<blockquote>Redfish said:I hope this was on a lake? Not the Flint--right???? You weren't in a yak, I hope.<img title="Surprised" src="http://www.riverbassin.com/site/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-surprised.gif" alt="Surprised" /></blockquote>
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<p>Hey Terry...they're in there! An excerpt from my fishing journal...</p>
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<p>Flint River</p>
<p>Georgia</p>
<p>7/12/2006</p>
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<p>Too close for comfort</p>
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<p>Now, I'm generally not scared of anything...as long as I think I'm in control of the situation. But it seems to happen every summer. I have a close encounter against my will with some large or otherwise potentially dangerous or scary critter...maybe it's God's way of reminding me who's really in control. <br /><br />The first one I can remember was three years ago when I unwittingly cornered a gigantic (25” probably) grinnel between a huge cypress stump and shallow water while wading a cypress swamp (in retrospect, probably not the smartest thing to do). Two years ago was a 4’ longnose gar that decided that the space between my legs created a perfect place to take a nap. Last year was the curious 6’ bull shark on the FL flats that helped me prove that a man can, in fact, walk on water. Noticing the upward trend in critter size, I was getting kind worried about this summer’s encounter. <br /><br />Well it happened last week. SSF and I were doing a float in South GA last Saturday. It was a bit of an urban float, so I was completely unsuspecting of what was about to happen. A mile or two into the float, SSF makes a comment that he sees something swimming across the river probably 200 yds downstream. I look and see nothing…contributing the sighting to either the heat getting to him or the lack of fish activity is allowing his mind to wander and his imagination get the better of him. We continue on, and I forget about the comment. <br /><br />About 200 yds later, I’m pounding a really fishy looking laydown in deep water. SSF was fishing a bit faster and was probably another 200 yds downstream from me. As I made a cast, I caught some movement in my peripheral vision to my right. The gar were about the only thing moving about that day, so I figured it was just a big one surfacing to take a breath. I reeled in my lure and turned to look in the direction of the disturbance. Lying parallel to my little 9’ Pelican Viper less than 3’ away was a very large dark object just under the surface. In a split second, I ran through an entire mental list of creatures…gar, sturgeon, hippopotamus, Nessy…the next split second, the creature simultaneously emerged, realized I wasn’t what he was looking for, and bolted like mad with an enormously loud splash like somebody dropped a couple bowling balls from the bank above. I found it incredibly easy to scream expletives, even with my heart in my throat, as the wake almost turned me over. Somewhat regaining my composure (yeah right), I turned and began paddling frantically downstream towards SSF, mistaking him as an image of my mommy. As the adrenaline began to subside, I turned and looked back upstream, still unsure of what just happened. What I saw answered everything…the head of an alligator about 2ft from nose to neck swimming across the river. I’m guessing between 8 and 10 ft total length. <br /><br />I got down to SSF, and through short and shallow breathes, informed him of the identity of his mystery river swimmer and the circumstances under which I discovered this information. He had a good laugh…I was already worrying about what next summer’s close encounter is gonna be.</p>
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