Friday, March 25, 2016

Tournament Red Big Trout Keeper Flounder

We squeezed in a fishing trip this morning trying to beat the bad weather that is supposed to roll in this weekend. I met Todd Johnson, his son Oliver and his brother-in-law Jeff down at the City marina and we headed up Bell River to fish some oyster beds as the tide came in. There was  no live shrimp on the island today so we tried our hand at live mud minnows. Although we had a few bites, there were no takers so we ran around to Lanceford Creek and set up at "Millies Spot" and here things heated up somewhat. Jeff got the ball rolling when he landed a hungry Seatrout. Todd and Oliver
were getting bites then Todd had a strange bite up near some grass and when it boiled I thought for sure "Redfish". Todd played it patiently and when he got it to the boat we netted a nice keeper sized Flounder! That's the second one in two days so they must be moving in. I think we had another Trout or two then we moved on, running over to the outside of Tiger Island to fish some now flooded oysters. Oliver landed a Bluefish and Jeff did too, then when we moved Oliver made a good cast up to some grass and FISH ON! This was a nice fish and Oliver played it perfectly. After
a good battle he landed a big 18" Seatrout. We hit a couple of points then ran over to the tower, fished some flooded oysters, and Jeff went to the grass and pulled out a feisty Redfish. After working the area for a while we saw a nice calm area with sparse grass growing. Oliver tossed his minnow up near the grass and when his float disappeared it wasn't long before his drag was singing! BIG FISH ON! This fish was ripping drag but Oliver kept the pressure on. It took him from the bow back to the stern and half way back. The big fish boiled a few times and we knew it was a large Redfish. Oliver worked it to the boat and his uncle Jeff netted it - a "Tournament sized" 26 3/4" 14 spot Redfish! Boy what a fish!  After fishing one more spot where Jeff added another Seatrout, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing Amelia Island waters.

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