This time JR found us reds. They were beside a large yellow sandbar big enough to set up a company picnic. Much to our elation, this tea-colored deep bend in the creek contained nothing but redfish. You couldn’t cast without getting a hit or catching one. Doug and I walked down the bar catching and releasing fish. Oddly, each one of the reds was just south of being a legal fish. But they were anxious to feed and fun to catch.

Not too cold for these fish to feed; they were hungry! They took everything we pitched at them. We started with shimp-tipped jigs and red or white grub-tails. Then we left off the grub and just tossed the jig and a live shrimp. Next we tried only the jig and grub with no shrimp. The fish took all our offerings.

JR couldn’t believe that among all these hungry fish there wasn’t a single keeper that showed himself. He told us that the week before he and another angler had airboated to this same spot and caught several 30-inch redfish. In fact, he said there wasn’t a small one in the bunch. The next day he brought in five other anglers and, “we pulled up to this very same spot and caught maybe 500 fish. And not one of them was even 18 inches long! One day it’s slam full of big ’uns; the next day nothin’!”

JR shook his head and grinned. “But that’s the fun of it. Out here you never know what size fish you’ll find.”

After catching and releasing until our arms ached, we finally headed back. As we neared our shortcut to the Aucilla River we saw fish action on the incoming tide. It showed first with schools of finger mullet, then larger fish swirled the deepening waters around us.

We took GPS bearings here because the up-thrust rocks once covered with deeper water would be a redfish and trout sanctuary for sure. When I mentioned this, JR grinned and pointed back of us to a marker. “That’s why it’s called, Redfish Point,” he said. “You can see why the fish like it with all the rock protection for bait. This place is worked heavily by the fish on both incoming and outgoing tides.”

Airboat fishing with its racket may not be for everyone, but it’s sure a super-fast way to get into and out of country unfishable by any other means. I always thought airboats scared off every fish in the county but now I’m not so sure. They may not even hear it as loudly as we do. Maybe that’s why our fish struck so quickly after we roared in on them. Sound travels five times faster in water than in air but airboats are doing all their roaring in the air, not the water. My bet is that the sound is less upsetting to them than the whirling props of outboard motors. Either that or our fish were too famished to care about noise.

Later as we eased up the Aucilla, JR hugged the bank as close as he could while idling past boat anglers. “People hate the sound of these things and there’s no need to upset them,” he said. “It’s just common courtesy to go easy. I purposely put on a 4-blade prop to keep from upsetting folks. It’s a lot quieter. But whether it’s an airboat or a power boat, it’s the driver that makes the difference. All of us know the other kind.”

As we hauled out at the river landing, JR reflected: “It’s a whole new world out there in an airboat. I can run this coast and check out six creeks to find fish in a fraction of the time it takes to do it by boat. Only thing I wish is that I’d had one 20 years sooner!”

JR does no guiding and rents no airboat. His craft is just a fast magic carpet ride to find the action, so he can report it to anglers along the river. To those who know him, that’s the way JR is.

“If a fellow did no more than hire an airboat fishing guide to go down this river with him on low tide with his GPS, he’d come back knowing a lot more about where to fish, than most guys learn in 30 trips in their own boat,” he said.

There are 52 coastal miles of Taylor County and not all of them are as rocky and riddled with oyster bars as what lies around the Aucilla River. But in all those Big Bend miles from the Aucilla to Yates Creek and Keaton Beach, there are airboat fishing guides available for anglers wanting to fish similar remote sites. Bait and tackle shops post their business cards. Sampling backcountry fishing other anglers can’t reach isn’t a bad way to go. Hire a guide with an airboat, and he’ll fast-forward you there sooner than you can catch your breath. Best of all, you’ll have such a heart-thumping ride getting there, you might not care if you catch fish or not!

FS