St. Marks Report Saturday 9/5/15

[Ted in Tallahassee]

Put in at the fort ramp a little after 7 AM and headed out to the lighthouse. It was just me this time, the boys didn't want to go. Tide looked to be dead high. I swung left (east) and headed to the little beach area just east of the entrance of Big Cove where I planned to cast net some mud minnows/fingermullet. The tide was so high there was only a couple of areas of sand visible between the sawgrass (or whatever that tall green stuff is that grows near the water's edge) and I pulled the boat up in there. It was actually tough to cast net there because the water was so high. I managed to get several small ballyhoo, and as I was walking back towards my boat, which was about 30 or 40 feet away, I notice something in the water, near shore, about 30 feet beyond my boat. HOLY CRAP IT IS A GIANT ALLIGATOR. And it is swimming along shore towards my boat, which is a 15' open aluminum jonboat that's pulled up partly on the shore. I realize the gator is about as far from the boat as I was, and if I did not step up my pace he would be at the boat before I was.

The thing that unnerved me was that I was looking into the rising sun, and I'm a big guy and was wearing a white shirt so the gator HAD to have seen me, but he didn't spook, which is my universal experience with gators. Another thing that unnerved me was that I realized that even if I got in my boat, if he wanted to, he could easily get right into it and have me for breakfast. I also realize that I've got water on one side of me, and only a tiny strip of something resembling land running along the shoreline that peters out to water after a little ways, and on the other "land" side is just a thin peninsula of boggy sawgrass stuff, and there's really nowhere to run if I tried to run. There's also no boats anywhere to be seen, and of course I have no gun in the boat as I don't want to get saltwater on it. A simultaneous sickening feeling was that I have taken my boys to this very spot before, and they're roamed around these same weeds, with neither they or I having a clue giant gators would possibly even be out here in the gulf. As I'm quickly walking towards my boat, he apparently sees me, and stops swimming. Then he lifted his head out of the water and as he did so he also raised his tail, sort of arching his back I guess, and OH CRAP his tail was so long it was sick, and the gnarly vertical scutes on top of it looked like a row of black bayonets sticking up. I get to where my boat is, and he slowly sinks underwater. I stood there waiting a long time to see where he would surface. FINALLY he surfaced exactly where he had sunk, and I threw my arms up and yelled, and it scared him and he took off in a huge boil. WHEW! Just a normal gator, all is right with the world now, silly me for all of these dramatic thoughts. So my fishing mind takes over and I threw the net a few more times, eyes scanning every clump of grass and the surrounding waters keenly now, and having gotten several fat mud minnows and a fingermullet I put the net up and decided to throw a Skitterwalk from shore a few times in hopes of maybe getting a redfish, So I start walking west, away from my boat, get maybe 30 feet, and think to myself "hey what's that junk over there right up against the sawgrass?" and HOLY CRAP it's him, right there, right up against the grass, just laying thee floating, within 10 feet of where I had been castnetting earlier. DONE. FINITO. OUTTA HERE. CHECK PLEASE. Went to the boat, pushed off, cranked up the motor, and headed east to Palmetto Island.

I floated some live bait off Palmetto, lots of mullet activity at the shoreline, nothing hit my mudminnows. Then I headed out to deeper water to try floating a live bait and also throwing some Gulps under poppers. Did that, long story short, got only two short trout on the popper and two sharks on the live bait. It was hot by then so I headed out to one of my marked good scallop GPS spots, threw the popper some, drifted for a while, got another shark on a pinfish I had caught on a sabiki rig, and I started to notice there were a LOT of scallops on the bottom. I had brought my dive gear just in case, but had not really planned on diving since I was alone, but as I was drifting I saw more and more on the bottom, and I threw out the anchor. There was another boat diving not too far from me so I felt not quite alone in the middle of nowhere, and I put my gear on and went over the side. Completely insane infestation. Well for me, anyway. I had only scalloped a half dozen times before, and this was by far the most concentrated place I'd seen. I did not go more than about 5 feet from the boat and got a dozen scallops. I moved only twice, pulling the anchor along while swimming maybe 20 feet and dropping it, and repeating the process. I got about 1.5 gallons in maybe 15-20 minutes. About that point I started to think "I have enough, time to get out." I had started to wonder whether this great scallop experience was about to be marred by something I was going to see (big shark, the gator, ???) that was going to scare me half to death. By the time I decided to get out I couldn't get out fast enough.

Back to fishing ... went out a little deeper (6 feet), got another shark and a HUGE needlefish (houndfish?) probably 3 feet long on the livebaits. It threw up two small ballyhoo, which I realized must have been the ones I had just released. Fished, moved, fished, moved, nothing, no trout. Saw a gar at the stake line off Grey Mare rock, the big wooden telephone pole marker. A GAR. That far out in the gulf? I had no idea.

On a final note--As suggested by someone previously, the best way to have scallops stay opened up a little for later cleaning is to let them sit in the bag for 10-15 minutes (out of the water), then put them on TOP of ice--not in it or under slushy icewater--and they will open WAAY up and stay that way. Easy cleaning!

