We Made The Right Call

The last two mornings I fished with Dan Tillotson and his son Paul. We launched both days out of the City marina to fish the last few hours of a incoming flood tide. Yesterday we fished north of the island, tossing float rigs with shrimp and mud minnows. Our first stop produced no bites but as we ran through Tiger Basin we made a stop to see if any Reds were tailing in the grass and sure enough, there was one slurping at the surface of an accessible grass flat!  We
had a weedless spoon ready but the fish was having none of it and eventually bolted. At our next stop Paul had the hot hand and landed a few Seatrout and a nice Bluefish but that was about it for the fish catching that day. Ouch. This morning we decided to go earlier and run south all the way down to Broward Island to fish the exposed logs before the tide came in. This turned out to be a good call because almost immediately the anglers began to catch fish. Within seconds of each other both hauled in keeper sized Flounder then they traded turns catching feisty Redfish. Then Paul had another heavy bite and we knew it was a Flounder again but we also could tell it was bigger. He played this big flat fish patiently and soon landed a nice 20" Flounder! We moved up and down the bank, picking up smaller Reds here and there and just before we decide to leave Dan had a stronger hookup, FISH ON! This was a bigger Red and ripped some drag, but Dan kept the pressure on and gradually worked it in to Paul and the waiting net, a nice 24" Slot Red!  We made a stop at Christopher Creek where Dan landed another Red and an almost keeper sized Black "puppy" Drum (rounding out an Amelia Island Back Country Slam), hit a couple of more spots, then called it  day, another great one to be fishing Amelia Island waters!