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For the first time in my life....it's a long one now....my son and I were the only people at Aucilla landing this morning. No other vehicles. We launched about 0730 and proceeded on down river. High tide was about 0500 so we had plenty of water. Went to the island....through the cut to the ditch....on out to the area around Pinhook. Fishing was great immediately...for about 1 hour...on topwater. We got 3 reds from 23 in. down to 1 short. Got 1 17in. trout. Little did we know that trout was to be the last keeper trout of the day. We went on out to Cobb Rocks and joined about 100 cormarants....over to Gray Mare. Got many shorts on C/T with pins...and jigs...but no keepers.
Came back near the enterance to Aucilla and got 2 gollywhooper sail cats. Man do they put up a fight....and good to eat too.
It was after 2 pm....tide was a zero @ 1300 so we carefully tiptoed up the river.
There was dark water where-ever we went.[url="http://www.myfishingpictures.com/?p=37200&c=500&z=1"][/url
Picture is right north of the island in the Aucilla River at sunrise. G\Beautiful.]

Thanks for the report, and the picture. Nothing better than sunrise on the water.

Good report, great pic.

Great Report fisherman-
Your son will remember that day for years to come. It is GREAT when you have the whole river to yourself, and it looks soo smooth.
Awesome picture! Which topwater lure was productive?

What a nice journey down and out the river for all of us! Thanks for sharing it!

The pattern seems to be taht dark water doesn't equal much action. I guess I wouldn't swim in it either. When I did find some fish Sunday it was in clearer water.

I have a new wallpaper. I can honestly say that that river is one of my favorite places on earth.

MJ, we only got one red on topwater, and it was a gold bang-a-lure about 6'' long. The 5 lb.+ red hit so hard he tore the back hook and propeller off the lure. We found the hook still in his throat when cleaning him. The only way I landed him was he got snagged in the other 2 trebles. He was an awesome fish!! I forgot how one that size can fight.

Tom Keels wrote:I have a new wallpaper. I can honestly say that that river is one of my favorite places on earth.

For me, that river is a spiritual experience. And it has so much to explore, apart from just fishing too. I have hiked the trial along side the river, and have been to the rapids. I have a picture on my web site from that. And the sink holes are awesome.

The river, upstream, has limestone outcroppings from shore that are truly unique.

But one of my peak outdoor experiences has been upon returning to the mouth of the Aucilla in the late afternoon in the fall, after fishing outside it, and seeing the isolated palms and then tree line off beyond that gold grass. Quiet exctasy.

In fact, my first foray onto an online fishing forum was to overcome my fear, as a first-time and belated boat owner, of taking my boat out of there; and of course it was very rewarding.

If any of you old or young salts would ever want a companion to go out there with you, check my forum "handle" or name ["aucilla"] and know that I would surely enjoy it with you!

PS: I read this book, and I wanted to share it with you. I am sorry the picture is so big, but it is pretty isn't it?



and it had a lot of interesting history.

Dad's got the book, and yes, it is very good. There's a lot of things about the river I never knew.

Reb- Thanks for the Info about the productive lure-

Is that the river that everyone says is full of submerged rocks and quite tricky ot navigate?
I would like to give it a go one of these days, is the landing easy to find?
and is it concrete?

Thanks Again~

MJ

Great report and awesome picture!

Unfortunately, the picture has turned into a little red cross on my PC.

Sounds like a nice fishing trip.
Not many people admit to eating sailcats, I assume they taste like any other catfish.

Cranfield,
If you like catfish, you would like sailcat. The biggest one we got had a whole blue crab in it's belly along with the pigfish I had under a cork.
I bet that fish wouldv'e had a time passing that big pointy shell after he ate it. We probably did him a favor catching him.

MJ, The Aucilla is indeed full of submerged rocks. There are areas where you tilt the motor near out of the water and go reeeeeaaaallllll slow. However, once you learn a little about the river, as sain in the above posts, it's a beautiful, and very interesting place to fish. I would suggest you make your first trip to Aucilla with a veteran. (Your boat has been there several times, and survived)