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Large, brown water spider of some kind.
Found on a dead tree in the middle of the lake at least 20 feet from shore.
Definitely not a brown recluse. They have a violin shape on their back though because they are very small it's sometimes difficult to make out. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/719... As the name suggests, they are pretty reclusive & tend to hang out in basements & other out of the way places so you would be unlikely to find one on a tree in daylight.
Looks more like a fishing spider.
http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=fishing+sp...