Flounder Begins It. Big Red Ends It.

We waited for an afternoon tide yesterday when I met Dennis and Barb Lockart down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp. Although we had just a slight wind, the skies were overcast, but no rain was predicted. We made our first run up the Intercoastal and popped into Jackstaff with plans to fish the outgoing tide with jigs and live shrimp. The two anglers began working the bank and after a short while Barb had a weird bite - FISH ON! She worked it patiently to the boat and low and behold, a nice keeper sized Flounder! That's the first Flounder we've had in weeks. And shortly after that Dennis
had a hookup and he too put a fish in the boat, a hungry Seatrout. We continued on up the bank, had very few nibbles, then crossed over to fish a submerged sandbar, again to no avail. After a quick run through Horsehead we set up current from some dock pilings and fished their bases with the jigs. The first dock produced nothing but not a few minutes after hitting the second one did we have a strong bite. But this fish was smart and wrapped itself around a piling and, FISH OFF! Darn it. Dennis went back to the same spot with an excellent cast and BOOM! Another fish on. He worked the
fish slowly to the boat and we landed an "almost legal" feisty Redfish. This gave the couple an Amelia Island Back Country Slam of Flounder, Seatrout and Redfish. They picked up one or two more Reds at that dock then we worked our way down the line, fishing the pilings, but having no further luck. We made a run down to Broward Island which put us out of the wind that had been picking up and boy was it pretty - the wind was blocked, the sun was going down, the tide was getting just right....and the sand gnats swarmed us like a huge cavalry!  Barb picked up a hungry Seatrout on a slip float rig but the bugs were making it just too uncomfortable so we moved down the river and out from behind the land mass. We tried the float rigs, drifting them through some popping bait and with just a few minutes to go in the trip, worked a nice looking exposed oyster bar with 4-5 foot of water along the edge. With just a few casts, Dennis had a strong hookup. This was a bigger fish - the drag was ripping - but Dennis kept the pressure on and soon landed a nice Slot sized Redfish. As we were getting it de-hooked Barb had a strong hookup and again, FISH ON! And this was a big fish. Her's didn't come to the boat so readily, but she fought it valiantly and soon landed a "Tournament sized"  26.75" fat Redfish! Boy what a fish. And with that, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.