Headed to LOX NWR tomorrow (1/28)
I didn’t make it up there yet but have a trip planned with others for tomorrow at 10 a.m. I’m really looking forward to it.
And again, this isn’t the Loxahatchee river but the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. Mebbe the Lox river is part of it but it’s not the place that’s commonly known as the Loxahatchee river.
The rental company only charges $32 for an all day canoe rental and that’s pretty damn cheap compared to renting anything on the beach (they’re more like $30 an hour!)
I don’t have a SOT, I have my little ‘punkin seed’ shaped Perception so that’s what I’m going in. And before anyone knocks my tiny little yak, YOU try getting a normal 14’ yak up the stairs, around the corner, and into my walkin closet! I literally shopped for size and not features.
I’ll post a link to pictures tomorrow afternoon/evening
Yep! Paddling along in my canoe next
to a kayak when wamp! No kayak. Little later paddling along side another kayak when whoosh. Nother kayak gone. This happened another two times and then a gator took a little bite of my canoe. I figure from that experiance that gators must prefer kayaks over canoes 4 to 1. Therefore I always try to paddle the swamps next to a kayak! :^) :^) :^)
Need any more help, just holler.
>:^)
Mick
I paddle the saint johns
It is slap full of gators. In flood most of them are back in the woods but by mating season toward the end of the dry season the river is in its banks and a lot of horny gators are concentrated in the channel.
This time of year I see a bunch sunning but they are too cold to be a bother. During mating season the big males are very aggressive toward my sprint boat. They give the surfski a bit more respect, I guess because it sits so much higher on the water. I never dally about because numerous animals have approached me. When I’m doing intervals and remaining stationary between pieces I have to keep one eye over my shoulder while sitting still. It doesn’t happen every day or even on a majority of days but I’m out almost every day so the chance of encounters is high.
One big guy chased me every morning last year for about a month and then he dissappeared. About a week later I was talking to the local FWC law dog and he told me that the animal had been fed and was harrassing people at Hontoon Island State Park. It was removed. Went 12’8" and 600lbs or so. Don’t think I’d win that battle.
People feeding the gators should be shot. There was a sluggish 10footer hanging out around the fish cleaning station on the upper end of my lake this AM. I get the feeling that I’m going to have problems with that animal once the water warms and he gets more animated. You would believe the number of people overnighting on house boats that I’ve caught tossing scraps to gators on the river. I’ve gone ballistic a couple of times and the morons look at me in my little boat like “what’s the big deal?”. I’m convinced that some of the river tours also feed gators to garrantee that at least some animals will be hanging out in a predictable spot for their tours.
Seriously…
You have wittnessed an alligator attack on several boats?
In what time frame? Where? What happened?
I’ve been paddling around the beasts for eleven years, and the folks I paddle with have many more years, and we’ve NEVER had any problems.
Sure, sometimes we scare them, and then they scare us, but never an attack.
We paddle the rivers and swamps of central Florida weekly.
T
I’ve paddled with many…
…and never had a problem. In the water I’ve
had them follow me, but they seemed to be more
curious about what i was than anything else.
But I can see that if they were used to being
fed from boats they might be aggressive.
On land I’ve had a few that stood their ground
until I threw a rock or stick at them, and one
was aggressive, resulting in me putting a pistol
round in the sand front of his nose. (The second
one was intended for a more vulnerable spot, but
it wasn’t required.)
Gator Repellant
By the by…
When I first came to the deep south, I read all I could,and talked to many locals about the alligators.
They have very sensitive organs on thier lower jaws to detect even the slightest disturbance in the water. I guess there is nothing quite like it in other animals.
Many back woods boys have discovered long ago the way to repel the animals is a loud slap on the water with your paddle. Easier with a canoe paddle. Properly done, it can sound like a .22 going off.
Kind of like shouting in one’s ear, or a bright light in our eyes, it hurts thier perceptory organs, and they will withdraw.
T
“'m convinced that some of the river tou
”'m convinced that some of the river tours also feed gators to garrantee that at least some animals will be hanging out in a predictable spot for their tours."
Without a doubt. I heard about some airboat tour South of me that feeds %$^%&$ing MARSHMALLOWS to gators.
These animals shouldn’t even be touched.
If you look close enough in paddling reviews you’ll find the reviewer of Lox NWR talks about grabbing their tails. Dipstick.
Looks to be a good day for paddling. Partly cloudy, little wind…in two hours I’ll be staring at gators wondering if the advice here is accurate 
Sound as Gator deterrent?
So,if sound is a major deterrent for the gators, would anything that is loud and piercing fend one off? That would provide me with an actual use for tiny little yippy dogs that bug me…
But seriously though, on that thought, would something like one of the loud rescue whistles or an air horn keep one away? Just a thought.
Just got home
A few pix on the way…brought the wrong camera battery so very few shots (and hurried ones at that).
It was obvious that the gators would prefer that I was not there, but none wanted to argue about it.
