New to the BBFN, Troutinator and I hitched up the boat and headed to the Aucilla at 5:30am last Friday morning. The coastal water forecast was right on the money. Slipped the boat off the trailer and out of the Aucilla river headed east to the trench. Stopped for a quick picture of the sunrise. Pictures courtesy of Troutinator (I forgot the camera but remembered the landing net)
Immediately Troutinator hooked a small Spanish that pulled a self release boat side. Some time around 10 am I had a pinfish under a bobber about 75yds to port. I went to get something out of the cooler and saw an explosion on the water. My bobber was no longer visible and I finally made the connection when the drag on my spinning started screaming. This was a big fish. I had my drag set pretty taught, but was spinning like a top. I reached to turn the key to start the motor and as quick as he hit, he was gone with every last inch of my line. We sat in shock for a few seconds. I have never been spooled so quickly by a fish. I’m thinking it was a cobia, because we had spotted a few pods of Manta Rays cursing the flats. Next time, I’ll set the drag a little tighter and put as much line on the spool as it will hold. I just wanted to get a glimpse of that fish.
We fished a few more spots between Grey Mare and Cobb Rocks for trout but only managed a few more Spanish on the flats. Made a quick hop out to Peters Rock and could clearly see the bottom in 8.5 feet. Water temp was 65.5 on the flats in the morning and eventually made it to 71.5 by the afternoon. By 3:00 we decided to fish our way back to the landing. We made our last drift across the mouth of the Aucilla and ran into a school of trout. We put out the anchor in just the right spot. They were hitting Gulps on a jig. The action was fast and furious for about 30 minutes. We must have landed 20-25 fish keeping only the big boys. It was the kind of fishing trip that makes you wish you had a video camera mounted on the boat to catch the action.
Here are a few pictures courtesy of Troutinator- .
Troutinator holding his 20â€
