Bragging Rights Trout

I fished north today for the first time this week. It's kinda strange seeing boats out and around! I met Todd Johnson and his son Oliver at the City marina early and we headed north up to the outside of Tiger Island to fish an incoming tide with jigs and live shrimp. We had fished for just a short while when Oliver "knocked the skunk off" with a good hookup. He played the hard fighting fish perfectly and soon landed a nice keeper sized Black "puppy" Drum. We had bites here and there then his dad put a Drum in the boat. Just as we
were about to move on Todd said he had a fish playing with  his bait, followed it out to deep water, then it took it with a vengeance! FISH ON! This was a big fish. It was ripping drag so I assumed a Redfish but then it zigged and zagged so I questioned myself. Sure enough, when Todd had patiently tired it out, we netted a big 23" Seatrout, the biggest on the Anglers Mark this year. Todd took over first place in the Anglers Mark 2017 Bragging Rights Tournament -Seatrout Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings). We then made a run up to Jolley River and began fishing a flooding shoreline with the ever rising wind at our backs. Within minutes Oliver's float disappeared and he too had a big fish! Oliver worked him in like a pro and after a good battle, landed a big 19" Seatrout, boy what a fish! We slipped in to Snook Creek, caught our first Shark of the year, then ran around to Bells River docks where Todd jigged up another keeper sized Trout. After another run we went back to the floats and fished some flooded oysters and first cast, BOOM! Oliver had a Trout. After one more stop we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.