Bragging Rights Claimed

Capt Steve Hair and his wife Wanda of Ye Ole Pirate set me up with a group of young men today to fish the back waters of Amelia Island.  We left the marina this morning with the wind already blowing and headed up Bell River to get loosened up with some float rigs and  live shrimp on an extremely high tide - and it was still coming in!  These were tough conditions for back water but these anglers were game and were enjoying just being out on the water.  With the wind blowing, fishing the
float rigs was tough so we made a move to the Tiger Island logs which blocked the wind but we had a half a dozen boats for company.  Using jigs and shrimp, young Michael got things started off fairly quickly by landing a hungry Flounder to get the "skunk off the boat".  A little later his brother Roy hooked up with another fish which turned out to be a keeper sized Flounder.  Although the anglers were getting a few bites we decided to make a run on up Bell River to fish the docks, thinking that maybe the land mass would block the wind.  It didn't.  But we settled in
to fish anyway tossing both the jigs and float rigs.  Justin was using one of the jig rods and he briefly snagged on a submerged oyster bed but then it came off and when it did, ZZZZZZZ, FISH ON!  And boy was it a big one!  Justin played the fish perfectly and patiently as it made bull runs, one after another.  The wind was rocking the boat and I finally gave up on the trolling motor and let the wind push us right up into the grass as Justin fought the fish.  Roy was on the net and as the fish tired he scooped it up to be measured, photographed and released because this big boy was too big to keep - 31" long!  This vaulted Justin into first place in The Anglers Mark 2013 Bragging Rights Tournament - Redfish Category (scroll down right side of this report for standings).  This fish is also beating last years big Red by 1/2"!    We fished a few docks, caught some "bait stealers" and a small Trout (giving the anglers an Amelia Island Back Country Slam) then headed up to the Jolley River. Fishing a large marsh run out, Chris developed the "hot rod" and picked up a handful of Seatrout jigging on the bottom and eventually landed a nice fat 17" Seatrout.  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be out on Amelia Island waters!