Three weeks ago a woman died in a Florida river after an alligator bit both her arms off.
James Grayson McMicken saw that same headline – and went fishing in his backyard canal anyway.
Then a gator grabbed him by the leg and pulled him into the water.
What Happened in That Canal on June 26
McMicken is 71 years old, lives in North Fort Myers, and has been legally hunting alligators long enough to know one thing that most people never learn until it's too late.
He was standing at the edge of the canal behind his house on a Friday night, bulldog at his side, fishing pole in hand.
One cast.
That's all he got.
"I started reeling and it jumped out of the water and grabbed me," McMicken said.
The alligator clamped onto his right leg, rolled him down the bank, and dragged him into the water.
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McMicken had maybe five seconds to make a decision.
He decided he was not going to die.
"I stuck my thumb in one eye," he explained. "I just took that fishing pole and jabbed him in that other eye and jabbed him and jabbed him and jabbed him."
The gator let go.
Why That Worked and Why Most People Would Not Have Known to Do It
An alligator's jaws can generate thousands of pounds of bite force – you cannot pry them open with your hands.
The FWC is explicit about this: your only real option when an alligator has hold of you is to fight back with everything you have, targeting the eyes and the snout.
"Hitting or kicking the alligator or poking it in the eyes may cause it to release its grip," the FWC has said. "When alligators seize prey they cannot easily overpower, they will often let go and retreat."
McMicken already knew this because he had hunted them.
"I've always heard that if you've got no other choice, hit them eyes. And that's what got him off of me," he said.
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Most 71-year-old men dragged into a canal at night do not have that knowledge.
James Grayson McMicken did, and it saved his life.
"I'd have never made it crawling this far, so I called my dog over. She stood there and let me get up on her back to where I could get stood up," he said.
"Then I sat down in my chair and passed out. I was so exhausted," he said.
His family rushed him to Cape Coral Hospital, where he received staples and stitches for deep bite wounds on both sides of his right leg.
The Nurses at Cape Coral Hospital Had Not Heard Anything Like This
"All the nurses on the floor had to come by and go, 'Wow, you did what?'" McMicken said.
The FWC sent officers and trappers to the canal after the June 26 attack.
As of this week, they have not found the alligator.
Florida has had a brutal stretch of gator attacks this summer – three serious incidents in a two-week span in late June, including the fatal attack on 31-year-old Brittany Clark in the Econlockhatchee River outside Orlando.
Florida Fish and Wildlife trapper Chadwick Lairsey explained why summers get dangerous fast.
"Right now in summer is when gator-human encounters are most common," Lairsey said. "School's out, summer vacations are happening, people are in the water swimming and gators are abundant."
He added one more reason people should be paying close attention right now.
"Alligators are just coming off their breeding season, and female gators are around their nests guarding young – and they can be aggressive," Lairsey said.
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Florida has roughly 1.3 million alligators spread across all 67 counties.
Every body of freshwater in the state has one.
McMicken knows that now better than most.
He Is Going Back
Here is the thing about James Grayson McMicken.
He is recovering at home.
He is in physical therapy.
And he plans to fish that same canal again.
He just will not do it at the water's edge after dark.
That is not weakness.
That is a man who fought a prehistoric predator in its own territory, won, and updated exactly one rule in his life as a result.
The media will spend this summer running footage of terrified swimmers fleeing Florida waterways after every gator sighting.
McMicken got dragged into a canal in the dark, jabbed a gator in both eyes with a fishing pole and his bare thumb, used his bulldog to get back on his feet, and went home to his wife – and his one adjustment going forward is that he will not stand at the water's edge at night.
There are about 330 million Americans.
A man like James Grayson McMicken is one of a kind.
Sources:
- Sean Joseph, "Florida man gives an incredible interview about how he fought off an alligator with a fishing pole," OutKick/Fox News, July 8, 2026.
- WINK News, "North Fort Myers man uses fishing pole to escape alligator's grip," winknews.com, July 2026.
- Local 10/WPLG, "Florida man survives alligator attack during backyard fishing trip," local10.com, July 3, 2026.
- Field & Stream, "How to Survive an Alligator Attack," fieldandstream.com, January 2026.
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, "What to do if you come face-to-face with an alligator," clickorlando.com, 2023.
- Outdoor Life, "There Have Been 3 Horrific Alligator Attacks In Florida Recently," outdoorlife.com, July 2026.
