# Seminole Memories



## kingfish (Jun 29, 2019)

Was going through some old picture books and came across a bunch of pics of some hunts I made on Seminole with a couple of friends.  Probably made a dozen hunts or so from the mid 90's to early 2000's.  Our goal was for all 3 of us to get a big bull Can for the wall, and we accomplished that goal.  Always hunted the Florida side and made the drive from Gainesville.  Remember staying in Chattahootchie at the Admiral Benbow Inn, and crossing the bridge into the central time zone.  Always had action and some incredible decoying from ringers, cans and bluebills.  I remember the very first time we drove our duck boats out of the canal to the main part of the lake and saw the big rafts of Cans and watching big flights of Canada Geese sucking into somewhere on "the other side".  We would hunt daylight til dusk for 3 straight days and OD on junk food and Mountain Dew.  Really good duck hunting memories.


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## Nicodemus (Jun 29, 2019)

You won`t recognize the lake or area now. Hurricane Michael destroyed a lot. It`ll take 150 years to look like it did last September.


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## Mark K (Jun 29, 2019)

Haven’t hunted there in years but have A LOT of great memories from there as well.


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## buckpasser (Jun 29, 2019)

Me too. Some great days spent out there.  It was sad watching the hunting go downhill, but I’d still like to go back and try them again.  Then again, from what Nic is saying I may not want to see it like it is now.


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## Mexican Squealer (Jun 29, 2019)

Spent many a morning on Seminole from the time one
Of us was old enough to drive...some of the most fun hunting divers that I can recall. 87’-91’....good memories


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## Mark K (Jun 29, 2019)

buckpasser said:


> Me too. Some great days spent out there.  It was sad watching the hunting go downhill, but I’d still like to go back and try them again.  Then again, from what Nic is saying I may not want to see it like it is now.


Yeah that comment sorta sealed it for me. Chickasaw is bad enough, don’t want to see the devastation of another place I have great memories of.


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## Mark K (Jun 29, 2019)

What’s crazy is I never killed a Can or Redhead there, ended up killing those here in a farm pond in Worth Co.
But, just about every other duck was killed at Seminole including dabblers.


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## buckpasser (Jun 30, 2019)

The first few years they showed up in decent numbers you could on occasion kill a can up in the pockets or decoying near the islands. After the first three years or so, I only remember seeing them in big water rafts. We finally devised a plan to kill them from a layout boat and it’s was predictably effective.  In all the years over there I killed 2 mallards, a handful of redheads, about 4 cans, and a pile of the usual suspects. Near the end of the good ol days, I watched a beautiful bull pintail cutting over the tree skeletons in spring creek, then it dropped straight down and a split second later I heard the boom and noticed the guy on the lock on stand out there!


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## Mark K (Jun 30, 2019)

I’ve killed just about all the dabblers out there, pintails included. 
Tried the layout boat until an old gator kept bumping me one predawn morning. I stayed and shot but couldn’t hit squat. I don’t mind wading with them, but basically sitting in 12-20ft of water with them just unnerved me, lol!!


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## kingfish (Jul 2, 2019)

So sad to hear about the hurricane damage Mr. Nic.  Back in the day you couldn't have asked for a more scenic view from where we hunted.  The Florida side must not get the dabblers like the Georgia side.  Other than one woodie, that was the only puddler we ever killed.  Like I said, it was fun diver hunting and although the puddle ducks were pretty thin, the Ruddy's were everywhere.  Not sure that's a fair trade, but that's Seminole !!!


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## mizzippi jb (Jul 3, 2019)

This thread would be a lot better with pics of said hunts


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## jdgator (Jul 3, 2019)

Hurricanes can be very good for duck hunting. They clear out lily pad fields, floating tussocks, and invasive species and allow for generation of duck food.  The best duck hunting we usually get in North Florida is two years after a hurricane. Its almost as good as when a lake drains through a sinkhole and then refills a year later.


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## TurkeyH90 (Jul 4, 2019)

I believe the hunting going downhill on Seminole has been more affected by the manners and numbers of hunters than breeding cycles in the pothole regions or weather. Haven't been down there in 10 years. I sure miss eating at the ole Seminole Wind and Pondhouse.


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## cowhornedspike (Jul 4, 2019)

The spring creek hydrilla drip killed it along with the simultaneous (within a year or 2) though temporary loss of lake jackson and miccosokee due to sink holes opening up.  They went south during that time and have never really come back in large numbers.  Hard to change that habit once they moved to places they were happy...


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## Triple BB (Aug 18, 2019)

Seminole will forever be one of my favorite lakes to duck hunt and fish. Used to... having a go devil or even a random air boat meant u could get to places others could not... but nowadays everyone has a surface drive and places that used to be "top secret" are no more. Ducks used to be in Saunders by the thousands. Now they get ran off in one day by frat boy Patrick Michael. The daddy's money yuppie boys then pose with 2 ringers and coot and upload it to a social media website to get likes.... man I bet Jack is rolling over. I'd haul my bateau down highway 19 in hopes to find a place out of the way. Killed many teal, ringers, scaup and cans. With occasional puddlers. One year the gadwall were thick down there all season. So thick, I slept in the boat for 2 nights. Man I love that lake, but it's a shell of what it used to be. Fishing is better now, however!!!


