Flurry of Redfish

I know the late afternoon thunderstorms aren't so great but we're having such beautiful mornings for fishing here at Amelia Island. Today was the same when I met Paul and Carol Chatley down at the City marina this morning. We ran north and around to Tiger Island and fished the logs on the very first of an incoming tide with jigs and mud minnows and shrimp. The water is so hot the shrimp don't hardly live to the first stop so most all of our fish were caught on the minnows today. We worked up and down the bank, picked
up a small Redfish here and there then we really go into them. Paul had a "spot" that he had zeroed in on and was getting good hookups regularly. He put 2-3 Slot Reds in the boat and then Carol reeled in a nice Slot fish of her own. There must have been a small school of Reds down there because for a short while we hooked up with a good handful of them Paul also put a keeper sized Flounder in the boat (all fish were released today). We ran around to the Jolley River, fished the "bank", had a few nibble here and there, then Paul caught another Redfish and another Flounder on float rigs and minnows.  After running further up the River we found a spot where the oysters were flooded. There were a ton of small Ladyfish in the area and the two anglers tangles with them. Paul landed a Seatrout to round out his Amelia Island Back Country Slam then Carol had a strong hookup. We knew right off that it wasn't a Ladyfish - there was no jumping- and Carol kept the pressure on, fighting the fish to the boat. When it surfaced we saw that it was a 2.5' Black Tip Shark. After pictures we released it then headed in, counting it as another great day to be fishing Amelia Island waters.