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I hadn't seen or heard anything about Alligator
Lake being closed due to the sewage spill upstream. Apparently
it's Okay, so I decided to visit. I had a few new rods to test
and that's a good enough reason to head out to the water.  Below is a "typical" day on Alligator. A Beautiful July morning, coffee done and the St. Petersburg Times reviewed. My car was loaded from yesterday. I got the Okay from Marge and headed out the door. Back in the door to get a water bottle -- it was hot out there! I could see only three other boats on the lake as I arrived. A fellow, his wife and a friend were just leavening. She ask if they could help with the canoe, but I declined. It's not a matter of pride. It's a matter of trying to keep my strength up. I'm determined to do it by myself as long as I can. I put the canoe in the water as soon as they pulled out of the boat ramp. As they were leaving another boater approached. I'd seen him speeding down the lake earlier. Apparently he hadn't found what he was looking for and had decided to call it a day. It would take me some time to load the canoe so I pulled it to the end of the dock and let him get his boat on the trailer. We talked briefly and he told me he hadn't done very much at all. The fish weren't biting. The folks who'd left before he arrived had told each other the same things. It didn't sound good, but I didn't have much else to do on a July week day in Safety Harbor, Fl. So I loaded up and started paddling down the lake. |
 looking east, across the lake
Bayshore
Drive runs north and south between Alligator Lake and Old Tampa Bay. While the
bay side of the street has only one house on it, the lake side of the
street is lined with houses. The white house,
almost in the center of the picture, was built about bout 10 years ago and was said to be owned by Priscilla
Presley. The story goes that the lights from the city ball parks,
located near the boat ramp, kept her awake at night and she sold the
place to a Saudi prince. All this is speculation and I have no idea who owns it, but it's as big as a small hotel. The island in the right side of the picture is called "Bird Island" and is a rookery for a host of birds. Which brings up an interesting story about the lake: |
 Some time ago a group of water ski instructors discovered the lake and began using it to teach skiing. It wouldn't have been bad it there'd only been one or two of them, but they kept the lake churned up almost all day, everyday. As soon as one left a new one would launch. It was impossible for anyone to use the lake for anything else. It was another version of the thing Dave Lewis hates so much. A few move in and take away from a lot. People were getting steamed. At one point, Lane "Smitty" Smith has a ski boat go by him close on one side with the water skier close on the other. He was able to duck the tow line. He started carrying a casting rod with the largest plug and the most treble hooks he could find, in case it ever happened again. One day Marge and I were almost swamped. The bottom line is, people went to the city and complained. (I wasn't one of them. If the ski boat was there, I just turned around and went home.) The City passed a 5 horsepower restriction on the lake. A ski boat owner took them to court and won because the boat ramp was paid for, in part, by the state and his boat registration went into the fund that help build the ramp. Of course the city wasn't through. Their answer was to exclude ALL vessels from a large chunk of the lake by making Bird Island a bird sanctuary. About 2/3 of the lake, including the bay where I caught the largest bream I've ever caught in that lake, is now off limits. What's left is the south arm, the east bank and the two canals on the north east corner. |
 I usually head south because I like the "feel" of the lake down there. Years ago I could almost believe I wasn't in the middle of 250 million people. I remember seeing Otter, Raccoon, Eagles and, of course, Alligators down there. That was before they made McMullen-Booth 6 lanes. Now I can't get away from the road sounds. Luckily the county did buy quite a bit of the area adjoining the lake, then made it a nature preserve. Still, people are constantly chopping trees around other parts of the lake for "a better view of the water." Left to the developers, Pinellas will sink below the Gulf of Mexico under the weight of development (and they'll blame it on Global  Warming). The gate was there when I first started fishing Alligator in the early '90's. It's funny because there's no fence attached to it. This is one of the few places you can get close to the shore. Alligator has a wonderfully mixed bag of vegetation surrounding it: cattails, willow trees, scrub oak, and vines and bushes of all kinds. There's a tremendous amount of dead falls all along the bank that act as hiding places for the fish. If I were a fish I'd like it! |
This is one of my first stops on my way south. After a 5 minute
paddle along the Vessel exclusionary zone, I arrive at the east
side of the south arm. There are cattails for 20 feet or so, then this
wonderful mix of Willow, cattails and underbrush. If you haven't fished for warm water species you may not have heard the term Structure. Structure is defined as any change in the topography of the water, such as a log, a dock, a tree root, a drop off or hole. It can also be where two streams come together, just like trout fishing. It can also be shadow. I always try to cast just over the shadow line. I usually have much more luck there than in direct sunlight. The larger fish often stay further out, so casting right up against the bank may not be productive. (I did catch one of the largest bream I've ever landed, while casting against the bank, so there are exceptions for every rule.)  There's one now!
He took a size10 Confederate General, a version of a foam spider that has a gray body, yellow legs and a red sash. |
 A fish that just enjoyed an E-Ticket Ride  On the other end of the scale are the fish I call E-Ticket-riders. They're so small I think of them as taking an e-ticket ride at Disney World. The number of fish I catch in this size range are usually a little higher than the number of 9in and above I catch. Say 4 or 5 an an outing. |
 This bend along the south east side of the lake is one of my favorites. Even though this place looks "fishy" it's hard to get to the fish because they stay far back in under the trees. You can see Ruth Eckerd Hall in the background. It's a subtle reminder that I'm not really very far from civilization.  Here's an example of how far the water goes under the the trees. The bank in the background is about 10 to 15 ft beyond the edger of the trees. Trying to cast to this is almost impossible. |
 Carl Hanson always said that if you're not getting tangled in the vegetation, you're not fishing close enough to the shore. I prove him right enough and have to go back and revisit my casting. In this case I was close enough to the bank. If you look at the bottom center of the picture you can see the little sponge spider wrapped around the plant. Getting back into these places is always a bit of a chores. I have to make sure that I'm not disturbing a gator or a snake or a hornets nest. One thing about Alligator lake, it's man made,
created by a dam. The variation in water lever is very seldom
more than 6 inches. Many people who come down to the boat
ramp don't realize that the lake isn't part of Tampa Bay.
 This is the very south end of Alligator
Lake. Alligator Lake starts at the edge of the bushes, and
the creek wanders around the corner to the left, then meanders for about half a mile before it crosses under
McMullen-Booth Road. Distance as-the-crow flies is only a few
hundred feet. The old roots at the entrance are barely visible in this picture. I've seen some nice Bass taken from
around them. (Yes, it was raining when I took this picture.)
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 OOPS! Didn't notice the buildup of clouds. I guess it's time to paddle on out of here. I'm about 15 minutes from the boat ramp. That's a long time when it's raining -- even longer if there's lightning involved. This is fairly typical of our summer afternoons her in Florida. I wasn't too worried because I hadn't noticed any thunder. If there would have been lighting with these clouds I would have been long gone. This guy just looks like a little rain, and I can handle that. In fact one of the first things I packed in my boat bag was a poncho. |
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One last cast
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 And here are the flys that did all the damage. Two Confederate Generals and a Capt. Kirkpatrick The rod and reel belonged to my Father. Once or twice a year I take his tackle out and fish it in his memory. He loved to fish for largemouth bass, hated sunfish and would be rolling over in his grave if he hadn't ask to be cremated. "Fishing for Bream! who ever herd of such a thing!"  Well, That's about it. Time to load the Canoe. Although it looks like the one cloud passed over, there are more off to the right of the picture and they're headed my way. It'll probably be raining by the time I get home. I hope so. If it isn't I'll have to pull weeds out of the flower beds! |