[countrycorners]

good report, thanks

[Blue spinner]

thanks ,sound like a fun day on the Gulf

[Charlie P]

Epic story! Thanks for sharing.

[kikstand454]

Great story!

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this isn't the same gator that hung out at the long bar a year or so ago, that would politely follorw your kayak around. He never got close....50yds or so, but he was definitely moving with you! After the second time it happened to me, I felt no fear and went about my business, but kept my distance just the same. The good news is that him displaying like that means you startled him and he was just letting you know hes in charge. If he was trying to hurt you, you'd have never seen it coming!
He's been there a LONG time and I've never heard him giving anyone a problem.
But he sure will raise the pucker factor in any situation! Lol.

[CoastalPirate]

Ha Ha I would have reacted the same way Ted! Great story and awesome report.

[Gulf Coast]

He just wants to poke you guys !!

[GaryDroze]

Welcome to my world. Horns Creek, just east of Big Cove, is a very productive wading creek. Also home to two big boy lizards over 11 feet that patrol the most productive bends. They usually leave me alone, but I was chased to the far bank last year by the bigger one. Barely made it to land by about 20 feet, and he stayed close until I flung a broken ladyfish downstream. As he chased after it, I jumped back into the creek and sprint-waded to the near bank. Climbed ashore and turned around to look.

This time, Big Boy wasn't 10 feet away. Less. His grinning snout was right at the water's edge, where I was about 3 seconds prior. Pretty sure he was just toying with me.

More and more, I'm thinking a flats boat seems like a fine idea.

[cappropmain]

That was a Great Story. I was in that area not long ago fishing and crabbing. We had a string of about dozen or so of chicken necks on a line set-up. The tide was coming in and we were doing well walking the line and netting crab. About the time the water level was over our waists and we made one last walk down the line. Something wasn't right...a Big Ol' gator was working it's way down the line eating the bait. We were about 20' away when this big guy popped up. Big, dark hide and looked like he may have had a bad eye. We got out of there pretty quick, but we didn't have any problems with him...other than eating our bait.

[Ted in Tallahassee]

"Bad eye," LOL, that may be the one I saw and may explain why he apparently didn't seed when I thought he should have.

Which doesn't mean he may be more harmless than other gators. In fact it may be the opposite. Maybe he's perpetually hungry and would like nothing better than a big slow warm rich mammalian meal.

I know most gators (and sharks for that matter) are generally harmless & more fearful of humans than humans are of them. But I also know alligator attacks on humans is certainly not unheard of. And when you've got big gators out in the middle of nowhere and in places that people like us will venture at all hours, well, it would not be all that surprising if one day one of them decided to have a go with one of us.

I used to dive in the St. Marks river, way up north of the fort, artifact & fossil hunting back in the '90's, and I was very concerned about gators. Never saw one underwater but know people who had. As in poking along in dark deep water, looking at the bottom two feet in front of your face with your light, and coming across an odd geometrical object that took a moment to register, and realizing it is a gigantic foot of an alligator. The stuff of nightmares! The guy backed away slowly, went up and into the boat, and quit for the day.

I've always figured that the most dangerous thing to do where there's big gators around is to swim on top of the water. Looks way too much like a deer or hog or dog, which is lunch to big gators.

Many people say they're harmless, just curious, never bother you, and so on, but then there have been those people who have said things like that about lions, bears, and tigers. You know the people I'm talking about--the ones in the news that have had their throats ripped out by their "tame friends," LOL! Shoot, even somebody's pet chimpanzee ripped some lady's face off.

Bottom line-me no likey big gators when they're in proximity to me.

[Ted in Tallahassee]

Meant to say " didn't see me" not "didn't seed."

[kenfly]

Great story!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bbb]

You should see them at night when they swim out 2-300 yards from the shoreline. Think we counted 12-15 one night between Palmetto island and the Lighthouse. Looked like Lake Seminole with all the eyes glowing.

[bbb]

We were working the shoreline right by the Lighthouse one night and the smell of death came across the bow. I just knew we were going to find a floater. Then this guy eased out of the grass with a rotten stingray in his mouth.


This was at Palmetto island. There were actually 3 around the islands edge that night.


This was at the mouth of Stoney Bayou. Playing possum on the bottom. Saw one doing this almost every time we were out there.

[Ted in Tallahassee]

Good grief apparently the area is infested with big gators! I'm not sure I really wanted to know that ....

When I Google "alligators salt water" the various resulting articles pretty much say that alligators can't take saltwater for long, that they seldom venture out in it, and so on. Apparently those articles are wrong! If you think about it, compared to freshwater, there's probably a whole lot more food in the shallows along the gulf. Tons of stingrays, mullet, flounder, small sharks, crabs, sea turtles, not to mention bigger fish like redfish. And just what would it be that would make saltwater incompatible to an alligator? They're covered with scaly skin and they don't have gills. Seems to me that as long as they figure out not to drink too much of it they can cavort in the gulf whenever the mood moves them.