More Like a Soccer Match

Boy what a pretty morning we had today! Just a tad bit cool running to the first spot, not a cloud in the sky, and only a slight  breeze that helped keep the no-seeum's away. I had met Dale Steinkamp and his nephews Parker and Chaz down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp and after the safety orientation, made the long run around to Broward Island to take advantage of the first of an incoming tide.

Except that the tide was still going out when we got there! All three anglers were tossing mud minnows on jigs to the shoreline and all three began to fill "bumps" on their baits. It was the older angler, Dale, that "knocked the skunk off" when he patiently let the fish take his minnow then he slowly set the hook and, fish on! He worked it to the boat and landed a nice keeper sized Flounder. Dale quickly proved that his technique was no fluke when he boated a 2nd, a 3rd and a 4th keeper sized Flounder - the biggest being around 18".  The guys were drawing comparisons to the Patriot/Falcons game as Dale pulled way ahead in the "catch" total. We worked up and down the island, had a bite here and there, then made a run back down the Nassau River to fish some still exposed shell banks.

With the water being so clear we actually saw two Redfish cruising the shallows but just as we were making our casts a big Bonnethead rushed out of on outlet and scared them off. We fished some docks at Seymore's Pointe but had no bites then ran back to Pumpkin Hill where Parker put a nice Black Tip Shark in the boat. But other than that, Team Young Angler was about to have concede to the more experienced guy in the boat. We ran out of time and called it day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida!

 But wait! On the way back to the ramp we passed a spot that had been occupied earlier and with some bait still in the boat, we "put time back on the clock" (just like a soccer game) and stopped to fish. All three anglers began to get bites, then Chaz hooked up and landed a keeper sized Mangrove Snapper. Then he and Parker had a double hookup and both landed  Snapper. Chaz made another cast and when his float disappeared and his drag began to sing, we knew this was a bigger fish. Chaz played it patiently and soon landed a nice 21" Slot sized Redfish. He later picked up two more keeper sized Snapper and with the added time, took bragging rights for biggest fish of the day!