Every Other Cast

The wind finally died down today and I felt like we'd have a pretty good day of fishing...and it turned out we did. I met Jason and Alicia Ash down at the Big Talbot Island Park boat ramp for a "couples day out" of fishing (thank you grandparents!). We headed up the intercoastal and made our first stop at the mouth of Jackstaff and began fishing float rigs with live shrimp up near the grass. I thought for sure these anglers would be catching fish in no time, but, no real bites, other than a hard fighting Bonnethead Shark.   I switched Jason to a Jig and alternated shrimp and mud minnows

and he began to put fish in the boat. Feisty Redfish, a Black "puppy" Drum, a Jack Crevalle, and a Ladyfish. We switched Alicia to the jig and she promptly caught a really nice Mangrove Snapper. Then she put another one in the boat.

We crossed over the creek, fished the sides of a submerged sandbar, and landed two hungry Seatrout, caught on the bottom with jig and shrimp.

After running through Horsehead and down the Nassau River to Spanish Drop, we set up along side an shell bed that was just beginning to show. While Alicia took a break, Jason worked from the bow and put small but feisty Redfish after Redfish  in the boat. It seemed like he had a hookup every other cast. Then, after baiting up with a minnow and making an excellent cast to the shoreline, BOOM! Fish on!  The minute it hit the water. Jason commented that he didn't think it was very big, but I could hear the drag ripping and his rod was bent - I felt sure it was a big fish. And when it settled in, Jason agreed with me!  This fish took him from the bow to the stern and from starboard to port as it dug deep to get away, but Jason kept the pressure on and after a good, long battle, landed a big 24.5" Slot sized Redfish. Now that's a nice fish!

We hit another outlet along the Nassau, caught few more smaller Reds, fished some rocks and docks at Seymore's Pointe, then called it day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida