Behind Mount Enota

I was soon to learn just how big those Flint River gators could grow.  I was fishing alone in a little 12 foot metal john boat where the river bank stuck out into the lake.  This point was covered in reeds and cattails.  As I fished toward this point I saw a log in the cattails and thought I would find some sunfish in the shade of the log.  I was about 15 feet out in the water fishing back toward shore.  I noticed that the log was longer than my 12 foot boat.  I silently approached the log.  I readied my first cast, gauged the distance to put the bait right beside the log which with the movement of my arm suddenly came to life.  I recoiled so violently I almost fell out of the boat.  The grandfather or grandmother of all Flint River alligators gave a mighty wave of its tail and leaving a whirlpool in the water it submerged.  I was more scared with it being out of sight.  Was it about to attack the boat?  It could easily over turn that little boat with a whack of that mighty tail or by grabbing the boat with that huge and powerful set of jaws.  I moved away swiftly. 

I had one more chance to show my lack of bravery in the river.  I had a 10 horsepower outboard motor which I used on the 12 foot boat.  I did this despite a warning plaque on the rear of the boat which advised to use motors of no more than 6 horsepower.  I got a thrill out of using the larger motor.  It would make that little flat-bottomed boat skim the water as if it was a single motorized ski.  I had been far up the river and was hurrying back to the improvised boat launch.  I had told my wife Jerry to meet me there at sundown as I didn’t want to be caught on the river after sundown.

Jerry was waiting but I didn’t show up.  There was a reason.  Sundown was fast approaching and I was coming down the channel as fast a I possibly could.  I was nearing the point where I had seen the huge gator.  I would round the point then find the channel through a maze of stumps, some out of the water and some just under the water level.  Fishermen had cleared a lane from shore out to the main  channel.  I needed daylight to see my way through.  Fate decreed that would be the day and the time for my boat to overturn.

It seemed to occur in slow motion.  the boat was skimming along as usual when the front end began to rise.  I don’t know if it bumped something in the water or struck a trot line. Worst of all it might even have been the gator lying submerged with only his nose out of the water.  That’s what was making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.  I couldn’t believe the boat would do a flip but this one sure did.  The front just kept rising until it flipped over.  As it came down upside down I was thrown out and the boat didn’t come down on top of me.  I could still hear the motor running above my head for a few seconds.  I stayed underwater until it stopped.  I then came to the surface and swam to the front end and looked over the flat bottom.  My first thought was that the motor had torn loose and jumped off of the boat.  My second thought was where in the hell was that gator.

The boat was floating with the flotation devices under the seats and trapped air.  Fortunately this was where the banks of the river disappeared into the lake and there was a sandbar where I could push the boat over to the bank.  I tool stock of what I could salvage.  My oar and flotation seat cushion were floating so I grabbed them.  I could hear my gas tank banging around inside the boat.  I began pushing the upside down boat to shore.  I drug it up onto the sandbar and turned it right side up.  All the water ran out as I turned it over.  My motor was still attached.  All my tackle, everything loose, was gone.  By now the sun was long gone and so was Jerry.

She knew something must have happened or I would have been there waiting for her at sundown as I had promised.  After she became worried she went back home and got my good neighbor, Bill to come back and wait a while longer with her.  They were going to give me a little more time before calling out a search & rescue team.

Naturally the motor was wet and wouldn’t restart.  I had about another mile to go through