This Lady Can Fish!

We had the whole family out today, the Arnett family - David and Kim and their two daughters Abby and Bethany. We met at the Eagans Creek boat ramp and headed straight up to the Jolley River with a few clouds overhead to block the sun most of the day. Our first stop was at Jolly Bank, fishing jigs and mud minnows on the very first of an incoming tide. The bite started off "on fire" - all anglers were getting bites and landing fish.

Abby and Kim were on the bow and were catching feisty Redfish

and hungry Seatrout while David and Bethany were adding to the catch, too. About half way up that stretch the bite fell off somewhat, unlike yesterday where we caught fish all along. But these anglers perseverance paid off because Kim had a strong bite and this fish bent her rod and ripped the drag, FISH ON! She played it perfectly and soon landed a nice 22" Seatrout! This also put Kim in third place in the Anglers Mark 2017 Bragging Rights Tournament - Seatrout Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings)  Not that's a nice fish!

We ran up and around to the MOA and here the fishing got weird! The family caught a couple of big Catfish, a Redfish, a Seatrout and

then David put a Stingray in the boat. Crazy. We moved around to Snook Creek, switched to float rigs, and didn't have much luck until.....BOOM!  Kim's float disappeared and again, BIG FISH ON! This fish stayed up near the bank, rolled, and ripped drag. We knew right off that it was a big Redfish. Kim kept the pressure on and slowly worked the big fish to the net. David scooped it up and they landed a Slot sized 23" Redfish!

We made one last stop on the outside of Tiger and Abby got hot catching keeper sized Flounder. Then Bethany joined in and she too expertly landed a keeper sized Flounder. We made one quick stop at the mouth of Tiger to check out some Manatee that have been hanging out, then headed in, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.