Sturgeon Hunting and Water Under The Bridge

This morning, when I launched my kayak at Manatee Springs, I had a nice surprise.
One of my former students and his Mom were preparing to go kayaking too and they had a little black pup along.

Meet "Bridge", so named because he was part of a litter found under a bridge at Cedar Key.
He's pretty Labbydelicious, and when I remarked on that, they commented that he might have some chow in him too ... he's got a black tongue after all.
Whatever the recipe, he's pretty scrumptious.

The sturgeon were leaping again, but not quite as much as last weekend. The morning river was very calm and pretty clear for the ice tea colored Suwannee. Those plants in the photo above are about 10 feet below the surface.
It was neat to think that beneath me somewhere, hundreds of sturgeon were holding in the current, just waiting for whatever the stimulus is that sends them leaping sky high out of the comforting water.

I waited.
They leaped.
I missed shots.

There WERE other  things to see of course, gators, hawks, other fish in the clear water, people, etc.

They were nice distractions ... especially that bignificent gator on the far bank, but I was here for a singular purpose.
Sturgeon.

Eventually, one leaped into my viewfinder, but even this one confounded my Sony as it desperately tried to expose for the dark tree line while presented with the counter shaded white belly of a six foot Gulf Sturgeon.
I"ll take it.

I'm getting closer and eventually, I am going to get that sharp, close-up, correctly exposed sturgeon photo.

I'll save today's gators for another post.