Cajun Cyclone is the title of this week’s Swamp People and for good reason: The weather down in the Gulf don’t play when it goes south.
Swamp People is well into the season and the heat is still oppressive and thick as a mangrove root tangle. Hurricane season dovetails with gator hunting season, and the weather makes things twice as dangerous as they already are.
“These storms are probably the greatest challenge to hunting in the swamp,” says Daniel Edgar.
Pierre Part is practically underwater from a stalled tropical storm, and the waiting out strategy is wearing on Troy Landry and his “big buddy” Terral Evans.
Surrounded by the cast of the show, Troy says: “Not good boys, not good…you can’t take nothing for granted when it comes to storms.”
In this episode, it is worth noting that Holey Boley aka Holden is back, and fans of the Landry clan can celebrate. But only in the opener, he is not out on any boats this episode, and no Willie Edwards either. Wonder what Glenn Guist is up to as well.
But our he-men of the season, Mr. Terral aka “big buddy” and King of the Swamp Troy totally plan to man it out and run their lines. Right out of the gate they roll up on a live wire. Then Terral points out what looks to be a hurricane rolling in on the horizon with vivid lightning strikes off in the distance. Remember that these guys are working in metal boats.
Meanwhile, the Edgar clan is monitoring the radio and weather report. It appears that they do not venture out this day. “It’s just a part of life and we have to live with it,” says Mr. Daniel, who is not eager to run any lines during this sizable squall.
Of note, Big T is shown to be back in the Edgar clan fold as they monitor the weather. Hopefully, his knee injury is on the mend.
Ronnie and Ashley are acutely aware that the weather is about to change bigtime.
“You hear dat line dey say the calm before the storm?” says Ronnie, who tells Che that the skies were bright blue right up until Katrina hit. Their strategy is to run lines quickly then be at the ready to help the community if needed.
He says: “I know there is people who will not leave and they will need help eventually.” They get their boat under a raised up house and wait out the storm. Ronnie tells Che all about the horrors of Katrina.
“I had to start over life all over again like I was just out of college with nothing not even a pot to pee in.” Their final line has a gargantuan and the 10 foot beast of Belle River is dispatched.
The two roll up on a downed line and pull in a smallish gator who they bagged by just a tooth.
Bayou Black is where Frenchy and Gee are, closest to the storm. Frenchy is worried his failing bilge pump will endanger their lives. “When I set a line, I am obligated to go that day,” says Frenchy. “I don’t kill things for no reason.”
They bag a monster and then race to get out of the electrical storm that is preceding the winds. They have eleven more lines and the two are in raincoats and racing against the storm and that bad bilge pump. They get in a fix with the boat swamping, “not a good time for the bilge pump to go out,” says Frenchy. Gee is bail bucketing his brains out at this point.
The lightning in Pierre Part is a huge concern and Troy does not like it one bit. Terral and Troy have some experience with the weather turning and the two are racing to pull up their lines. Then a disaster strikes as Troy’s gun, which was wedged under a huge gator carcass, snaps in half.
They are trying to get a monster up and in the boat and now his gun is busted in half. Even then, it fires despite being broken, they get their beast. This development has Terral worried the gun will blow up in Troy’s face and he wants to quit.
One last line and kill, then the lightning and thunder have Terral on high alert. “I don’t like that lightning — we going back,” says Troy. Their journey back to the dock is treacherous.
Jacob and Dusty are out on Lake Verret and the skies look bad where they are at as well.
They roll up on a huge floater who is playing possum. The eleven-footer is bagged and then the weather goes south fast. The two are also in rain gear as they scoop up their downed lines ahead of the storm.
Then the two haul in a 12 footer. The storm passes them and they finish out bagging their lines and get a 9 footer that springs back to life when they tried to get him in the boat.
He boogies off into the swamp. Jacob curses his shooting and tells Dusty he should have put in an “insurance shot.” The gator surfaces about twenty feet away and they get a Mulligan on the kill.
In all, it appears Jacob got the biggest gator of the episode as the storm cut short the action this week.
The soggy gator hunters all return to the docks with stories of storms past and close calls.
See y’all next week!
Swamp People airs Thursdays on History channel.