In short: I got home from a seven-day cruise, needed some quiet, and drove straight to the Suwannee for one night. The river was really low, and when the water drops the big gators stay up in the cuts. I found a good high-bank camp, then went to check the next bend and found a 12 or maybe 13 foot gator sitting right in the only channel I needed. That is when the river said no. This one is about the low water canoe rule: if the margin is gone, you turn back.
We got home Saturday from a seven-day cruise ship vacation, and I was grateful, but I needed some quiet the way only the river gives it. So I loaded the canoe and drove up to Fargo, Georgia to put in on the Suwannee for one night. I unloaded at Griffin's Fish Camp, met some nice gentlemen who gave me a few grouper tails to fish with, and got on the water with about two hours before dark. Low water changes everything. You feel it in the hull. It tightens the channel and pulls you close to the banks, and it turns simple travel into work. Push off, scrape through, duck a snag, keep moving. I paddled past an 8-foot gator laid up on a bank and some old bridge pylons standing in the water from a bridge that is long gone.
I started looking for camp early. One spot was too soft, another had too much sign nearby, so I kept moving until I found a high bank with good trees and fat lighter everywhere. It felt right. But I wanted to see what was around the next bend first, and that is when the river said no. A 12, maybe 13 footer sitting right in the line I needed through the cut, and he stayed up, watching me. Here is the rule that decides it. In a wide, deep spot you keep calm, hold your line, and give a gator room to slide off. But this was a narrow, shallow cut with no margin at all. There was no room to give that big one distance. So I was not passing it, not in that channel, not that low. I turned back. Turning back is not losing, it is being smart.
I set camp on that high bank between a pine and an oak, back from the dry brush that would run like wildfire, and got a little fire going with the new Uberleben Modern Firecraft and a Vaseline cotton ball. Supper was oven roasted chicken from the Dollar General cooked into Uncle Ben's Spanish rice in the trusty cast iron, and it was hard to beat on the river. I slept warm, cooked hash browns and eggs in the morning, and seasoned the cast iron with a little bacon grease before packing out. On the paddle back I saw my old 4-foot gator and a big one on a gator slide, found a memorial paddle where a fellow named Roger had his ashes spread in a beautiful spot, and hooked into a good jackfish that I fought in and turned loose to live another day. One quiet night was exactly what I needed.
The low water canoe rule, reading gators and channels, and scouting a safe camp with fat lighter. It is all in the Canoe Camping Playbook.
Read the Canoe Camping PlaybookIf the margin is gone, you turn back. Low water tightens the channel and pulls you close to the banks, and if a big gator holds the only cut you need, you do not have room to give him space. That is when smart says turn around.
When the water drops, the deep spots get scarce, so the biggest gators stay up in the channels and cuts that still hold water. That is exactly where you need to paddle, which is how you end up face to face with a 12 or 13 footer.
Only if you have room to keep your distance. In a wide, deep spot you keep calm, keep your line, and let him slide off. In a narrow, shallow cut with no margin, passing a big one up close is not worth it.
Fat lighter is resin-rich heart pine that lights easy and burns hot, even wet. When I scout a camp I look for high, dry ground with fat lighter around, because it makes starting a fire simple, especially paired with a striker and a Vaseline cotton ball.
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