His and Hers and Fish

I'd set up an Amelia Island back country fishing trip with Jonathan Vines and his brother-in-law Smith Marks this morning, and they had elected to do the "His and Hers" trip where we would fish for a few hours then come back in to pick their spouses up.  We left the Fernandina Harbor Marina at 7am sharp and headed up to fish Eagans Creek docks on an outgoing tide.  The two anglers were tossing jigs and live shrimp and although it took a few minutes to begin to get good bites, they did come!  Jonathan hooked up with a large Black "puppy" Drum that gave him a good battle but Jonathan played the big fish patiently and landed it - measuring in at 22".  Later, Smith was fishing out deep and picked up a nice keeper sized Seatrout.  They both had big, big fish take their bait but there was no keeping them out of the dock pilings with our light tackle - there's a reason why they're big! We made a run out and around to fish the Jolley River and within minutes they were getting bites.  Smith hooked up with a "FISH ON" and then Jonathan had one too - a double!  Both of the anglers played their  fish perfectly and were able to land two beautiful feisty Redfish!  We fished the oyster Olde Town Fernandina, Fort Clinch, Cumberland Island and Tiger Island.  We had a just a few shrimp left so the guys began to toss them deep at the Tiger logs and were able to pick up a keeper sized Sheepshead to round out their Amelia Island Back Country Grande Slam of  Black Drum, Seatrout, Red Drum and Sheepshead.  With that, we called it a day, another great on to be fishing Amelia Island waters!

lined bank as the tide began to creep back in, had a bunch of nibbles but no real bites until, BOOM!  FISH ON!  Jonathan worked the fish away from the bank, let it wear itself out, and landed a nice Slot Sized Redfish.  Just a few minutes later Smith had a strong hookup that bent his rod double and caused the reel to sing - the big fish went deep and a long battle ensued.  But Smith was up to the task and after the fish took him from bow to stern, starboard to port, he worked the fish slowly up to be landed - a nice 36"+ Bonnethead Shark!  We wrapped up the fishing, headed in to pick up their wives Katie and Kristin, and toured