A Good Mess of Fish

We fished the south end today, launching from the Big Talbot Island Park boat ramp at Sawpit Creek to fish the last couple of hours of an outgoing tide.  I met Adam Garner and his son Ryan and Ryan's girlfriend Morgan and we headed up the  Nassau River to fish the oyster beds with jigs and live shrimp and mud minnows.  It didn't take long to get bites - first Ryan had a strong hookup and landed a huge Catfish then he picked up a couple of Croakers and then a  21" Black "puppy" Drum.  Morgan then had a strong
hookup that headed up river so we had to chase it with the boat!  She patiently fought and landed another huge Catfish.  Ryan added another nice keeper sized Drum and a few more Croaker, then Morgan landed a hard fighting Drum.   We made our next stop along some rocks at Seymore's Pointe and here the anglers had non-stop action,  catching keeper sized Grey "mangrove" Snapper.  We were getting low on bait, getting so many bites, we made the decision to run further up the river to see if we could get something bigger.  We picked a spot between the downed logs, began making casts and within minutes Ryan had a hookup.  He fought the fish expertly and after a good battle, landed our first Redfish, a slot 19" keeper sized one.  We fished some more, caught another Drum, a few Croaker and had what looked like a large Seatrout to the boat.  With that, we called it a day, another great day to be fishing Amelia Island, and with a mess of fish in the box!