Manatee More Manatee and Submarine

We thought we'd try and squeeze in a fishing trip today before the high winds hit us, and barely did we get one in. I met Josh and Melissa Daniel up at the Dee Dee Bartel park and boat ramp early and we headed up to the outside of Tiger with the hopes of targeting some tailing Redfish with fly rods. We had an hour or so before the tide got up so we set up off some flooded marsh grass and Josh tossed a shrimp fly while Melissa used spinning gear and mud minnows. Josh commented that he saw something in the water and when it came to the top we saw that it was a cruising Manatee! Cool! As they continued to fish  I noticed off in the channel a submarine was being escorted in. Super Cool!

We had no bites so we ran up into Tiger Basin and checked some marsh flats and saw that it was pretty evident that they were not going to flood with the increasing west wind. We hit one spot in Bell River with the spinning tackle while we were buffeted by the wind - had no luck - so we cruised around to Lanceford Creek and it was like a pond there!  Just as the two anglers began to fish we could see a commotion going on up near the grass. More Manatees!  There were two big "amorous" manatees and what looked like three toddlers. We watched them as they eased by the  boat, oblivious to us, then we worked around to a dock and fished it with the minnows and a sinking shrimp fly - still no luck.

Our next stop was further up Lanceford and here Josh "knocked the skunk off" when he landed a hungry Seatrout. The tide was dropping now so we hit one more dock and after thoroughly working it, Josh had a strong hookup and, BIG FISH ON! It was pulling deep and hard and I thought for sure it would wrap around a piling but Josh applied just the right amount of pressure and pulled him out of there. We moved out to deeper water and after that it was just a matter of patience before Josh landed a big 20" Black "puppy" Drum, boy what a fish!  Although it was a slow day of fish caching we had a very eventful day, making memories here at Amelia Island, Florida.