First Fish BIG Fish

Friday morning I fished with the Felipe family - Ileanna and Giovanni and their adult kids Karel and Lauren, who were visiting Amelia Island and wanting to take in some back country fishing on
 The Anglers Mark.  We had met down at the Big Talbot Island Park boat ramp and headed up the Amelia River and into the Horsehead area to fish the first of an outgoing tide with mud minnows under float rigs.  There wasn't a whole lot of movement at the peak of the tide and it took about 30-40 minutes to begin to even get bites.  But then Lauren had made an excellent cast up near the grass and soon her float disappeared
under the water.  Lauren lifted her rod tip firmly and FISH ON!  The big fish made a hard run along the grass line and as the rod bent over the drag zipped, zipped, zipped!  Lauren held on and when the fish began to tire she began to slowly work it in to the boat.  We had seen the big Redfish boil up near the bank and knew that it was going to be a nice fish and after the extended battle, we netted a big 29 3/4" oversized slot Redfish as the first fish put in the boat for the day!  Boy what a fish!  After measurement and photographs we made sure the fish swam away to live a longer life.  Shortly after that fish Ileanna had a strong hookup but this fish was having none of it and broke itself off in the oysters.  We fished another grass line and both Karel and Giovanni got in on the action, catching a few feisty Redfish and tangling with high flying Ladyfish.  Karel had a big Redfish on for a good battle but it too found a way to break the line.  Lauren found a couple of the feisty Reds too along the same stretch of marsh grass.  We ran around and fished Seymore's Pointe and Bubblegum Reef then called it a day, another great one to be fishing Amelia Island waters!