"well, did you run all the lines?"
it might take me a little bit longer,
but I'm gonna get this done.
Can't tell if I got anything or not.
Oh, they're getting bigger.
Here he comes, here he comes.
Aah!
Unh!
Aah!
Man, look at the size of that swamp donkey.
Gotta love it.
This 10-footer will surely impress the landrys,
but getting it in the boat alone is no easy task.
I'm gonna tell you something.
There ain't nothin' I can't do.
It might take me a little bit longer.
It might be midnight when I roll in tonight.
But I'm gonna get this done. I bet your sweet ass on this.
Whew!
A lot easier if jacob was here.
Damn.
Not bad. They getting bigger.
To the northwest, in lake fausse pointe,
after switching roles for the day,
new captain pickle realizes she's suddenly responsible
for the safety of the king of the swamp.
Oh, jesus, this is scary. I'm the deckhand.
You gonna be all right.
I would say the worst part about being a captain
is worrying about him on the front of the boat, you know.
He's kinda getting up in age now.
And you really gotta pay attention
to the trees and stuff like that.
Like me, he could put me in the trees all he wants
and it ain't gonna hurt me.
I'm young and I can bend and all of that like that.
And he's, you know, got a little trouble with his back now.
I mean, it happens. He's getting old.
Ho, ho. The line's over here.
What we doing way over here? Ho!
Ho! Hey, go ahead, get your pole.
Where you going? The bait's over there.
I don't mind being the deckhand.
I haven't been a deckhand in 30 years,
maybe 35, 40 years, but I don't mind.
I enjoy it, especially with pickle driving the boat.
She's so slow. I mean, I don't have to rush really.
[laughs]
all right, what we got, cinderella?
What we got, huh?
Don't you call me cinderella.
Huh? What we got?
Pull up right under the flag.
Hold it. I think we got one.
Look at all the grass tore up.
Don't get too close so we don't lose him on the propeller.
Back up. Keep your propeller away from him.
Back up.
Okay, right there. Perfect. Ho.
I think this is a good one. Hurry up.
Get your gun.
Don't play with this thing.
I think it's a big one.
Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho.
All right, he's coming up.
Whoa! Whoa! Ooh-aah!
Gonna pull us in! Shoot!
Whoo! Shoot him!
You gotta give me a shot. I can't get me a shot on him.
Whoa! Oh!
Whoa, whoa! Watch him.
What the hell you waiting on? Shoot him.
Come on, give me a shot!
[gunshot]
whoa!
Oh, there we go.
What?
Whoo! That's a good one, cinderella.
This is 10-foot, 450-pound monster
is their biggest catch of the day.
One, two, three!
Ooh. Oh.
Grab this leg right here.
Roll his big butt over.
That's what we call a tree shaker.
That's what you call a wear-me-out,
because I ain't got a good deckhand.
You got the best deckhand in the world.
I give you a lot of compliments
even though you don't give me none.
I know, huh?
"hurry up. Put the chicken on the hook."
"what you waiting on, papa?"
that's my compliment.
That's what I get.
10 miles north,
daniel and dorien
are trying to rid this area of vicious cannibal gators.
And daniel's vast experience tells him
the situation is dire.
I've watched alligators
chase another alligator down that's not on the line,
catch him,
and another one come and fight,
and they just rip him to pieces.
So I've always known
that they will eat each other.
They're cannibals.
They'll eat each other
or anything that they can grab when they're hungry.
If an alligator starts killing some of the alligators,
obviously it's a big bull.
But when he starts damaging them
to the point to where it's not usable,
you really wanna take him out.
We got something now.
Got one.
I don't know how big he is. Hold on.
Well. Take him out of his misery, pa.
Show me an alligator, son.
Don't let him whip you, pa.
Oh!
Try to get his head where I can get a shot.
Give me a shot. Give me a shot, pa.
This thing's aggressive.
Hold on, pa.
Damn. Punish that thing.
- He's got me all wet. - Now give me a shot.
- Hold on. - Come on, pa.
Watch out, watch out. [slap]
don't let him beat you up. Come on now.
There it is.
[gunshot]
look how he's all busted up.
Chewed him all up.
Ate one of the legs off.
Gotta be a big alligator to do that to a seven-footer.
He's right here somewhere.
He's been fighting with a big alligator right here.
These big alligators are very smart.
They've been around a long time.
If you've missed them on a line, they're a little harder.
But you can normally catch one if you learn how to trick him.
And then normally you can get to him.
