Marci and I decided to head to Blue Spring State Park for a paddle this morning. The weather was nice, mid 70’s and low humidity in the morning. You can paddle all the way up in to the spring until 11:00am so, we took advantage and did so before the crowds got to the park.
The spring run was not quite as clear as last time we vistited. Evidently there has been a lime collapse of some sort (according to another visitor.) There are still TONS of alligator gar, and it is clear enough to see them in great detail. One surfaced right at my bow and spooked as it knocked in to the kayak.
When we got to the springhead, there were only two other guys there. They quickly head down river and we had the spring to ourselves for the better part of a half an hour. We did some snorkling in the cool water and then made haste as a group of divers arrived. We decided to paddle down river to Hontoon Island and have some lunch, then turn around.
About a mile in to our paddle, we came across three guys in a jonboat. One had a heavy fishing rod, like the size of a deep sea rod, that was bent in half. All of the sudden, there was a mightly splash and whatever was on the end of that pole, started pulling the boat. Marci quickly decided it had to be a gator, I was not so sure. I have never seen anyone catch one on a pole before. We sat and watched for probably 15-20 minutes as these guys fought this monster. We quickly realized Marci was indeed correct! After a serious fight, the guys managed to subdue the alligator, and with a mighty BANG, the gator met his match at the end of a bang stick. Who would have ever thought you would run in to that in the middle of a Saturday morning!?
It was quite a show, but, I do admit to feeling a little bad for the creature… Especially on this opening day of Florida Gator Football. None the less, they peaked our curiosity and we had to ask them… “So how big is he?” The response, “At least 11 feet, maybe more! But big enough for sure!” It easily looked about the size of our Hobies… but WIDER! Times like this will definitely remind you that you are indeed part of the food chain when you enter the water in Florida. 🙂
We continued our journey to Hontoon and ate our lunch. The trip back was quite a bit warmer than the trip down. The last hour we baked! We totaled around 8 miles round trip, with the spring run included. A great way to spend a Saturday.