Reflections for days 7 and 8

Yesterday and today were very relaxing days on the water.  We got off to our usual late starts and lightly paddled until about 5 each day. Easter was beautiful on the river- while camping over the cliff I saw an amazing sunrise, and on the sandbar that night a great sunset.  It was fun to see other people out enjoying the river on Easter as well. One family was parked on the beach we camped on, and we talked to them all afternoon.  We talked about fishing, gators, and heard countless stories from their life on the river.  One story in particular sure got our attention.  A man named Curtis told us a story about when he went hog hunting with dogs, and one went missing.  They had tracking collars on the dogs so they came back the next day with GPS devices.  They got close to the river and their device beeped quickly meaning that they were close. A couple minutes later a 15 foot gator surfaced.  Once they connected the dots they shot it and cut it open.  The collar was in it's stomach as well as the whole dog. The family offered to take us back to their camper to eat and sleep but we declined, not wanting to leave our kayaks out in the open.

Today we did more of the same, paddling off and on and drifting down the river.  The weather was absolutely perfect today- little to no wind but still not too many bugs, and ample sunshine.  I caught a couple bass this morning and kept one alive for as long as I could so that we could eat it tonight. We got a video of me cleaning the fish and cooking it in the butter, lemon juice, and capers. It turned out very well in my opinion!

I used the remains of the bass I cleaned to set limb lines again.  About an hour later, I looked out over the water with binoculars to see the limp bouncing up and down.  I sprinted to the kayak and paddled across, and luckily the catfish was still hooked. It wasn't as big as the first but it still was around 10 lbs and too big to eat in one sitting so we released it. I also killed a water moccasin with a paddle when it came up into our camp. It was another adventuresome day in north Florida!