Making A Run At Bragging Rights

What a beautiful day to get back to work after a great birthday weekend! I met Jane Carver, her friend Clay and is son Brook up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park early this morning and we had clear skies, sunshine and just a slight breeze to greet us. With only about an hour of an outgoing tide left, we made a quick run over to Lanceford Creek and found a dock to fish. I think first cast produced a feisty Redfish then we picked up a few more as the tide went slack.

We ran back to Tiger Island and began fishing the logs as the tide started back in and things picked up. Both Clay and Brook put a few more Reds in the boat, with one of them being of keeper size, then Jane landed a keeper sized Seatrout. We had just a few more Trout - not many as I expected. After working the island thoroughly, we pulled up "anchor" and made the quick trip around to the Jolley River and set up along the "bank", still tossing jigs and live shrimp, but this time to the base of the oysters. After working along the bank about half way back to the point with no real bites,

BOOM! We were in to fish. The trio of anlgers caught Redfish after Redfish, sometimes getting doubles, and at least having a "triple" hookup. It was on fire. Then, as Brook was fighting a feisty Red on the stern, Clay had a strong hookup and, FISH ON! This was a big fish. It wasn't coming in. His line zipped down the bank then zipped back up the bank, then ran deep. Clay kept the pressure on - that's all he could do for a while. But we had the fish out deep and we chased him down as we needed, and after a good battle, Clay landed a huge, oversized 33.5" Redfish - big enough to slide him comfortable into 2nd place in the Anglers Mark 2017 Bragging Rights Tournament-Redfish Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings). Boy what a fish! We continued to fish until we ran out of bait, and left 'em biting. For a while.

After making a pit stop at the bait shop for some more live shrimp, we  came back to the Jolley, but continued on down to Snook Creek where we switched to float rigs. Although it wasn't as hot as the "bank", we still caught fish, and added one more Slot sized Redfish.  We hit the docks in Bell River, added a Redfish and a couple of Trout, then cruised back towards Fernandina to make a stop at some flooded oyster Beds. After one fish busted on Jane's bait, Clay went in behind her and picked up another Slot Red. The wind was really beginning to kick so we ran through Tiger and back to Tiger Island. I don't normally like to fish the island on a high tide but it was blocking the wind and I thought we might pick up a Trout out deep. As we worked along, we knew there were one or two spots we could pitch in to, and sure enough, Brooks made an excellent cast, worked it out deep, and BOOM! Big Fish On! He played it patiently, worked it slowly to the boat, and landed a big Slot 24" Redfish. Now THAT's the way to wrap up a fishing trip here at Amelia Island, Florida.