Morning swim

Quicksearch

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Monday, October 24. 2011

Yesterday morning I left the marina at first light and headed out to one of the coves across Lake Murray for some largemouth fishing. I'm cruising along when I saw this thing bobbing along off to my left. At first I thought it was a submersible (hey, that is possible) or an errant catfish trot line (more likely), but it was moving too fast - about 1.5 mph. As I moved closer, it turned out to be a four point buck just swimming along enjoying a Sunday morning swim across the lake.

Of course, I didn't have my HD Flipcam, the point 'n shoot or my big DSLR - I had my cell phone with its crappy lens and awful telephoto. I moved in as close as I could and shot the video, but when I tried to get really close, he veered off away from land and I didn't want that. So I got what I could get, backed way off the deer and followed it into landfall. He made it just fine and dandy - got up on the beach, turned around, took a look and headed off into the woods. Job well done.

I knew deer can swim a fair distance, but this one was in for a good mile and a half of exercise given where he was and the direction he was heading.

Interesting morning.

Posted by Capt. Tom Francis at 12:52 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Every time I go somewhere without a camera, I encounter something I want to photograph. Never fails.

#1 Bird Dog on 2011-10-24 13:29 (Reply)

Of course - that's the way of it. I will say that I'm contemplating getting one of those Gwynnie cameras just for the boat. If I put it right in the boarding kit, then I'll have it.

Of course then there is the battery problem which will run out as soon as you see something interesting.

Can't win. :>)

#1.1 Tom Francis on 2011-10-24 13:32 (Reply)

I keep an old Lumix in my car. Usually, forget it's there.

#1.1.1 Bird Dog on 2011-10-24 15:07 (Reply)

Because global warming is causing the lake level to rise more deer will drown and cause their already at risk numbers to decline even further- perhaps to extinction!

#2 Steve Burri (Link) on 2011-10-24 15:22 (Reply)

Well, no. :>)

Lake levels are low because of the yearly draw down and with respect to "their already at risk numbers to decline even further - ah, also no. For all practical purposes in South Carolina, there is no practical limit on deer - up to ten can be taken.

Yeah - I know - I didn't believe it either. It sounds like a lot but the herd here is so huge that there isn't any other way to reduce the population.

It's like stripers on Lake Murray - the last three weeks of the season (usually - sometimes longer, sometimes shorter), there is a unlimited creel limit. The reason is mortality - bringing them up from cool depths to near 90ºF surface temps kills them anyway. As soon as the surface temp dives below 78ºF, the limit is off. Believe it or not, that happens in the space of a week or so - four weeks ago it was 87ºF, yesterday, it was 68ºF.

#2.1 Tom Francis on 2011-10-24 20:26 (Reply)

Here in Wisconsin there are many areas where Chronic Wasting Disease has become a problem in the deer population.

#2.1.1 Steve Burri (Link) on 2011-10-24 21:05 (Reply)

We're not seeing that down here, but I understand that there is some evidence that the CT herd, in places, is suffering from that.

I also learned something kind of interesting yesterday. You know that Asian carp infestation everybody has been up in arms about? It seems that they've been too successful and are dieing off at a prodigious rate due to lack of food sources. And in places where they were the only game in town, the local fish populations are recovering.

#2.1.1.1 Tom Francis on 2011-10-25 10:33 (Reply)

I would never have guessed that deer swim much. Doesn't seem like those spindly legs would be worth a darn for a, what, "deer-paddle"?

Speaking of things I'd never imagine swimming, here's a bald eagle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWlJBGB6P80

#3 diane on 2011-10-24 17:45 (Reply)

According to my handy dandy GPS, he was moving along at 1.5 mph - pretty good clip. And he was throwing a wake which surprised me.

I went up to Lake World to speak with Richard the owner - big time local guide, hunter, outdoors man. He showed me a picture taken two years ago of about fifteen deer, two bucks and the rest does, swimming from the SCE&G park to Pilot Point - a distance of 2 miles. They all made it too.

#3.1 Tom Francis on 2011-10-24 20:29 (Reply)

Well I learned that when I was a kid in High School. I was scouting around in the woods before deer season started, and spooked a couple on the edge of a large pond in some woods. One jumped one way and the other jumped towards the pond and right down a narrowing finger of land -a spit I guess - towards the water. This I knew so followed the deer on down, intending to get close to him as I could, and figuring he would finally break and run past me on one side or another.

He got to the narrow tip of the spit and the water stopped him. I didn't bother with being quiet or anything, so he must have been able to hear me, but when he looked around and saw me he just jumped right in the water and lit off across the pond. He only had about thirty-five yards to go to the other side and did it pronto.

#4 T.K. Tortch on 2011-10-24 20:58 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email	(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications. Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u], [url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here. Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: BBCode format allowed
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Maggie's Farm

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Monday, October 24. 2011

Morning swim