Wakulla River 3/12
Posted: March 12th, 2006, 10:05 pm
Got a slow start and hit the river late this morning with my Dad and his golden in one canoe and my nephew, Patrick, and I in the other. Put in at Upper Bridge and floated down to just below Cherry Island. Did nothing with the bass except look down at them looking up at us. Patrick flipped around with a flyrod for a while and did nothing with the stumpknockers, either. Saw the usual assortment of birds. The buzzard caucus that was hanging out above the powerlines the last few times I was there seems to have adjourned. Saw lots of sliders, some of them pretty big. Saw lots of boats of many varieties, but that's to be expected on a warm, sunny, Sunday afternoon, like today was.
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.
He was in with some fallen logs and looked just like one, except for the ridges running up his back.
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.
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.
He was in with some fallen logs and looked just like one, except for the ridges running up his back.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.
