. I told him that I wasn't terribly surprised but that was the only bait " I didn't have and just wanted to make sure I had everything possible to throw" Pulled up to the Econfina Store at 7 and the manager was running late and had not opened yet. Met another angler Cary, from Georgia who had been staying there for a few days with his fifteen year old Son. We were both needing some ice so I went ahead and put the boat in and came back to the store to wait with Cary. We talked a bit about his fishing over the past few days. He had done pretty well on the trout (better than most of the posts we've seen). He also said that they had been going out in the mornings, coming in around 2 or 3 for a break and then going out again in the late afternoon/evening. He said that on Friday evening the Cobia were bust'n all over on the surface and he didn't have a single top water with him. We agreed to stay in touch by radio, got our ice and headed out. The river was like a mirror and my party was taking pictures at every bend. My guests were pretty much just interested in feeling something jerking on the end of their line and I figured if we would fish hard for trout they'd be bored to death. Stopped in 4-5 ft to try and catch some pin's. Drifted around and couldn't buy a pin. Went further out to 6-7 and almost the same story. Picked up and rode to the first platform and started a drift dragging various colored jigs while I continued to try for pin's. The water was a little bit clearer and the pins seemed to be easier to come by. ( A personal note here ... it may be that the pins just can't see the very small bait in the darker water in closer. They sure seemed hungry enough out there!) We drifted over some pretty good looking bottom and I anchored up and we started fishing with squid/cut bait/fishbites/pins. The bottom feeders kept my guests pretty happy. They got excited over every fish that came along and the cats/sharks/sea bass/blues/ etc kept them entertained and me real busy re rig'n/ bait'n/unhooking and releasing. About that time,(probably 10am) Cary came on the radio and ask how we were doing. He had three trout in the boat in the 15-16inch range. They were fishing jigs with pinks and whites with no CT's or corks just jig'n them back to the boat on the retrieve close to the bottom. He also said they had caught one pretty large Sea Bass. They anchored up for a while and then went back out to the platform for another drift. We had been catching lots of short sea bass (8 and 9 inchers) so I decided to head further out to see if I could find some bottom that might have some keepers. Ran out to 12 to 13 ft and started drifting and dragging and watching the bottom. (Lots of hungry pins out there as well) About 20 min into our drift Cary called and reported that they had just picked up a 21, 23 and a 25 inch trout and suggested we get in behind their drift. We picked up and ran in and set up probably a couple hundred yds behind them. However, my party was really not familiar with fishing the jigs and were really more interested in working with the bottom stuff. I threw a CT with a space guppy for a while, changed to a white jig with a pink tip caught one sail cat that took off around the boat, under the boat, around the motor and generally got everybody excited before we got him in. So... we spent close to 8 hours on the water. The weather was good. There was a very nice breeze all day and didn't seem hot at all. We didn't end up with much to brag about except two large sail cats that were headed for the frying pan and a happy father and son. However, Cary and son had pretty good success compared to a lot of reports recently and had 8 nice trout plus one large sea bass for about the same time on the water. They fished with no corks, and concentrated on pinks and whites and drifting between the first and second platforms. (Sorry this got so long!) 
Didn't have the pictures available this morning so here are some "reflections from the Econfina" You regulars to the area will recognize them....you folks who have never been can see what you've been missing
A REALLY TOUGH WAY TO START A DAY.....
Ed and Kyle Brandenberg taking in the view
ECONFINA AT ITS BEST...
