Slot Sized Redfish

I fished this afternoon with Will Carlton and his friend Shea out of the Fernandina Beach Harbor Marina. We met at 1pm and headed up to the Jolley River to fish a tide that has been going out for a couple of hours.  The two anglers started off with float rigs baited with live shrimp or mud minnows.  Although they had a few nibbles, there were no takers.  We made a short move to where some oysters were now exposed and switched to jigs and minnows.  It didn't take long and Shea had a strong hookup.  He played the fish perfectly and landed a feisty Redfish. We continued to fish the area and Shea must have had the hot rod because he picked up a couple more of these hard fighting fish.  Then Will got in on the action and had a good hookup.  But this fish was bigger and we knew it when it boiled up near the oysters, FISH ON!  Will kept the pressure on and played the big fish patiently and after a good battle that took him from starboard to port and back again, landed a nice Slot 24" Redfish!  The two anglers picked up a few more of these Redfish then we made a move back to the mouth of Jolley and fished a large creek runout.  Here Will put a keeper sized 16" Flounder in the boat.  We made our last stop at Tiger Island, fished a spot with no real bites, then made a move that put us on fish.  Both anglers were hooking up and fighting small but feisty Reds when Shea had a good hookup that put up more of a battle.  He'd caught enough of these fish today and he was ready and soon landed another Slot sized Redfish.  With that we called it a day, another great one to be fishing Amelia Island waters!