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## Juan De (Oct 30, 2019)

I used to make it down to the lake a lot. a friend of mine and I were there about every other weekend. Killed several different species of ducks down there. December 27th of this year will be 8 Years, since I went down there. I remember it we’ll because I killed a stud drake blue wing that day and he had surprisingly good color, so he ended up on the wall. Hope to make it down again someday, but will pack the crappie rods for sure.


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## Hit-n-Miss (Nov 23, 2019)

Does anyone have any pictures from the water of what it looks like now? I don't duck hunt anymore but used to hunt there a lot. Curious to what it looks like.


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## MudDucker (Nov 25, 2019)

Hunted it a good bit back in the 70's and it was awesome.  Hunted it sparingly over the last couple of years and it ain't no where close to what it used to be.


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## across the river (Nov 25, 2019)

There are two main issues impacting Seminole and it is the same two issues impacting a lot of lakes. They killed off a bunch of hydrilla for one which reduces the food source available. The biggest issue though is that birds don’t get to sit on the lake long enough to really imprint.   Years ago they could find somewhere to sit for days without getting run up or shot at.  That gave them enough time to imprint and come back the next year.  I used to hunt Seminole and Clark’s hill a bunch 20 plus years ago but haven’t hunted either in years.  Both of them face those some two problems.  You can’t hardly find a coot in Clark’s hill now that the grass is gone.


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## Nicodemus (Nov 25, 2019)

across the river said:


> There are two main issues impacting Seminole and it is the same two issues impacting a lot of lakes. They killed off a bunch of hydrilla for one which reduces the food source available. The biggest issue though is that birds don’t get to sit on the lake long enough to really imprint.   Years ago they could find somewhere to sit for days without getting run up or shot at.  That gave them enough time to imprint and come back the next year.  I used to hunt Seminole and Clark’s hill a bunch 20 plus years ago but haven’t hunted either in years.  Both of them face those some two problems.  You can’t hardly find a coot in Clark’s hill now that the grass is gone.




They haven`t reduced hydrilla one bit. There`s more now than ever. 30 years ago you could dive off our dock into crystal clear water with a white  sand bottom. Now, you can dive out our front door into the grass and you`ll get the same results as diving off the dock. Only difference will be grass vs hydrilla.


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## cowhornedspike (Nov 25, 2019)

They DID kill it when they put the drip in Spring Creek years ago and the ducks left.  They haven't returned in good numbers since.


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## Nicodemus (Nov 25, 2019)

Hydrilla is the worst invasive to hit the South since De Soto lost some hogs in Florida in 1539.


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## across the river (Nov 25, 2019)

Nicodemus said:


> Hydrilla is the worst invasive to hit the South since De Soto lost some hogs in Florida in 1539.




I'm not supporting the introduction of hydrilla by any stretch, I'm simply saying that is what a large number of the ducks are there to eat, invasive or not. When there is less of it, there are typically less ducks.  I honestly haven't been down there in years, but there was much less of it down there then as there was back when I used to hunt it all the time, so I assumed they had continued working on it like they have other lakes.  I can tell you that you can't hardy find it in Clark's Hill anymore.  Regardless of  whether the hydrilla is there or not, if the ducks get run up every five minutes, they won't come back.


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## Nicodemus (Nov 25, 2019)

across the river said:


> I'm not supporting the introduction of hydrilla by any stretch, I'm simply saying that is what a large number of the ducks are there to eat, invasive or not. When there is less of it, there are typically less ducks.  I honestly haven't been down there in years, but there was much less of it down there then as there was back when I used to hunt it all the time, so I assumed they had continued working on it like they have other lakes.  I can tell you that you can't hardy find it in Clark's Hill anymore.  Regardless of  whether the hydrilla is there or not, if the ducks get run up every five minutes, they won't come back.




Did you see Seminole 40 years ago? There was no hydrilla, and there were plenty of ducks. Of all kinds.


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## cowhornedspike (Nov 25, 2019)

Nicodemus said:


> Did you see Seminole 40 years ago? There was no hydrilla, and there were plenty of ducks. Of all kinds.



There were also no go-devils...they have ruined duck hunting on the lake.  Everyone can run everywhere all day long...and they do.


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## across the river (Nov 25, 2019)

Nicodemus said:


> Did you see Seminole 40 years ago? There was no hydrilla, and there were plenty of ducks. Of all kinds.



No. I never hunted Seminole until the 90's after it was already there, but that still supports the too many people running them up theory, so thanks.


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## trad bow (Nov 26, 2019)

I place go-devils and wake boats in the same category. Most people who own them don’t respect the water or the people on it.


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## MudDucker (Nov 26, 2019)

trad bow said:


> I place go-devils and wake boats in the same category. Most people who own them don’t respect the water or the people on it.



Thank goodness I've got a Mudbuddy and not a go-devil.  But airboats have run in the lake for years and they run where even mud motors dare not go.  The truth is there are way more people hunting there and how they run around like fools.  Pressure is what runs the birds off.


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## Duckbuster82 (Nov 27, 2019)

cowhornedspike said:


> There were also no go-devils...they have ruined duck hunting on the lake.  Everyone can run everywhere all day long...and they do.



But they had grass, when they kill the hydrilla they kill everything. They have no plan how to replace native grass. Compound that with the introduction of carp and nothing will come back.


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