Overcast, Misty and Redfish Catch'n!

Felecia Gant and her friend Pandra were visiting Amelia Island from South Carolina along with Felecia's brother Ron Gant, in from Rhode Island.   They had scheduled a couple of days of fishing on The Anglers Mark so we met Friday at 1pm at the Atlantic Seafood dock.  It was somewhat cool, the skies were overcast and every once in a while we had a light rain, but this anglers were not to be deterred!  We eased out of the harbor with a falling tide and water temperatures around 49 degrees to hit our first spot, some exposed oyster beds near the mouth of Tiger Island.  Felecia was tossing a jig and live shrimp combo, Pandra had a jig and Ghost Grey Trigger X artificial shrimp, and Ron was fishing with a new Parker bait curly tail grub.  The anglers unlimbered their casting at the first few stops then we headed to Tiger Island to troll the log strewn bank.  We hadn't gone too far when Pandra had a hit, the drag ripped, and the fish was off, so we held the boat in place and all anglers cast to the barnacle encrusted branches of a downed tree.

Pandra again had a hookup and this time she set the hook and the fight was on!  She fought fish expertly and soon the feisty Redfish was brought to a waiting net.  From then on, the anglers soon found that by casting their baits right up to the branches would produce a strike, some almost as soon as they reached the bottom.  Felecia caught her share of Redfish and Ron joined in, too.  We estimated that their take was around 17 Redfish, all from the one spot!  The tide was about to start in so we cranked the big engine and headed over to the docks at Lanceford Creek.  After anchoring the anglers made their pitches to the base of the dock pilings and soon were rewarded with more hookups, aggressive Redfish fighting all the way to the boat.  They added 7-8 more fish to their total, but with the sun heading down and the temperature dropping we decided to head back in, counting it as another great day to be out on the water!