Having had a request from a friend (Randy Ball) to take him fishing, we decided to try our luck on Friday. We arrived at the Lighthouse pool around 7:30 and although the low tide wasn't supposed to be for another hour and a half it was already very low. We squeezed out the canal and proceeded to an area mid way between Grey Mare and Cobbs Rock. The water was flat calm with a slight Westerly breeze. Water temp was around 69 early and ended up at 71 around high tide at 3pm. Water was VERY clear with the bottom being visible in 6-7 ft. There were already probably a dozen boats scattered around. Our first drift was pretty deep, around 9-10 foot with the drift being in a East North East direction. Using CT's with mostly a natural shrimp color grub and both 3-4 ft and 18-24 inch leaders, we didn't have any bites and continued moving in closer until we were drifting in aprox 3-4 ft depth and still no activity. After changing depth of drift 3 times with no bites we picked up and ran East towards the Aucilla. Just South of Sulphur Creek we started a drift in 7-8 ft. The water was clear but the visibility was not as good as the previous spot with a lot more suspended particles. Never the less, after a couple of minutes we started having hits and within probably an hour we had 6 quality fish 17-19 inches in the box and yet to catch a short.
After the bite seemed to slack off we would pick up and move back to the start of our drift and repeat. We had our two man limit by 12 noon and began to throw back a third with still no shorts and all fish being in the 16-18 inch range. I say we had our two man limit but my partner decided to throw back #10 (a honest 17 incher) and wait for the one at over 20. I failed to mention that Randy has only been in the area for about a year and a half and although has fished in Central Florida and some in this area as well... I'm not sure he understands how quick the bite can leave...as a result I told him I wasn't so sure about pitching the #10 fish back and continuing to release quality fish hoping for Mr. "big stuff" especially since we were drifting in relatively deep water and that most of the big ole trout seem to come from holes in the creeks (which we were not going to be in!) Anyway the bite shut down around 1:30 for us. By now the wind and tide together had created a nearly North drift and with no more success we decide to call it a day and head in early with our 9 fish. Randy made a quick phone call to his wife telling her the good news about his days catch and that he would be in early to clean the fish. We put everything away and headed towards the Lighthouse. When we reached the area where we started that morning I throtled back and told Randy, lets try our first spots now that there is some more water over them. We had been in communication with "Answered Prayer" most of the day and he was to our East with his party and in his words catching a "ton" of fish although lots of shorts and most keepers were under 16 inches. Randy and I started throwing the CT's and before I could get set up good Randy's CT takes a dive. He begins to explain to me that this is a good fish. The fish appears and yes indeed, Mr big stuff has showed up. I begin to explain to Randy that we have already put the net up. Now for those who don't know me or have not fished with me, I always put a garbage back over the net and tie it off before I slide it under the front deck of my skiff. I do this because I've found that it prevents the net from hanging up on other items that I have stored under the deck. So.. I'm down on my hands and knees digging the net out of from under the deck...Randy is encouraging me to "HURRY UP WITH THE NET"... I bring it out from under the deck and decide to just use it as a scoop with the garbage bag still on it.. I just get the net/garbage bag/device under the fish and Randy decides to HEAVE the fish over the side and into the boat. An excellent plan....given the situation with the net, except for the fact that Randy hasn't had a lot of practice in judging how much Heave it takes to just end up with the fish in the boat. As a result... the fish makes it way all the way across the boat.. and is hanging (flopping) over the water on the other side! Did I mention that I was doing a beautiful job of "staying with the pitch" and was following the track of the fish with the net all the way across the boat and onto the other side. Randy recovered enough composure to adjust his reverse swing to bring the fish back over the boat where it promply disengaged it's self from the CT. We both stared glassy eyed at our #10 fish and after a couple of measurements with both of us holding the fish...we verified that it was indeed over 20 inches. We continued to drift (just for the fun of it) and had the most action of the day. Although the fish weren't as big as the ones we found earlier, the fast action more than made up for it. We actually had back to back twofer's and one of us was hooked up nearly the entire time. We stayed till around 3pm and left them biting. It was indeed a "Good Friday". Really enjoyed fishing with a great guy and it sure is fun watching someone get excited over catching fish.
Total 20 legal fish caught (10 released)
kept 10 with only one below 16 inches and one over 20
approx 20-25 shorts (released
1 blue fish (released)
2 hard heads
1 sail cat
wow - nice haul
. Very nice trip 
However, it has been used a couple of times in the last year.