Put this on the hook right there.
We're just gonna set for him, pa.
He's right here somewhere.
Think we're all right.
11 miles east, while running lines
and keeping a lookout for giants in open water,
the power struggle aboard willie's boat continues.
Get on out the way.
Let me get over and drive that boat.
You can't handle that.
I got it. Watch out the way.
You the deckhand, buddy.
I hid your hooks. You just didn't know.
I love having my dad on my boat and everything,
but he keeps on trying to jump up on that steering wheel
when I'm in the back of the boat putting a tag on the alligator.
And he's biting at the bit so bad
it's driving him crazy being over there on the bucket,
on the side for a deckhand,
and not being one to drive the boat and everything.
And he's not liking it, not one bit.
Right there on the bank.
Seven and a half, eight-foot.
That thing's getting bigger and bigger as we get to the bank.
Be about nine-foot in a second.
Is he on the hook?
Come on over there, boy.
Come on, get you a shot.
Watch it, watch it.
Lucky I didn't hold my breath on that one.
I would've died right here.
I mean, took you 45 minutes to pull the trigger.
I mean, I was sitting there
waiting for it, waiting for it, waiting for it.
It look like I been doing all the work.
I mean, I'm just about hooking the hook,
hanging the hook, and putting it in the back of the boat.
Getting to be a lot of work.
I'm sure missing my son right now.
That ain't gonna hurt nothin' right there.
I'm the captain of this ship.
I catch big ones every time I fish.
Well, I do a little bit, he do a little bit
and it all works out together that a way.
Hey, you're grinding my gears.
Good lord.
You moved it or something because she was sure grinding.
Hey, don't talk about my motor, boy.
We'll be broke down back here.
Look like I turned out to be the deckhand
instead of the captain...
On my own boat.
I'm supposed to be captain of the boat.
Meanwhile, on grand lake,
don has finally hit his stride filling the boat with gators.
But hunting alone is not easy, and he misses his captain.
We're getting them knocked out. Just taking a while.
There's a lot of people that can't do this.
Three years ago, I wouldn't have even attempted it.
Last year, I wouldn't have attempted it.
But I tell you what,
it's starting to pick up a little bit.
It's still not as fast
as what me and him does together.
Me and jacob, I mean,
as far as I'm concerned, we make a pretty good team.
I know what my job is and he knows what his job is.
Ooh, there he is.
Aah!
I got me a short line.
This son of a bitch is a damn good one.
There he goes, there he goes. Aah!
I think he's under the boat, I can't get him up.
Aah!
Come on.
Aah!
Uh!
Ah!
Get him up.
[rifle clicks]
how you like that, jacob landry?
If I can get him flipped over...
There he goes.
With this 11-foot, 550-pound monster finally in the boat,
don hopes he's earned the landrys' respect.
He's proud of what he has accomplished today.
I come out with 10 gators.
I mean, I didn't set no records,
but I got a couple of nice ones.
I got one real good one.
But just knowing you've done everything by yourself
from start to finish,
it makes you feel good.
I'm glad today's over.
Up north, in lake fausse pointe,
after a long day on the front of the boat,
deckhand troy continues to question
pickle's ability to be captain.
You see it? Come around that tree.
Go to the left, the left.
The left!
Whoa! Aah!
Back up! I told you to the left over there.
This is the right.
I thought you wanted the back side.
This is the right. I told you the left.
I never seen such a bad boat driver.
When she gotta go right, she goes left.
When she gotta go left, she goes right.
She's never drove a boat with a tiller handle before,
I promise you.
I don't get scared often,
but she's scaring the hell out of me.
What you got there?
[laughs] nothing. Just sit back and relax.
Oh, I am. Ain't gotta tell me twice.
Sit back and relax while I untangle the line.
Grab the gun, cinderella.
Gotta show them alligators who's the boss.
What you think?
We gonna show them who's the real boss now.
All right, he's coming up.
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
Ooh.
Whoa, he wants to fight!
Be strong, boy.
Not a giant, but he's strong for his size.
Ooh-whoo!
Kind of like you, he's strong for his size.
Whoa.
Whoo! Shoot him!
Whoo!
Whoa! Shoot him, pasquale!
[gunshot]
oh-ho-ho-ho.
There you go, pasquale, good shot.
Okay, let's move our tarp.
Put him right there.
Ready? On three. One, two, three.
Watch my boot, you.
You know, at the end of the day, we caught good.
It took us all day to run the lines.
We should've been finished three hours earlier.
