Oversized Redfish Followed By a Tourney Red

The water was like glass today and even though we had almost no breeze, the bugs really didn't become a factor, thankfully! I met David Traul and his son Andrew at the Dee Dee Bartels Park and boat ramp and we made a short run over to the entrance of Bell River to fish some flooded oysters. Although the bite wasn't automatic, David picked up a keeper sized Seatrout, then Andrew hauled in an even bigger one. Then David had a weird bite that "bobbed" his float a few times and then he set the hook gently and
reeled in a hungry Flounder! We ran around to the outside of Tiger and fished some flooded marsh grass on a tide that was beginning to rip out. David hit the outside of some sparse grass and BOOM! BIG FISH ON!  This fish was ripping drag and had no intentions of being landed, but David kept the pressure on, handed the rod off to Andrew who worked it in a while, then they switched off again and wore out the beast. After a good battle the anglers landed a nice oversized Red Drum that measured in at 28.5". This fish put David squarely in 2nd placed in the Anglers Mark 2017 Bragging Rights Tournament-Redfish Category (scroll down right side of this report for standings) We got some good pictures and released it to swim off. Boy what a fish! David went
back to the same area and within a minutes, BOOM! Another big fish on! He fought this fish patiently and young Andrew helped his dad by netting another big Red, this one "tourney sized" at 26.5". It was getting so shallow that the skeg of the engine was scraping bottom so we eased out of the area and bounced over to another shore line to fish the floats. After getting no bites, we picked up and ran over to Eagans Creek, fished some dock pilings and fished with both float rigs and jigs. Andrew was working a slip float on the outside of a dock and after picking up a couple of smaller Trout he hooked up a with a big one. He patiently worked the fish to the boat and landed the biggest Trout of the day, an nice 18" fish. David picked up another Slot Redfish, a smaller Red then a big 20" Black "puppy" Drum to round out the anglers Amelia Island Back Country Grande Slam of  Seatrout, Red Drum, Flounder and Black Drum. After hitting one more spot where Andrew kept the  hot hand catching a couple of more Trout, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.