Red Drum and Black Drum

Robert McCarthy and his son Evan met me down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp yesterday morning.  Boy was it a pretty day!  The water was like glass as I ran up the Nassau River to fish the Horsehead area on an incoming tide.  The anglers were tossing 1/4oz jigs with live shrimp and soon found that they had to work through the pesky bait stealers so common this time of year.  They caught plenty of Croaker, a few Jacks and then Evan had a good hookup and a good battle.  He played the fish perfectly and soon landed a nice keeper sized Black Drum.   He seemed to have the knack for catching the Drum because he landed a couple of

more.  We made run around to Jackstaff and fished the marsh grass, again using jigs even though the tide was up.  The anglers picked up a couple of feisty Redfish then Robert hooked up and this one was a bigger fish.  It bent the rod and ripped the drag but Robert played it patiently.  When it rolled up we know we had a nice Red.  He worked the fish to the boat and w netted a nice 21 1/2" Slot Red!  Later, Evan had a similar hookup and this one was even bigger.  He fought the fish for a good while, we saw it roll up a couple of times and knew it was a a BIG oversized Redfish.  But this wiley fish had been around for a while and when it saw it's chance it through the hook and the battle was over!  Later, Robert had a big hookup too, but this fish ran strong and deep and we knew right off it was a Shark.  He played the fish from bow to stern and back and when we got the big Bonnethead to the boat we broke it off and got back to fishing!  We made a run to Broward Island, picked up a couple of more Croaker, fished Jackstaff one more time, then headedin, counting it as another great day to be out on Amelia Island waters!