Tips to avoid baby gators while bass fishing?

I live down in FL and just recently moved to a new house. At my previous address we had a nice lake right out back so I got back into fishing. At my new place there's 2 very close lakes, each is about a half mile down the road. Problem is I can't seem to catch anything with the amount of competition I have and by competition I mean baby gators. I've seen two at my regular spot and then one today at the 2nd lake. They're too small to be of personal concern at all but these little devils associate a fish on a hook with a free meal. Every time I've managed to hook a decent sized bass, as soon as the fight to pull him in starts the gator makes a B-line straight for the fish. This inevitably results in me either losing the fish from trying to yank him in too fast or the gator grabbing a hold of it at which point I usually have to cut the line. Earlier today I even had one of them go after my lure before I even had a fish on it. Anyone have any tips to dissuade these gators? I know at a place I lived a few years back we ended up calling animal control over a similar situation but I don't think they get involved unless the animals above a certain size and all three of these gators are still babies around 3 ft.