What an absolutely amazing day this was. Everything literally went perfect. That’s how I need to begin this post.
Located in Florida’s Nature Coast, the Homosassa River is about eight miles long. It begins in Homosassa Springs, and flows westward to a section of the Gulf of Mexico known as Homosassa Bay. Interestingly, “homosassa” means “place of many pepper plants.”
We got up early on the morning of March 28, 2018, and set out to begin an adventure on the Homosassa River with the john boat. We arrived at the public boat launch beside MacRae’s of Homosassa around 9:00 or so in the morning. When I walked out on the dock beside the ramp and gazed out at the river, I felt a surge of disappointment – the river was PACKED with boats! For someone who visits waterways to look for wildlife and take photos, this is bad news. Lots of boat traffic often drives away marine animals or causes them to be very wary and elusive, and vessels constantly going up and down the river can get in the way of my camera and “photobomb” my pictures.
After launching the john boat, we set off down the Homosassa River, heading toward the springs. Along the way, we encountered several manatees, however, I wasn’t able to get a good photo.
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| Wasn't able to get a manatee photo, but here's a picture of a Wood Duck |
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| And a Striped Mullet jumping! |
Boats are not allowed in Homosassa Springs, as it is part of the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, however, there are a few primarily unnoticed spring vents that boats can access. There’s a small, shallow creek that branches off of the Homosassa River at the W Fishbowl Dr. bridge. This creek has a handful of small spring vents. There’s several houses on this spring run, but there’s also stretches of thick forest as well. It feels like you’re driving through a stream in a jungle – especially because, it appears that somebody near this creek owns exotic birds, because as you drive through the clear water and look out into the underbrush, you can hear the screeches of macaws somewhere in the woods – it adds an interesting feeling to the whole scene.
We soon decided to turn around and head down to the Gulf, and see what the rest of the river looked like. There had been boats everywhere in the river up around the springs, including multiple “swim with the manatees” tour boats, and I was hoping that other parts of the river would be less crowded.
Just as we exited the small creek and were in front of the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park river overlook, Dad had to momentarily turn off the boat and look for something in the tackle box. I couldn’t help overhearing a group of kids in the overlook area shouting things like, “Look, a fish! I see a fish! It’s breathing!” One child’s voice suddenly yelled out, “Hey, there’s a credit card on the bottom of the river!” The other kids came over and started shouting out, “A credit card! There’s a credit card in the water!” Finally a lady, who was also on the overlook, said, “Well, how about one of you jumps in and gets it, then we can go shopping.” Immediately all the children started volunteering, “Me! I’ll do it! I’ll get it!”
Finally, we were soon on our way to the Gulf. Along the way, we saw several aquatic animals, and even stopped to watch a kayak race by MacRae’s. As we waited for the race to start, we checked out Monkey Island. I didn’t take any photos of the kayak race, but I did get some nice wildlife pictures.
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| Peninsula Cooter |
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| "Sassy" the monkey on Monkey Island |
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| Some weird-looking Brown Pelicans by MacRae's |
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| What are they doing?? |
Thankfully, the river was less crowded closer to the ocean. Just as we entered Homosassa Bay, which is the part of the Gulf of Mexico that the Homosassa River empties into, I spotted a dolphin hunting beside an island, close to Greenleaf Key. The dolphin splashed around, and appear to be chasing fish. It then left, swam past the mouth of the Homosassa River, by Dog Island, then I soon lost sight of it.
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| Homosassa Bay dolphin |
After our short dolphin sighting, we casually began heading back into the Homosassa River, wondering what we should do next. Suddenly, several birds came and landed on the bow of our boat. They stayed there for a long time, just going for a ride!
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| A bird (I believe it may be a Bob-Tailed Grackle) going for a ride on our boat at the mouth of the Homosassa River, with Shell Island in the background |
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| Close up |
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| Don't look at me that way... |
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| Lots of birds going for a ride |
Eventually, we decided to try exploring the Little Homosassa River. To reach the Little Homosassa River, we would simply have to take a turn near Lashley Point into a waterway known as Shivers Bay. The Little Homosassa River runs from the northwest side of Shivers Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. We began heading up the river, on our way to Lashley Point.
Along the way, we spotted a dolphin in Gustaf Bay. This individual appeared to be hunting over a shallow mudflat. This encounter didn’t last long, though, as the dolphin soon headed away, towards False Channel.
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| Gustaf Bay |
With the exception of spotting a dolphin in Gustaf Bay, we had no other distractions on our way to Shivers Bay, and it wasn’t long before we were turning into the bay, west of Lashley Point.
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| Shivers Bay |
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| If you want to get scientific, I don't think this would be considered as a true bay...probably a bayou instead |
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| It's beautiful, whatever it is |
Shivers Bay is a somewhat small, shallow sound-like waterway that connects the Homosassa River to the Salt River, a large section of a chain of intercoastal waterways that runs through Florida’s Nature Coast, from Crystal River to the Chassahowitzka River.