The on I should have taken a picture of was “the eye.” I didn’t see the gator but I saw the eye and my brain said “wtf” a second befroe the rest of my brain saw it as a whole gator. It was mebbe 5 feet long, four feet from me and even with the 'yak, and completely unmotivated to do anything but let me go by.
Links to crappy pix soon…
Dogs…
Will bring them to you. But it will stop the annoying yapping. However, that is seen as feeding the alligators, a truly bad idea.
No, it’s not the noise, it’s the vibration (shock) in the water. They have ears, but they also have organs that sense the vibration in the water in ways we can not.
Come om guys. It is obvious from the way
my post is written that it is a joke.
Gators want nothing to do with paddlers and will move on out smartly when ever they can. It would take a very stupid person to try and prevent them from moving on out.
Exception is mating season and extremely dry times of the year. During mating season who in their right mind would paddle into a swarm of gators. During very dry times of the year gators get pushed together too tightly and are not in the best of moods. Why would one paddle near gators at all during these times?!
Happy Paddl’n and do not pet the gators! They do not like it.
:^)
Mick
A few pictures
My camera battery seems fried so I only have a few pix. Full damn charge and it conked out after 10 shots >8^
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2927/lnwrjan2006027croppedsmall6jq.jpg
http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/8554/lnwrjan2006022small1dn.jpg
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/2395/lnwrjan2006014small4um.jpg
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/3402/lnwrjan2006026small2mz.jpg
ps…not me in the pic
Slapping the water would provoke
an attack during mating season, especially around a big gator! During the mating season bull gators snap their mouths shut at the water's surface to warn competitors to stay out of their territory. Slapping water with your paddle that time of year is the best way to aggrevate the biggest bull gator in the vicinity and he's gonna come lookin' for the challenger. So don't do it!
On anther note, I totally agree that idiots feeding gators should eliminated! It is illegal to feed or harass them in any way except in self-defense and even then you might still have to deal with the court system. I say feed the gator feeders to the gators. That would be true justice.
However, since that's also illegal, then report the feeders to your your local law inforcement agency. There are stiff fines and penalties for such actions and if a tour boat operator is caught he loses everything; his boat, his license, his business and will spend a minimum of six months in jail.
Lastly, while creek paddling I've had a female launch off a bank and swim full speed at me with her mouth wide open. When she saw me floating with the current along the opposite bank she stopped in the middle of the creek pool and watched me float by. She was just guarding her nest. Yet, on the same creek in slow current I've floated by about two dozen babies on an outside bend while their 9 ft. mama was on the opposite high bank watching. Using the paddle as a rudder with very little movement I came within a foot of the babies and mama did nothing. Now, if one of them would've chirped it could've been a whole 'nother ball game.
Its not you???
Is the guy sitting butt-bottom in that canoe?
Is this the accepted and necessary paddling position for paddling with gators? It seems dammed uncomfortable with a wet butt and legs locked straight ahead … but I guess kayakers do that all the time
The problem is…
…there is so much misinformation and urban
myths that I could easily find people who would
quite seriously claim exactly the same as you
did in jest.
But when you question them on it it turns out to
be the cousin of my my wife’s ex college roommate
heard someone say that once…
Nice troll, though!
gators
The aggressive behaviors of gators is quite real. I paddle the refuge{LNWR) several times aweek over the past 4 years and have had only one incident as I mentioned. It is not the Loxahatchee river although a fatality did occurr there several years ago. My friend who is a fire chief for the city of Boca had his Jensen punctured by a pissed off gator in the Mosquito lagoon. It pays to have local knowledge of the area you paddle. I would certainly do so if I was in bear country.
Bob
gators
the alligators will here you coming long before you see them. if you see 1, you probably passed 10.if he sees you coming in the water he will go under. if he is on the bank he will just stay there if you just paddle by. its less nerving to just paddle by then it is to make a big noise and watch the gator take off into the water because he was spooked. i paddle with the alligators most times. i am way more at ease when they are still and not upset as opposed to when they are spooked and become active.
if you have to make noise a simple tap on the hull is more than plenty.
it is true gators can be aggressive during mating season. you also dont want to get to close to the female that is gaurding a nest or young.
No need in sitting in the bottom
of a canoe around gators. I push-pole standing up in my canoe in the local swamps here in Florida and the only time I had one ‘bother’ me was when I came upon a female guarding her nest and even then she only swam toward me with mouth agape (a typical nesting females warning) into the middle of the creek’s pool to let me know I wasn’t welcome in her turf. Once she saw I was hanging close to the opposite bank and was just passing through she swam back and climbed the bank toward her nest with out a second thought. Maybe she remembered my canoe or my scent (don’t go there, I took a shower that morning) as I have seen her and her me several times in the past.
butt bottom in the canoe
Yes, he is sitting butt bottom in the canoe. There’s a reason for that - he’s huge. His step father was in the front of the canoe and is also a large guy. Their high center of gravity and lack of paddling experience made for a bad combination and they dumped the canoe. Twice. In the 1st 1/4 mile.
Once I told 'em to sit on the bottom all was well and they had fun.