Started catching fish on the way back up, WOO-HOOoo. Caught seven total on chartreuse Snagless Sally's with no trailers. Four were small. This is the best I've done on the river since they started bedding. Did nothing on crankbaits or topwaters. Watched the opsreys and the bowfishermen hunt. Watched a kite swooping over the river. Had a manatee pace our slow drift for a good 10 minutes, until the poor thing got surrounded by rental kayaks. As we moved on past all the jabbering, I threw out a comment about tasting like beef.

A woman looked at me like I just told her I ate her dog.


I'd just about bet money none of these people saw the big 'gator that was right there, laying very still with his tail in the water and his head shoved up in the weeds.

This was the second gator we saw. The first was swimming across the river down at Cherry Island. Enough of his head was under, I couldn't tell if it was Ol' Broke Jaw, or not.
Lots of bass are still on the beds. Of the folks we spoke to that were bass fishing, none admitted to doing very well, a few shorts.
Of the three we kept, all had yellow roe, two had crawdads in their bellies.