The Beast Spooled Us

We had a great morning today to fish.  I could tell the humidity wasn't very high as I was hooking up and loading the boat.  I met Jim Petchar and his son Hunter down at the Big Talbot Island Park boat ramp and we made the run up Broward Island to make our first stop, fishing with jigs and live shrimp on the first of an incoming tide.  The first spot wasn't so "hot".  The two anglers were working their baits perfectly but all we were able to catch were a couple of Croaker and a Catfish!  We then ran to Broward Island and here the
tide was still going out.  I think it was Jim's first cast up to the bank and BOOM! FISH ON!  This was a big fish!  It ran deep a couple of times and I was standing next to Jim watching the spool starting to show under the line!  We took a chance and tightened the drag just a bit and Jim worked it closer and closer to the boat.  It ran deep a couple of more times but Jim finally subdued the beast and we netted a nice 26.5"  "tournament" Redfish!  Boy what a fish!  We continued to fish the bank and Hunter landed a keeper sized Flounder, a feisty 9-spot Redfish and a couple of hungry Seatrout to claim his own Amelia Island Back Country Slam.  Jim made it a "Grande Slam" when he put a hard fighting Black "puppy" Drum in the boat.  They each picked up a couple of small Redfish then we made a run back to Seymore's Pointe and set up along the rocks to fish with float rigs and live shrimp.  It took a few minutes but when the Snapper turned on, boy did they turn on!  The two anglers landed one after another and after an hour of fishing had their limit of Snapper up to 16".  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing Amelia Island waters!