2 Days Sandbar Canoe Camping the St. Marys River | 8 Foot Gator Off the Bank

In short: Me and Tina put the canoe on a St. Marys River running about as low as I have ever seen it. We broke a motor mount on a stump the first hour, pushed and pulled the boat more times than I could count, and then watched an 8-foot alligator slide off the Florida bank into the water right where we wanted to camp. We pitched the tent anyway, watched for his eyes all night, and woke up to a boat full of blue cats.

A river running dry

I have paddled the St. Marys a lot of times, and I have never seen it this low. The water was so clear you could count the sandbars laid out ahead of you. Pretty in its own way, but low water makes you work. We hit a stump early and broke the throttle motor mount, so we pulled over, reinforced it stronger than it was before, and lost about an hour and a half. After that it was scrape, push, pull, and pick your line. I got out and pushed and pulled that canoe more times than I could count. The river was not done testing us, but we kept going.

The gator that picked our camp

We were fishing a white beetle spin and catching redbreast when I looked up and watched about an 8-foot alligator come off the Florida bank and slide into the water. He settled into a deep hole right there. Now here is the decision that matters: we did not run from it. We pulled the boat in, walked the bank, and figured that deep hole would hold catfish and that we could keep an eye on the gator. So we made that spot home. We pitched the tent up on the high ground, back from the water, and planned to shine for his eyes after dark. That is the whole game around gators. You do not panic and you do not give up a good camp. You give them space, keep your food and your dogs close, and stay aware.

Watching for eyes that never came

We cooked chicken tacos with Spanish rice, said grace, and asked the Lord to keep that gator away from us for the night. I figured once the sun went down I would shine the bank and find his eye. He never showed. Not that night, not the next day. I am sure he was still close by, but he wanted nothing to do with us. Morning came in at 55 degrees with heavy dew, so heavy I could not get a fire going the natural way and finally leaned on the lighter. Tina woke up to scrambled frozen eggs, homegrown sausage in the cast iron, and a fresh coffee on the riverbank. Then the blue cats turned on. We found their hole and pulled them until we had seven big blue catfish and four nice redbreast. That is a fish fry, and a fine way to pay back a river that made us earn it.

Questions about gators and low water

Why was the St. Marys River so low?

South Georgia was in a hard drought that season, and the St. Marys ran shallower than I have ever seen it. The water was so clear you could count the sandbars laid out ahead of the boat, pretty in its own way but rough on the paddling. Low water like that means work. We hit a stump early on and broke the throttle motor mount, which cost us about an hour and a half to pull over and reinforce it stronger than it was before. After that it was scrape, push, pull, and pick your line around every stump and sandbar. I got out and pushed and pulled that canoe more times than I could count before we finally reached camp. A dry season shows you the bones of a river, but it also makes you earn every mile of it, and this stretch of the St. Marys made us earn every one.

What did you do when the motor mount broke?

We hit a stump early in the trip, in the first hour or so, and it broke the throttle motor mount. There was no calling anybody for a part out there, so we pulled the canoe over right where we were and got to work with what we had on board. We reinforced the mount stronger than it had been before it broke, which took about an hour and a half out of our day. That is just how it goes on a low, stump-filled river like the St. Marys was running that trip. Things break and you do not have the luxury of quitting over it. You fix what breaks with what you carry in the boat and keep moving down the river. It cost us time we would rather have spent fishing or making camp, but it did not stop the trip, and we kept paddling toward the camp where the gator and the catfish were waiting.

What fish did you catch?

We ended up with seven big blue catfish and four nice redbreast, which is plenty for a good fish fry. The redbreast came on a white beetle spin while we were paddling and fishing along the way, before we ever saw the alligator. Once we made camp near that deep hole where the gator had settled, we figured the same hole would hold catfish, and we were right. Come morning, after coffee and a breakfast of scrambled frozen eggs and homegrown sausage cooked up in the cast iron, the blue cats turned on. We found their hole close to camp and pulled them one after another until we had our seven big cats to go with the redbreast from the day before. That is a solid haul for a low-water trip that started with a broken motor mount, and it made for a fine way to pay back a river that had made us work hard for it.