Have had a couple of "spooky" encounters fishing the Brazos. One especially calm and foggy morning I ran over the top of not 1 but 2 alligator gar. Besides just about jumping out of my skin I was also left soaked on a rather brisk morning. After having the water beneath my kayak explode for the second time I was on pins and needles for the rest of the paddle until I finally got to my spot.

On another occasion my cousin and I camped overnight on the same stretch of river. Several times throughout the night my cousin woke me and said he could hear voices outside the tent. I never heard said voices myself but it was enough to get my mind wandering. Needless to say didn't get much sleep that night.

On yet another morning in the same spot I watched a group of 30+ pigs cruise the opposite shoreline for well over an hour. It was actually a neat thing to watch but I would have felt a little differently had they been on my side of the river.

Yes, they are all over the far southern peninsula of Florida. They've been upgraded from an endangered specie to threatened as they make a comeback. There is a well known breeding area only a mile or so from the Flamingo launch. I always advise anyone visiting Flamingo for the first time to read the story below the night before.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/12/09/kayaker.crocodile/index.html

and then watch this just before they hit the water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2nD-mB5DlE

This past Fall, I was fishing with a buddy in the Greenbelt river just below the Ray Roberts damn. I was in the front of the canoe and he was in the back. We floated close to the shore, when I hear him say "Oh S***", which was immediately followed by sharp pains in my neck, right shoulder, and head. I take off my hat to see 7-8 huge black hornets crawling on it. I shake them off my hat and start paddling as fast as I could. My buddy was in the back swatting hornets out of the air like John McEnroe. It was several hours before I wanted to get anywhere near the shoreline.

I put in at the bridge near Vance's Camp with Dan and his friend Mike, and we started paddling towards the FW Nature Center. Dan and Mike were doing more fishing than me (I was mostly snapping pics), and so by the time we neared the blue hole, Mike and Dan were a good 50-75 yards behind me around a bend in the creek. As I glided along in the glass-like water, I looked down to my left, and there, within inches of my kayak, I see the three-foot long head of an alligator swimming alongside my kayak. It was so close that I could have reached down and touched the top of its head. Before I even realized what I was looking at, the alligator's head sunk slowly into the murky water and it happened so quickly, that I didn't have time to get scared...until after it disappeared. I yelled back at Dan and Mike that there was a huge alligator here, but by the time they caught up to me, there was no sight of it. They probably thought I was seeing things, but I know it was a gator. I haven't been back since, not because of the gators, but just because I haven't. When I do go back, I won't be towing any stringers of crappie that stretch is known to hold. The gators can have them all.

Have been on a few full moon clear sky night paddles down the Brazos. Once your eyes adjust it's almost like daylight. Especially on the banks of the river with all the white river rock reflecting light. I must have woken up 10 times thinking it was dawn, only to realize it was still very much the middle of the night. Just very cool experience. The stars can be pretty epic on river trips as well if there is no moon.

On the spooky front we had a car follow us along the devils river for at least 3 hours, below the blue sage division and before the devil's back last year. The same Silver GMC pickup would appear at every boat ramp with the owner looking at us through his binoculars. After the 3rd appearance we all started getting pretty perturbed at this. We had all heard stories about the owners, but seriously this guy had nothing better to do with his afternoon. Talked to the park ranger about it, said. "We'll people don't move out here cause they like other people."

Has anyone been frightened by the reflection of their paddle blade in the water? I started out with an orange bladed Sequel and at night or low light it was always making me jump whenever it showed up in water.!