But we did run all our lines, and we did catch good.
But my days of being a deckhand is over.
I'm not ever, ever, ever, never
letting anybody captain my boat again.
Never. Them days are over.
You get your butt in the front and do your job.
- Uh-huh. - Imma do mine.
I appreciate that. You did good.
You did better than I thought, old man.
Yeah, you find I was a good deckhand?
Yeah, you did good. You still got it.
- Okay, good. - You still got it.
Good. I'm happy.
I got a little bit more of an appreciation
for what he does in the back of the boat.
And I think after today, he's got a lot more appreciation
for what I do up at the front the boat.
He's good at what he does, you know.
I was wrong to say
that he couldn't do my job as good as I did.
You satisfied with my performance?
Yeah, I'm satisfied.
Meanwhile, up in bayou sorrel,
willie and junior have run all their lines
and are finally working as a cohesive team.
Right there on the front of the boat.
Bump up a little bit?
Let me see. Let me see that.
Right here, dad, right here.
Being expert treble hunters,
the edwards boys know it takes lots of skill and experience
to track a gator in open water,
plus a lot of patience.
This sucker's smart.
[gunshot]
throw it behind. Let the boat drift into it there.
- There he is. - Got him?
Got him? Want me to help you?
Grab that gun.
Here he come, here he come.
Yup.
Okay.
What I love about alligator hunting is the treble hooking.
And, I mean, it's an adrenaline rush.
I mean, you don't know what you're hooking down there.
And you don't know what size he is,
and you don't know what he gonna do.
And when you hook that thing, it's just a rollercoaster ride.
I mean, it just pumps you up
and I love it and never change nothin' of it.
That ain't his first rodeo, this alligator right here.
The way he was doing that slick moves and stuff.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Come on.
We had a good time today, but that boat every day, nah.
I mean, I love my dad to death, but not every day.
He can't handle being the deckhand,
not in my boat.
Well, that's it.
- Decent day. - Yep.
Meanwhile, in an area known as cannibal bayou,
daniel and dorien are circling back
to a line they baited with a piece of cannibalized gator.
These big alligators
could have been here 50, 80, 100 years.
They don't get that big by being dumb.
He's been tested,
not only by man and all of his tricks,
but by other alligators.
He's been tested from the day he was born.
Another alligator or a bird or a fish,
something was trying to eat him.
His very first memory in life
was trying not to be eaten by something.
Hope he don't break that line.
Oh, he been eating on him.
Cannibal gator. He's a bully.
All right, pa, let's take a look at him.
He's on the line, pa.
Ooh, yeah.
- Watch him. - Whoa!
Watch out, watch out. That's dangerous.
Give me a shot, pa.
Be careful.
Watch him.
Oh, yeah.
Oh!
He's gonna pop the line!
When he turns, let him go and pull him back.
Give me a shot, give me a shot.
Don't let him beat you up, pa.
Shoot him!
[gunshot]
- good shot. - We got him, pa.
- Another big one. Cannibal. - Cannibal gator.
Let's see if we can pull this thing in the boat.
One, two, go.
Okay, let's go again.
One more.
Little bit more. That's good.
Landing this 10-foot, 400-pound cannibal gator
is a good way to end the day,
but daniel knows this area is overrun
with more aggressive, hungry gators
that won't stop hunting.
When an alligator's hungry,
there is nothing that will move that he won't eat.
Another alligator, human, beef cattle,
it doesn't matter.
When they're hungry, they're very, very dangerous.
Another boatload.
Oh, it's been a busy day. God dog.
We sure pulled out a lot of really big alligators.
Back in pierre part,
after a long day wearing each other's shoes...
Come on, let's go.
The king of the swamp takes pickle and his grandson
for ice cream to celebrate a successful day.
One chocolate and two banana.
You don't like chocolate?
You don't want chocolate? Thank you.
And for troy, pickle has become more than just a deckhand.
She's family.
You know, pickles and I in the boat,
she says what she feels and I say how I feel
and we get along good that way.
She acts like she's one of my kids.
She don't listen to nothing I tell her.
Tells me she's gonna put me in the old folks home,
and I threaten to send her back to kindergarten.
Think if I was to rate you from 1 to 10,
think I'd give you a minus...
[laughs]
not a minus. I'd give you a nine and a half.
I think the king of the swamp's a big name
for a big old teddy bear like that.
They should've gave him a little bit of a milder name.
That's some good ice cream. Let's do a toast.
- Toast. - Toast to the good ice cream.
Cheers.