BULL SHOALS – Bull Shoals Lake and the tailwaters downstream from its dam are widely known for impressive fishing – largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, striped bass, walleye, all sorts of trout.
Add alligators to that list.
Well, one alligator, and it was a baby.
Cpl. Joe Purdom, a wildlife officer with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, last week answered a call from a man at the Damsite boat ramp last week. The caller, Derrick Williamson of Mountain Home, had found an alligator.
Purdom said, “It was about 20 inches long, and it looked like it was starving. I took it to a local veterinarian’s office. They said it was in pretty bad shape and it did die the next day.â€
Purdom speculated that someone had the little gator as a pet and released it at the lake, which is against state regulations. Bull Shoals is more than a hundred miles north of known sites where alligators live, but the southern third of the state has a good population of them.