Great Blue Heron Suwannee River

The Great Glue Heron is one of my favorite birds to watch. So tall, beautiful and graceful. Herons are waders and professionals at fishing. They will stand still or walk along the bank side for a very long time to find and catch their prey. They must wait for a fish to come close enough for them to reach them with their long necks. Then they strike the killing blow with their razor-like bill. They also eat insects, mice and other small creatures.

Great Blue Heron have a body size of over 3 feet to 4 ft. 5 inches. Their wingspan is 5.5 to 6.6 feet. They can fly up to 30 miles per hour and is very beautiful when they are flying along with our wave-runners. It is the most common of Herons in North America and the largest. Their average life is around 15 years. I truly enjoyed taking many photos of this one. I love the way their colors blend in so naturally with the landscape. Seems like good protection.

Their are very many of them at the middle Suwannee River and are very beautiful to see. You should really come on down and check them out when you get the chance. These photos were taken while jet skiing the middle of May. Planning to go for another run June 1st - 4th.

                                                                  Hunting for prey

 

 Finally a fish - ready for the kill.

Secret To Catching River Mullet

Easily catch river mullet like these. They were caught in less than an hour. Follow the instructions, and you should be on your way to getting some good ole messes to fry up. These are just a few that were caught.

Mullet usually feed at the end of a spring run, where the river turns from crystal clear to dark. They feed on the small insects or whatever they are in the slime like algae. You can see the mullet when they are feeding at the top of the water. It is nearly impossible to catch mullet in the spring itself.
1. Throw your line just in the water where it turns from clear to dark.
2. Use a small treble hook and bobble. Fish where the water is running out into the river.
3. The secret is in the algae. Get a blob of it (like pictured) and wrap around and around a treble hook. Also use a bobble. A mullets mouth is actually larger than you think.
4. You only have a few seconds because the algae will be gone away / disintegrated in about 15 seconds. Believe me, the mullet will take the free bait. You may need a few tries to learn to grab them up, but once you do, that's it. Mullet tonight. It always works.

 This is the algae you should use. Just grab a blob between your fingers and wrap around your hook. Get ready to be fast.

I had heard that dough balls would catch mullet but never had any luck with it. However, you can catch large mouth bass with dough / bread balls.

A fisherman that lived at the Suwannee River told us this trick. He said he had done a lot of watching, listening. learning and fishing all these years. We watched and it worked. These were caught just outside of Heart County Springs.

Suwannee River 2012 Upcoming Events

Here are some up-coming events that I think might be enjoyable to a variety of people.

Friday, May 11th -13th - Purple Hatters Ball. Three days of camping and music ath the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fl 32060. Call 386-364-1683 for info.

Sunday, May 20th - Dance fun for all ages with live music from the Flying Turtles String Band at O'leno State Park in High Springs, Fl 32643. Call 386-4541853 for info.

May 20th - 21st - Ceder Key Seafood Festival. Live music, arts and crafts and the best.....local seafood located in the city park. See website.

May 26th - The 3rd annual Jim Moye Fishing Tournament at Horseshoe Beach to benefit the American Cancer Society.

June 8th - 9th - Tropical Nights Rock at the Spirit of the Suwannee in Live Oak.

June 14th - Suwannee River Jubilee at Spirit of the Suwannee in Live Oak.

June 16th - 4th Annual Live Oak June Bug Festival at Millinium Park in Live Oak.

July 6th - 2nd annual Fireworks at Horseshoe Beach. There will be seafood, vendors and over an hour of fireworks shot from Fireworks Island. Call 352-498-5986 for more info.

Sat. July 7th - Suwannee fireworks show. All day street festival, golf cart parade and vendors. Fireworks at dark, around 9:00 p.m.

Hope you can make it to some!
See the Suwannee River Chamber of Commerce website for more details and info.

Suwannee River War With Squirrels Could Be A Movie

The past 3 days did have beautiful weather, brought out the people on the water and even more squirrels to our dwellings. When we arrived, we checked out all our beautiful flowers that we had set out in pots and in the yard. About half of them were eaten by something.....opossum, deer, raccoon, and squirrels had dug them up to bury their acorns and hickory nuts as usual. The entire window box of flowers was gone with nothing but nuts and acorns buried in the potting soil. One pot of Impations did make it nicely but had a bird start laying eggs in it. I'm not sure what kind, I think they are black-capped chickadee eggs.

 As my husband started his usual squirrel damage checks, I saw him outside with a hammer, wire, moth balls and poison in his hands. He yelled out and said that the squirrels had chewed a hole through a place again and were in the ceiling and walls in one of our structures. He had a funny wild-eyed look and told me "I am going to war" again. It was so funny at the time and took me back to the movie Caddy Shack with Chevy Chase trying to rid the gophers from the golf course. He beat the walls hoping to run anything out. Then he threw in poison and moth balls. After that, he put some wire over the hole and then tin over the wire. Then he said, "Now i want to see them chew through that". Funny thing is, this is about the 4th time he has done this to this building, they just keep chewing new holes. Then he told me he was going to purchase all cactus for the window box and see how they like to eat that. I thought that might be a good idea too. Other than that, it was a great, quiet time and got rid of our burn pile before starting a new one.

What kind of bird eggs?

Fire scares me....

Stop Varmit!

Ahh! On the water away from the Vermin

Lower Suwannee River Sunny Weekend Ahead

All you boaters, skiers, kayaks, canoes, tubers, etc. get ready for a nice warm and sunny weekend - April 27th - 29th 2012. Here is a lower Suwannee weather report that just might catch your interest to come on down and enjoy the outdoors in the springs, river, and sun.