Several years ago, four of us were fishing from the bank of a 7,000 acre private lake for bass. The lake also had a healthy population of alligators. We were having a very productive morning using spinner baits. An 8 ft 'gator ultimately showed up, and chased every bass we caught all the way to the bank. We had to retrieve like crazy to keep this guy from getting our fish. After we had gotten the fish out of the water, the 'gator would swim off about 30 yards, and submerge. One of my buddies made a nice long cast after one of the 'gators failed chases, and while retrieving a substantial spinner bait, he lamented that he had hooked a submerged log. He was finally able to get it to move towards him, as he desperately wanted to retrieve his lure. Suddenly, the gator popped up with the spinner bait securely held in it's mouth! He was "retrieved" to within about 30 feet of the bank. We all refused our buddy's offer to let us unhook and release it; so, he wrapped the line around his hand and forearm and broke the guy off, after getting him to within about fifteen feet of us. The 'gator slowly swam away, turned, and gave us a long glaring look before submerging; the spinner bait still dangling from it's mouth.. We all agreed that we had had enough "fun" for one day, and left the 'gator to solve his spinner bait problem on his own.