I’ve been a kayaking fool.  Sure, I’ve got ducktape and epoxy holding a terribly old kayak together, so what?  Who cares?  Either way, I’m a paddling fool and I’ve seen some things out there.  Things that have amazed me and some that have scared the crap out of me.

First of all let me point out where I’m putting in and where I’m actually paddling. 

Here is a zoomed out image of the area.

Here is a zoomed in image of the area I actually paddled. 

It’s about four miles from the boat ramp to Rat Island which sits on the coast.  Most of the time I’m paddling between 3 and 4 miles each time I go out.  1.5 miles or so in and the same back.  I feel that my home-made repairs on the kayak are solid enough to not have to worry about longer trips.  Now we just need the hours in the day that we had during summer!  Shame I waited so late in the year.

So, back to the kayaking.

DOLPHINS

My personal favorite time to go is during full low tide.  This is when I see most of the marine wildlife from my trips.  It’s becoming normal to see not only Bottlenose Dolphins feeding and swimming in the slews.  It’s amazing where a several hundred pound dolphin can get even during such low tides.  You can normally hear the dolphins exhaling before you see them.  Since the slews are so narrow they are normally hard to miss if one is in the area.

While they are a regular occurance I did stumble on a large dolphin feeding near the shallow oyster beds, beating the water with it’s tail.  It would slap the water then eat the fish it stunned.  It did this over and over again for about ten minutes.  This was the same day I saw my first shark and yes, no camera to show it!  However, I do have some bland footage of several of the dolphins I’ve seen.  Video - Video

BIRDS

I can’t stress enough how many birds are in the marshes, grasses and waterways of the Intercoastal.  Herons of all shapes, osprey fishing and all sorts of birds can be seen there.  I’ve even had one Pelican give me his mind.  I’ll have to become a bird expert and report back here later.

SHARKS

I suppose this is the most exciting part of my daily trips.  I tend to see sharks about half the time I go out.  Normally they are small, no longer than 2 ft or so.  Of course they were all dwarfed by the first shark I saw.  During low-tide I saw a 5-6 ft shark in water no deeper than 10 inches.  I’d later realize he was trying to catch fish in the shallows chasing/following the fish into the shallow water before attacking.

At first I thought he was beached.  Tide was still going out but nearly at it’s peak.  When I saw that he could slither back into deep water and slowly disappear below the surface like a ninja I began to get a little worried and promptly turned the kayak around.  I’ve surfed near sharks and that was scary, but this was a different kind of scary.  The idea that a shark that size would be in a little slew was news to me.  My heart was racing.  It would be the biggest shark I’ve seen yet while kayaking and still haven’t gotten one on camera to hush the naysayers.  But rest assured..I will get that elusive shot!

As for the actual type of shark I’m seeing, I believe it’s the Blacktip Shark.  I’ve done some research on common sharks in the area and the top two were Blacktip and Bull Sharks.

EDIT:  I’ve recently found out that the actual type of shark I’m seeing, especially for the small ones is a Bonnethead Shark.  They are apparently eating blue crabs and other stuff there in the grassbeds which explains why they were in such shallow water.  More info on the Bonnethead Shark.  I have noticed that the last few times I’ve been out kayaking I haven’t seen any sharks.  Too bad.

However, that still doesn’t explain the larger shark (5-6ft) there in the slews.  I’m still thinking blacktip or bull.  I need to know!

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