bswiv
May 13, 2010, 05:59 PM
So today Louann and I fished a couples bass tournament on the St. Johns here in FL. We launched in Palatka at sunrise ran north about 15 miles to a large grass point to start the day.
While we're out there we see two dogs come bounding out of the woods about 400 yards away. The dogs run out to about chest deep and start romping about. And we're not the only ones who see them.
About a hundred yards from where the dogs enter the water is a little gator, maybe 7 or 8 feet. He sees them too. We keep track of the progression of his "hunt" while we fish. Took him about 15 minutes to slip up within about 15 yards of the dogs before he disapeared under. Dogs must have been smarter than most because as soon as he slipped under they went back to land.
By 2 o'clock we had worked our way south in the river about 35 miles to the north end of Lake George. The lake is actually a very wide spot in the St. Johns, about 6 miles wide and 15 miles long. It's basically a big shallow bowl. Most of it is hard sand bottom with LOTS of eel grass, hydrilla and dollar pads rimming it.
And it is shallow in most places a long way from the bank. When the tide is low many places you can't get my flats boat within a 100 yards of the bank.
So I'm polling the boat along looking at bass beds and Louann is buzzing a toad across the grass when she says "look at the deer." Naturally I look toward the bank but quickly realize that she is pointing down the lake.
And there, standing about 50 yards off the bank, right out in the eel grass and dollar pads with the herons and egrets is a doe. As best we could tell she was eating the dollar pads. I've seen deer in the river before, usually swimming to get away from something, but I've not seen one eating dollar pads.....
Especially odd as the woods are as green as can be.
While we're out there we see two dogs come bounding out of the woods about 400 yards away. The dogs run out to about chest deep and start romping about. And we're not the only ones who see them.
About a hundred yards from where the dogs enter the water is a little gator, maybe 7 or 8 feet. He sees them too. We keep track of the progression of his "hunt" while we fish. Took him about 15 minutes to slip up within about 15 yards of the dogs before he disapeared under. Dogs must have been smarter than most because as soon as he slipped under they went back to land.
By 2 o'clock we had worked our way south in the river about 35 miles to the north end of Lake George. The lake is actually a very wide spot in the St. Johns, about 6 miles wide and 15 miles long. It's basically a big shallow bowl. Most of it is hard sand bottom with LOTS of eel grass, hydrilla and dollar pads rimming it.
And it is shallow in most places a long way from the bank. When the tide is low many places you can't get my flats boat within a 100 yards of the bank.
So I'm polling the boat along looking at bass beds and Louann is buzzing a toad across the grass when she says "look at the deer." Naturally I look toward the bank but quickly realize that she is pointing down the lake.
And there, standing about 50 yards off the bank, right out in the eel grass and dollar pads with the herons and egrets is a doe. As best we could tell she was eating the dollar pads. I've seen deer in the river before, usually swimming to get away from something, but I've not seen one eating dollar pads.....
Especially odd as the woods are as green as can be.