As we were nearing the entrance to the Little Homosassa River, I spotted a huge splash – it was probably nearly ten feet tall – erupt from the water, right next to the mouth of the Little Homosassa. “What was that?” I asked. My question was soon answered as mullet suddenly began leaping out of the water, and several dolphins began catching them right out of the air!
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| DOLPHINS!!!!!!!!! |
I immediately recognized what this behavior was – a genius hunting technique often referred to as “mud netting.” You may have seen dolphins doing this on a nature program or TV show. In this technique, a group of dolphins will locate a school of fish (usually Striped Mullet). One dolphin will peel away from the group and begin to swim in a circle around the fish, beating its tail and flukes against the muddy bottom and encircling the fish with mud plumes. Terrified, the fish leap out of the “mud net,” only to be caught in the waiting dolphins’ jaws! So far, this behavior has only been documented in Florida Bay (near the Florida Keys) and in and just south of Florida’s big bend area.
The dolphins moved to the opposite side of Shivers Bay and began several more rounds of mud netting!
The dolphins then crossed Shivers Bay again, and began a round of mud netting in a small cove, beside a sharp oyster bed.
After several successful mud netting attempts, the dolphins once again began to cross Shivers Bay, and head to the other side. One young individual swam right up to our john boat, turned on its side, and for a few seconds, appeared to be inspecting us. It then swam off, and began doing some sort of odd behavior not far from the bow of our boat. Though the water was quite murky, and I couldn’t see exactly what the dolphin was doing, it appeared as though the animal was rubbing against the bottom with its head/rostrum, with its flukes pointed toward the surface, gently pushing up and down. After a few seconds, the dolphin surfaced with a mullet in its mouth.
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| For just a second, the dolphin seemed to be looking at us |
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| No, this isn't a white dolphin. It's a normal, gray Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin, however, the water in the brackish areas of the Homosassa waters are quite dark in color, making the dolphins appear an extremely light tone when viewed through the water's surface |
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| Another individual that swam by our boat, this time an adult |
The dolphins all swam up to the marshy shoreline, and began more mud netting.
I thought I might mention an interesting discovery I made while watching these dolphins hunt. Like always, one individual would break away from the group, and begin to swim around the fish school in a circle. However, after the certain individual left the group, just before it would begin making the “net,” it would usually create a tall, nearly ten foot high splash with its tail and flukes. Later, after I returned home from this trip, I did some research on the internet regarding this behavior. I looked through footage of dolphins mud netting in Florida Bay, but never saw this splash behavior. After looking through videos of dolphins mud netting in the Homosassa/Crystal River area, I did find incidents where the local dolphins would use this splash right before making the net. I wonder, could this splash be some sort of a signal to inform the other dolphins that the mud net is about to begin, maybe alerting the others to get into position and be ready to catch the fish that are about to jump? If so, is it a signal only used by the Nature Coast dolphins?
Anyway, the group of dolphins in Shivers Bay began more rounds of mud netting, slowly making their way towards the Salt River.
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| The tall “splash signal.” Whether or not it informs the other dolphins of something, it sure does inform me of something. Once I spot the splash signal, I know exactly where to focus my camera! |
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| All the dolphins want that one unfortunate mullet |
The Salt River is a rather long, shallow, somewhat creek like waterway that stretches from the south side of Crystal River to the north side of Shivers Bay. Some sections of this waterway are saltwater, while others are likely brackish.
The dolphins, once again, began mud netting, this time in the Salt River.
Then this happened...
The dolphins came literally within thirty feet of our boat and began mud netting...WOW!
Then, in just a few seconds, it was all over, and the dolphins began swimming away.
After that up close view, we pulled out a video camera and got it ready to record, in case the dolphins did this again, but of course, now that we had pulled out the video camera, they didn’t. The entire group began heading further north up the Salt River. We followed them for a few more minutes, but after not seeing any more action, we decided that it was time to leave the dolphins alone and continue on our journey to the Little Homosassa River.
What an incredible experience this was! At the time, I’d already been blessed
with the opportunity to see some minor mud netting action in Tiger Tail Bay back in January, but this was a far better, way more thrilling mud netting encounter!
We weren’t far from the entrance to the Little Homosassa, and it wasn’t long before we were exploring a new waterway that we had never seen before. I’d been to the Homosassa River once before, but never in any of the backwater areas.
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| The Little Homosassa River |
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| Saltwater rapids in Florida? This current of water flowing over an oyster bed indicates shallow water - steer the boat away from there! |
During this trip down the Little Homosassa River, I saw my first wild Cownose Ray. I’ve seen Cownose Rays in aquariums many, many times – they’re one of the most popular ray species to be put on display at marine parks – but never before had I actually seen one in the wild. It happened when we were trying to manuever through a narrow channel between two shallow oyster beds, but ended up running aground. As we were trying to get off of the oyster bar, a medium-sized Cownose Ray suddenly swam right by our boat, so shallow that the tips of its pectoral fins splashed at the surface as it flapped them up and down. I just had to shout out in excitement, “Wow, a Cownose Ray!” Unfortunately, the ray was gone before I could capture a photo.
