Stick Marsh & Farm 13

Probably the most often heard questions from those visiting the Marsh whether they live in Florida or elsewhere, is whether the alligator population is good sized and whether we have to worry about them. The answers are; the population is quite large and the alligator is very much afraid of man. Getting pictures of one that is good is quite difficult without have a telephoto lens but the one below Don Willis was able to capture. The gator was laying on that small patch of mud and Don came up from behind her surprising her before she could flee. Don was able to snap several good pictures before she made a run.   4/21/2005 I met returning client Glen Miles of San Antonio, TX at the ramp at 6:30am. We headed to the south end of the Farm with hopes of starting the day with a Chug Bug bite. While giving Glen a demonstration on how to work the Chug Bug a bass hammered the bait and kept going. We worked are way toward the shore line forever hopeful another bass would hit. After what seemed like a 1000 casts I decided it was time to try Senkos. We worked are way around the dense wood and still could not get a bass to bite. I decided we need to start working our way off shore and try to find where the bass had moved to. Throwing rattle traps it did not take us long to locate the bass well offshore.   The rest of the day we never left the area and caught a total of 44 bass before calling it a day at 2:15pm.    4/22/2005 I meet Tommy Wilks and Mike Avery at 6:00am and we headed to the ramp. I told Tommy and Mike about the fishing we had the day before and they were very excited. We headed to the south end of the Farm and starting working rattle traps. It did not take them long to get the hang of things and the bass starting making there way to the boat immediately. I lost count of how many bass were caught but I know it was at least 50.   The quality of bass that we caught was great with countless bass between 4 and 6 pounds and the biggest of the day weighing 7.75 pounds. The bite was better in the morning, but by continuing to stay in the same area and working the rattle traps non stop we managed to catch fish all day. There is no big trick to working the rattle trap right know just throw it out and burn it back.       Scott