A Little Topwater Action

I wrapped my week up yesterday morning, fishing with Stu and Audrey Secler and leaving out of the out City marina. We had a high and outgoing tide so we ran up and around to the outside of Tiger Island. Stu set up on the bow with a 7' rod and a topwater Heddon Zara Spook and Audrey fished the stern, tossing a float rig baited with a mud minnow. As we worked along a flooded marsh line Stu was picking up "spits" on his lure - they'd swipe at it but wouldn't take. He was expertly "walking the dog" and finally had
one big enough to take it and he quickly landed a small, but hungry Seatrout. It was cool to see some topwater action! Audrey was getting bites too, but had no takers at the first stop. With the Fernandina Fishing Rodeo going on and the weekend anglers out in full force, I could tell that spots close to town were going to be taken so we ran up and around to the Jolley River and fished the "bank". Stu stuck with the lure for a while, had a few more smacks at it then switched to the float and minnow. Both he and Audrey began to pick up fish. Audrey landed a nice keeper sized Flounder (all fish were released today) and a couple of smaller ones. Stu put a keeper sized Flounder in the boat and some smaller ones', too. They both had feisty Redfish and some high flying Ladyfish. We ran further up into the river and switched to jigs and minnow now that the oysters were showing. The two anglers added another Redfish or two and a couple of Seatrout (rounding out a couple of Amelia Island Back Country Slams). Stu briefly tangled with a Bonnethead Shark - it took the bait, zipped across a shallow then made a hard turn and quickly separated the leader. With a little breeze blowing it made for another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.