Hook, line and sinker: Alligator snatches fish from line of fly-fishing teen

ESTERO, Fla. — A hungry alligator got an easy meal of fish at the expense of a Southwest Florida teenager.

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Gavin Borsky, 15, of Estero, was fly fishing in the Stoneybrook community and had hooked a peacock bass, WINK-TV reported.

“I was able to catch one, reel it in, and then I look over and he is right there,” Borsky told WBBH-TV.

“He” was a fast-moving alligator, who raced after the bass and snatched it off the teen’s hook, according to the television station.

Borsky had set up his cellphone behind him to capture the fish he would catch. He was not expecting a large reptile to enter the picture.

“He ended up coming over, ran over, snatched the fish on land, (and) ran back into the water,” Borsky told WINK.

The teen immediately sent the video to his mother.

“Like, did that really just happen?” Julie Borsky told the television station. “I was like, shocked, I’m like, ‘That’s not a little gator, that’s a big gator.’

“I was just astounded.”

Julie Borsky said it was not her son’s first encounter with an alligator while fishing. She said Gavin had a similar episode when he was 4 years old and fishing with his grandfather, WINK reported.

“The same thing happened, but that was a smaller gator than this one was,” she told the television station.

Fortunately for Gavin, the alligator was simply interested in the fish.

“It’s a beautiful fish -- any fish, I just feel bad to see it die like that,” he told WBBH.

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