Fish Catch'n Picking Up

You can't beat these beautiful mornings we're having here at Amelia Island. I had met Rusty and Staci Byrd and their adult kids Austin and Elizabeth, down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp this morning. We had clear skies and a slight breeze (which lasted all morning) as we headed up the Amelia River to fish Jackstaff on an outgoing tide. The oysters were just starting to show but we started with float rigs and live shrimp and mud minnows. There wasn't much biting these but when we switched to jigs the anglers started
getting bites immediately. Austin knocked the skunk off when he landed a feisty Redfish then Rusty put a rather large Ladyfish in the boat after a high flying battle. We fished the deep side of a sandbar and here things heated up. Both Austin and Rusty were hooking up with 14" Seatrout so Staci and Elizabeth picked up a rod and caught some, too!  Rusty added hard fighting Jack Crevalle then a Flounder  and Austin hauled in a small Stingray. We actually left the Seatrout biting, gambling that we might find something bigger. The gamble paid off as we set up off a dock over at Seymore's Pointe: The whole family was hooking up with Mangrove Snapper, small Redfish, Flounder and then Rusty had a bite that ripped some drag on his reel, FISH ON! He played the big fish patiently and soon landed a nice 19" Seatrout. Shortly after that Austin hooked up with what was probably the biggest fish of the day, but this big fish was having none of it and went right through the pilings, broke the leader, and kept going! We made  final stop at Broward Island, caught another keeper sized Flounder and a small Red, then called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.