Every time I throw anything on top, I have a problem with young alligators attacking it.  They LOVE a jitterbug.  I managed to get one back but usually have to cut the line.  I had to hit one with my paddle to get him to leave.  How do you deep south guys deal with this?  I just go to underwater lures that they ignore. 

Those juvenile alligators are a pain, but my son found a way to "train" them not to bother our topwaters in one of the lagoons we fish where there are two juveniles.

 

He spent about an hour tossing an old frog around the gator and ripping it past the gators when they went after it. Sometimes he'd let them get close and then rip it away. Other times he'd cast it so the gator had to swim to it and then he'd rip it away. After an hour or so the gators gave up.

 

We've been back to that lagoon four times since then and those little gators don't bother with our lures at all. I can bring one a few feet from their snout and now they now leave it alone.