Fished the last of the outgoing and first of the incoming this evening. My wading spot is not producing much yet, usually starts to pick up around June when it’s hot, but I figured I would give it I a try. I saw a couple of reds up near the bank, which was pretty close to me because I was wading. I don’t know if I spooked them or if they had lock jaw because the gulp shrimp, super spook and a fluke weren’t producing.
I waded on down about 30 yards from my first spot and was in thigh deep. Casted a few times…nothing… I looked down in the water (which was pretty cloudy) and said “what the Heck is that”. I honestly thought it was a broken timber pile or log with barnacles on it. I poked it with my rod tip and a manatee brings his head out of the water and blows his nose at me. It was 2 feet or less away from me. He/She high tailed it away from me after that.
Ended the day with one decent sized flounder that I let go. Starting to see more bait in the water and there were plenty of little shrimp out there attacking my leg hairs.
Did you have to whisk water in your shorts after seeing that manatee??
Beat me to it. Buddies of mine still bring up my first encounter with a gator under a canoe. No cleaning required but, it would have been the perfect time for an eye exam.
I haven’t had a close encounter with the manatees before (did nearly trip over a 5-foot gator while I was looking for fossils in a creek in Summerville).
Saw a manatee at Breech inlet (Sullivan’s side, near the bridge and rockpile). We were standing on the bank at low tide, it had just started incoming. Found something HUGE under the surface, and brown, moseying its way up the bank where it drops off kinda steep there. It got close enough to see the basic “huge grubworm” body shape.
Saw two of them over at Pitt Street a few years later playing.
… The Cross of Christ is the anvil upon which the hammer of evil wore itself out.
Yrs. ago in Fla., I was fishing for snook in the Indian River near the warm water discharge at the Ft. Pierce power plant.
A huge manatee swam under my 12’ jon boat & surfaced on the other side blowing his nose. I put my hand in the water, just to see what it would do. It came up along the side of the boat(parallel) and let me rub his/her nose then it’s back, then proceeded to roll over to get rubbed on the belly. This went on for about 10 minutes until it decided it had enough, and slowly swam away. Coolest thing ever.
Bob Van Gundy
Marine Designs,Inc.
Custom Aluminum Fabrication
803-727-4069
Yrs. ago in Fla., I was fishing for snook in the Indian River near the warm water discharge at the Ft. Pierce power plant.
A huge manatee swam under my 12’ jon boat & surfaced on the other side blowing his nose. I put my hand in the water, just to see what it would do. It came up along the side of the boat(parallel) and let me rub his/her nose then it’s back, then proceeded to roll over to get rubbed on the belly. This went on for about 10 minutes until it decided it had enough, and slowly swam away. Coolest thing ever.
Bob Van Gundy
Marine Designs,Inc.
Custom Aluminum Fabrication
803-727-4069
Another cool thing is that there were no DNR folks around. I had just moved to Fla. about a year or so earlier and didn’t know that it was illegal to “molest” the manatees. Could have been issued a ticket with a good sized fine.
Bob Van Gundy
Marine Designs,Inc.
Custom Aluminum Fabrication
803-727-4069
I saw a manatee swim under the floating dock at Shem Creek the other day. Sad to see prop scars on it’s back.
“I am constantly amazed at the stupidity of the general public.”
~my dad
Equipment:
190cc Sea Pro w/130 Johnson
1- 18 year old ( has decided being with parents isn’t cool)
1 - 15 year old (still does not mind hanging with the 'rents)
1 - wife (The Warden)
Yrs. ago in Fla., I was fishing for snook in the Indian River near the warm water discharge at the Ft. Pierce power plant.
A huge manatee swam under my 12’ jon boat & surfaced on the other side blowing his nose. I put my hand in the water, just to see what it would do. It came up along the side of the boat(parallel) and let me rub his/her nose then it’s back, then proceeded to roll over to get rubbed on the belly. This went on for about 10 minutes until it decided it had enough, and slowly swam away. Coolest thing ever.
Bob Van Gundy
Marine Designs,Inc.
Custom Aluminum Fabrication
803-727-4069
Im from about 30 minutes north of there. Im actually not a big fan of manatees after being flipped over by one in a yak. I didn’t know they were up here.
Like you Bob, I did not know about manatee “molestation”. We had a house on a canal in Key Largo and one morning a mom, dad and baby manatee swam up in front of the dock and just stayed there. We all jumped in with cameras and swam around with them. We rubbed them and they seemed to like the attention as they stayed for about about an hour. One of my sons rode one and the manatee did not seem to mind at all. It wasn’t until later that we found out that pictures of all of us was probably not a good idea. I actually think they are pretty cool.
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”.
After seeing a 3-4 gator swimming in the IOP Marina at 1pm on Monday I had to wait 20 minutes to get my boat out of my slip due to one of those legless sea cows. They are cool to see unless you have impatient kids wanting to “go fast Daddy”.
