Skunkape Sighting and Big Bluegill

Carol and I took the "Pleasure" up Lofton Creek for a test run the Friday of Shrimp Festival. Lofton Creek, north of S.R. 200 is a nice creek for small boats, canoes and kayaks. There's plenty of logs and overhanging trees, lots of swamp area, and it's easy to access with a nice boat ramp. We puttered up the creek, taking it easy because it's been years since I've been all the way up to Pages Dairy Road. There are more logs than I remember and the kicker bumped up and over a few. I'd gotten my camera out to take some pictures of the train trestle and I let the boat drift closer to shore to get a better angle. Just as the current carried us up against the swampy shoreline there was a loud roar and a hairy, vile smelling beast came out of the muck, rocking the boat violently, almost sending both Carol and I overboard, and me snapping pictures the whole time! A Skunkape! The 7' tall creature crashed the













palmettos and disappeared into the blackness of the swamp leaving us with hearts racing - we cranked the outboard and gunned it back towards the ramp, knowing that we had escaped with our lives! On our way back we passed a couple and their son, who were high-fiving after just fighting to the boat a feisty slab of a Bluegill. This picture that I took does not do it justice (just like the Skunkape picture), but if the fish was turned, you could see it was a huge Bluegill. They were about 200 yards north of the S.R. 200 bridge.