I decided to take a float yesterday. I’d never floated this section before so I tried to get one of my fishing buddies to join me but ended up going out by myself. I'm somewhat experienced and the water level was fairly low/slow so I wasn't too worried but it turned out to be quite an adventure.
Right off the bat, I hit into several small mouths. Nothing particularly big or remarkable but in the 9-12" range they can still put up a good fight. Now, I had a fly rod with me but I stuck to the spinning rod for most of the action. It was just easier to manage while floating down a small/medium sized creek. I probably caught two dozen smallies, four or five fallfish and one longear sunfish. I saw some huge carp too. I didn't get a good look at them but I assume they were carp.
I saw a juvenile spike buck. Then I came upon two massive snapping turtles doing battle in the middle of the stream. I first noticed a bunch of bubbles. Curiously, I cast towards them. As I'm drifting towards the bubbles I realize it's two giant snappers. I reach for my phone to take a picture but by that time I'm pretty much directly on top of them. Just then, one peels off and starts heading straight for me. I put the phone down and start paddling away from them as fast as I can, lol.
A little while later I'm working a big, deep, slow moving bend in the stream. There's big fish in the water. I can make out their fins. They look to be well over 20". Probably carp I'm guessing. I look downstream and see a group of deer hanging out in the water. Just then another deer, immediately followed by a coyote, come crashing out of the woods and into the water about 20' from me. The deer starts making a beeline straight for me, followed by the coyote. WTF!? "No deer, I'm not gonna save you". It gets about 10' from me as I'm, again, paddling away as fast as I can. Eventually, I create some space and they both turn and head towards shore again. I managed to get a short video of them both leaving the water and returning to the woods, still in hot pursuit.
Nature is crazy. My heart was racing. It was pretty intense. lol