Late Summer Update

  

Well, looks like I'm pulling myself back in the saddle again; sorry for

the long delay between posts.  I wouldn't call it writer's block, I just

didn't have much to talk about.  Not much has happened in the last five

or so weeks: just a trip out to the Banana River Aquatic Preserve (long

name for the Banana River) with Adam the King Killer and his brother

in-law, Sgt. Sam, ultimately turning into a booze fest at the Sebastian

Inlet sandbars... that was a long 12 hours on the water.  I've spent the

majority of the last few weeks resting up my back and tearing into my

Jon-boat getting it back into shipshape for the upcoming mayhem,

otherwise known as hunting season.  Pretty much just waiting on some

Ebay parts to come in to finish up.  This year "Light Smoke" (Jon-boat's

given name) will be gracing the waters of Lake Poinsett with an updated

2001 25 horsepower Mercury 2 stroke outboard, a much needed upgrade!  I, on the other hand, will not have a new and improved spine...bummer.

Here are a few pictures from the trips I've taken over the last few

weeks on the IRL and Banana River.

Jonah the Great White Hunter and I have been scouting after work on weeknights for next week's alligator season opener and in my assessment it

has been a success (although there is not quite any type of performance

measure until there is a successful hunt on one of the gators we've been

scouting).  We picked out the gator we are going to target at the

"opening bell."  It popped up behind us as we were field testing the new

bang stick and other new goodies on an old tree, 300 yards up Duda
Canal.  The last few times we've run Middle River, it's been sitting
pretty much in the same place.  In the spirit of the most widely know
alligator hunting TV series, "Swamp People", I've decided to follow
suite and name this monster of the Middle River as they do on each

season by naming the most elusive gator.  His/Her name shall be
DUDEZILLA!!!!!! This particular gator eluded us a few times last year,
leaving us with nothing more than an empty boat and bitter memories.  It
lives right at the mouth of the Duda Canal where it enters Middle River,

thus the DUDE portion of the name, ZILLA is obviously because it's a

monster. It's at least 11 feet long if not bigger and its head is about

a foot and half wide.  Last night Jonah and I were able to get within
about 20 yards of it, which equals a dead gator in my book.
As we sat and drooled over the sheer size of this monster, I couldn't
help but think about the logistics of getting an animal this size...what
if it sinks the boat when we get it in?...Gee, I sure hope it's all the
way dead in that situation...Is it going to collapse my cleaning
table?...How do we get it from the boat to the table?...Do I have enough

freezer space? (NO.) ...that's going to take A LOT of Ziplocs...
Anyways, I guess we'll cross those rickety bridges when we come to them.

I'm including some pictures of last night's scouting trip which was most
likely our last 'til season starts.  You will notice that we are wearing

safety glasses, that's because this time of year there is a major hatch

of some type of fly out on the river; when you're running at about 30

mph, they tend to sting the eyes a little. Also, make sure you chew your
gum with your mouth closed (take my word for it)...Mmmmm...crunchy. We
were also able to run and set a trail cam on a pig wallow, so that
should be entertaining to view those pictures next week. I'll post some

if I get to my camera (and it's still there [that is, it hasn't been

stolen]) next week.