Alligator Lake 7/7/12

We've been taking major advantage of all the water that tropical storm Debby dropped on the area a couple of weeks ago by hitting up Alligator Lake as often as possible. Unfortunately, the fishing hasn't been super great. Since there is so much water, the fish can go and hide in all kinds of places where they couldn't before so it makes it harder to find them. The day in question it was me and my son on the water. It was hot outside (in the 90's) and the water was really warm as well.

 

Here is what it loos like from the boat ramp. Notice the dock right on top of the water? Before it was several feet up.

This is a back area where we have never been able to get to before.

Another part of Alligator Lake we've never been to before.

 

 

 

Here is what the average fish we have been catching looks like. 

 The times we have gone since the storm, we only caught maybe 2 fish total between all the trips. I think both of them were caught this day. They were small, nothing "keeper" size. But a cool thing about all the water is we can get to places in Alligator Lake where we have never been able to get to before. You can actually go from one boat ramp to the other, where as before, the other boat ramp and area was completely dried up. There is a lot more to this lake than we've ever seen! All the water also makes it good for any regular boats with motors to be able to get in there in fish. It does make it more crowded than we are used to, but its so big that generally us kayakers aren't bothered by the bigger boats. We will hopefully be able to hit it up again soon!

Double Duty Saturday

This past Saturday we decided to try Suwannee Lake again. A co-worker of mine recently caught a near 10 pound fish out of there. And from the looks of it, you know there has to be some big ones in there, I can feel it.

So we got up super early, loaded the kayaks and gear, and headed out just before daylight. When we got there the sun had been up for only a few minutes, but there was already one boat on the water. Suwannee Lake has received a fair amount of rain recently so the water level is up.

Our focus was all the trees in the middle of the lake. We didn't really fish those that hard last time we were here, mostly because of the weather. I just knew that is where the big one was lurking. 

This is a picture from back in April when we went the first time. See all those trees? That's just one small section of them. 

 Since the water is higher, its much easier to navigate through all the tree stumps. And you can get to the other end we didn't get to last time because the water was lower. That is actually where the fish were caught.

 I caught 5 total. And nothing of significance. They were all 12 inches or smaller. Wife didn't catch any. It was fun, but still kind of a disappointment. I was hoping for a big one.

So we went home empty handed. We got some lunch. Took some naps. And then headed back out to Alligator Lake. I really wanted fish tacos for dinner.

So we fished, and fished, and fished. We had been there for a couple of hours before this happened:

Caught this one on a frog. First time I ever caught anything on a frog. He was small though. Barely the size limit.

 THEN. This happened:

A 4 pounder. FINALLY.

Over all, it ended up being a good fishing day. It just took a while to get there.