Thankfully, we were able to get the boat free and back in shallow water. A few minutes later, as we continued cruising down the Little Homosassa, I spotted a dolphin hunting by the shoreline!
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| Dolphin in the Little Homosassa River |
This encounter didn’t last very long though, and we soon lost sight of the dolphin.
We continued down the Little Homosassa River. I’m not sure, but as we neared the Gulf of Mexico, we may have accidentally cut over into Sams Bayou – but then again, I’m not really sure.
We soon reached the ocean, and immediately cut back over to the marked boat channel that leads into the Homosassa River. As we entered the Homosassa River, we began thinking of what we might do next. We headed back to MacRae’s to study both a map on the side of the bait and tackle shop, and to study Google Maps satellite images on my phone. We then decided to try exploring Battle Creek and the other creeks in the Crystal River Wildlife Refuge Salt Marsh Trails.
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| Osprey we saw on the way to MacRae's |
The Salt Marsh Trails are a maze of interconnected creeks that twist around through the marsh near Tiger Tail Island. Some of them lead all the way to Mason Creek, and from Mason Creek they lead to Chassahowitzka. We entered the trails through the creek that runs beside S Garcia Rd. At first, the creek was lined with houses on the east shore, however, after a few minutes, the waterway transformed into a wild, completely undeveloped marshy trail.
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| At first there were houses |
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| Wild, undeveloped salt marsh trails |
Our ride through the salt marsh trails went beautifully. We may have run aground in some mud a few times, but other than that, everything went smoothly. When we exited the trails through Battle Creek, it was beginning to get late in the afternoon, but we determined that we still had time to explore one more backwater creek. I suggested Price Creek, and after looking at a map on my phone, we crossed the Homosassa River from the mouth of Battle Creek and entered Price Creek at Lashley Point.
Price Creek is a long creek. It stretches from Lashley Point in the Homosassa River and across the marsh to Nature’s Resort Campground on the Halls River. Though it starts out brackish if you enter it from its mouth on the Homosassa River, it turns to freshwater as it nears the Halls River. The creek starts out rather wide, but thins out after a while.
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| Price Creek |
We started out going at a fast speed, but further up the creek, the motor began to bump against the muddy bottom, so we slowed to an idle speed.
Everything went perfect at first, but after a few minutes, we began constantly running aground. Trees were down in the creek, often forcing us to maneuver the boat into shallow water, where we would run aground and have to shove our way into deeper water with a paddle. The water was so murky, you couldn’t see a foot down, making it impossible to judge water depths and notice extremely shallow areas.
Our original plan was to follow Price Creek all the way to the Halls River, but after twenty or so minutes of constantly fighting the shallow water, we decided that we needed to find a shortcut and just get out of the creek. Our biggest concern was the tide. It had been incoming all day, and we worried that it might take too long to follow our original path, as the tide could turn and go out, leaving us stuck in the shallow water. I looked on the map, and there appeared to be an inlet back into the Homosassa River – a small creek that branches off of Price Creek and runs toward the Homosassa Springs Marina, emptying into the Homosassa River at W Halls River Rd. It also appeared that there was a bridge leading under the road, so we decided to head that direction.
Finally, we made our way to the end of the side creek and reached W Halls River Rd. The Homosassa River was in sight. Yes, there was a bridge at the road that lead to the Homosassa – but there was one problem – the bridge had about one foot of clearance! A guy was fishing beside the road, and we asked him if he knew what time high tide was. “It’s in about thirty minutes,” he answered. That was bad news. Once it was high tide, if we weren’t out of the creek, we were in trouble, for at high tide, we would have only a few minutes before the tide would turn and start going out. We needed to get out of the creek, and fast! We began “retracing our steps,” heading out of the creek the same way that we had come in. We scrambled around the fallen trees, trying to dodge shallow water. It was a close call, but thankfully, we were able to make it out of the creek before the tide turned.
By the time we made it out of Price Creek, it was definitely getting late, however, we made one last run into Shivers Bay to look for dolphins. We saw two more dolphins, an adult and a juvenile. They began heading out of Shivers Bay, into the Homosassa River. They then rounded Lashley Point and entered the base of Price Creek.
After leaving the dolphins, we decided to head back to MacRae’s and call it a day. We loaded the boat back on the trailer and said good-bye to the Homosassa River.
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| Good-bye, Homosassa River |
This adventure may be coming to an end, but stay tuned – more stories from Florida’s waterways will be coming up soon!! In the meantime, be sure to pay a visit to my website,
ExploreFloridaWaters.com!
