Making a Meal with Mangroves

You may have noticed I haven't reported trips the last week or so. That's because the couple of trips that I had around Shrimp Fest there wasn't much to report, other than not much biting in the back water. I hear the big bull Reds can be had out at the jetties if  you're in to that kind of fishing, but the backwater, coupled with high winds, has been kinda tough.

 But I fished yesterday with some regulars, Dennis Brizzi and his buddy Hal, meeting them out at the Goffinsville Park early morning. We made a quick run over to Pumpkin Hill, set up along some oysters and began to ease along the bank, tossing jigs and shrimp on the first of an incoming tide. Although conditions looked right and the shell banks looked enticing, we only picked up a couple of high flying Ladyfish.

Being in the area, we made a quick stop down at Broward Island and set up outside a large marsh runout. The two anglers were still tossing the jigs and within minutes Dennis had a hookup, called it "small", then his drag began to sing! It was a big fish. He played it patiently and eventually landed a nice 23" Slot Redfish.


Dennis had his spot picked out, went back to it a few times, had a good bite, but no take, then he had another hookup and landed a nice keeper sized Flounder.  We moved up a ways, tossing jigs forward and letting them bounce back with the current and found a hard fighting Jack Crevalle, then a fat keeper sized Seatrout that Hal worked to the boat.

Our next stop was back at the Horsehead area, fishing a now covered oyster bank, looking for Reds. The two anglers were tossing float rigs with a short leader along the oysters and began to pick up Mangrove Snapper. They've been getting bigger over the last month and these were of keeper size. I had one strong hookup that I felt like was a Redfish but within in seconds it dashed across the oyster bar as drag was ripping and cut itself off. Darn it!  After getting a good mess of the Mangroves, we made one last stop around at Seymore's Pointe and limited out on the Mangroves (5 a piece). With that, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.