It was a beautiful morning on the stickmarsh. 1st at the ramp 5:45am , which I was supprised no one else was there already. Trolling out into the semi dark as the sky was starting to get light, the wind was calm. As we leave the cove and head out into the open water we notice several large aligators, 10ft and up!(too dark for decent pics) So we decide to just troll slowly and fish while heading to west side 2 miles(wish i had GPS so i could find out exactly) away. Every few hundred yards you could spot more aligators. I was counting 6 - 12 gators in view at all times, and was thinking this is gonna be trouble if we get on the fish.
We trolled and fished all the way to west side as the wind started to pick up, missing 1 or 2 @ the NW side. Then used the light NW wind and TM every once in a while to drift to the south end, another 2-3 miles or so away. Still seeing gators as we drift, and my friend missing a few more fish, about midway I see a Bass that had to be 15+lbs come out of the water after what looked to be a xtra large wild shiner. I was in awe! As we close in on the southwest end of the stick marsh I head east, instead of south to the cut that takes you into Farm13(another 4-5 miles to south end of farm, where the guides and people with outboards go!) And finally get my 1st fish in boat after almost loosing it in the sticks+stumps! We fish a bit more around the area to no avail and move to the south to the levee that seperates the stickmarsh and farm13 to take a pic of just how far the south end is :lol:
Then as we start heading east again the wind died and the heat went waaay up! Trolled along slowly fishing 3 different baits, covering acres of water with no luck as the lake became glassy and I began to leak like and old beat jon boat it was time to head north back to the ramp and call it a day. 1 thing i can say that place if FULL of aligators, Id have to say I seen well over 12 dozen gators today and not 1 of them was under 8 foot long! Not a place you would want to sink a boat or go overboard thats for sure!
Sunrise @ The Stickmarsh after trolling for 30 mins
View West with 2 gators easily visible
View North
View South
Northwest Corner
View of West Shoreline
View Back to the East
Southwest shoreline with view of cut to Farm 13
Fish On!
South End Looking South over Levee into Farm13
South End Looking Southeast over Levee into Farm13
South End looking North
South End Looking Northwest
South End Looking East
Thats a Long Way Back To The Boat Ramp.
All in All it was a good day, (any day on the water is a good day!) wore my arm out from casting, seen more gators in 1 day than i ever have in my life, And seen the biggest bass I ever witnessed going airborne for its meal! Now if I could only get a few dozen people with aligator hunting license and thin them suckers out, cuz thats waaay tooo many in there IMHO
