Awesome Aucilla
Posted: April 24th, 2008, 10:49 am
Greetings anglers! I'm here to report on our great trip to the Aucilla River from yesterday. Gene and I started out late in the morning, around 11 a.m. because of the late morning low tide. The wind was blowing harder than predicted (about 10-15 MPH out of the N), but the skies were clear with very little cloud cover. We found the water a light tea stained color, which was surprising as I hoped to find it clear after the lack of recent rainfall! No matter- our plan was to fish the shore lines, creek mouths, and creeks going west out of the Aucilla basin. We ran through the cut off creek and out past the little island on the left when you come out of the creek bay (I don't know what the creek's name is but those of you that use that "cut off" creek know where I'm talking about). We started down the shore line tossing top water lures (MirroLures, Devil Horse, Rapalas, Yuzure's) as well as spoons, and soft baits like the Gulps or Slurps. After a few tosses with the Black & Silver Devil Horse (I have regigged the lure with salt water hooks), a 20 # Jack piled on it and fought me hard for 15 minutes. After admiring the huge fish, we turned it loose - I couldn't find the darn camera at the time and didn't want to sacrifice the fish's health fartin' around trying to locate it in a fishing bag! Next Gene took us into the Pinhook River, down and around that big oyster bar across the entrance, and on to a couple of creek mouths. I immediately snached a 22" Redfish out of the mouth of the third creek mouth on the right using a white Nylar Jig tipped with shrimp! Next I had a huge Sheephead that gave me about as much fight as that pesky Jack! You bet I got the pictures of him. He went into the cooler with the big red.
Gene put us inside the creek on the left on down the Pinhook a ways as the tide began to turn in and we started finding small reds stacked up on the corners in the deep troughs along the grass edges. We probably caught about a dozen 16 -18" reds on live shrimp drifted along under popping corks and rattle corks. A 19" trout tried to take my pole in the water but I recovered fast enough to put him (not a her) in the boat - and the cooler. We tired of catching small reds, so Gene used the trolling motor to ease us along the deeper sides of the creek headed out into the bay again. Near the entrance I had another big pig red slam my Gold Spoon (a modified version called Super Duper, made by South Bend, that I have removed the treble hook, replaced it with a 1/0 single salt water stainless hook, and tied streamer fly materials on the hook shank). Yep, into the cooler with you, too!
The wind increased to 15 - 20 MPH, still out of the N, the water temperature in the 70's, with the air temp in the low 80's. What a great day! After a catfish tried to steal my shrimp and a ladyfish peeled out some line on the spoon, we started fishing around the shoreline back towards the Aucilla cut off creek. Throwing spoons, and top water stuff, produced no other fish. I missed a strike on a weedless Slurp thrown at a moving redfish, but after catching all those other ones, who cares.
Since it was 5:30 p.m. and we were tired and beat up, back to the landing we wernt. Ya'all get out there and try 'em - they are hungry. Bye the way, thanks Casey for that wonderful report from a few days ago when you reminded me how much I have missed fishing the Aucilla area.
Actually, I had some refitted spoon lures that needed testing (only one of them worked), tried to find a MirroLure choice for them to like (they never did), work on my top water prop casting (worked too well on that big, fat Jack fish), and making sure the old reliable Nylure/shrimp tipped jigs still produced (they did). 
Oh, and I forgot about the weightless Slurp bodies I tossed around and scared a fat redfish. 
Bottom line, I was out there to redeem myself after the butt whipping my eldest son gave to me over in Steinhatchee on my birthday.