Fresh Air and Sunshine

I'm hoping all of you are hunkered down and doing your best to avoid the virus that affecting us all. I've had a handful of cancellations but I'm still getting out on the water for today and tomorrow. Although the forecast called for a 35% chance of rain, when I hitched the boat up this morning it was only about a 5% chance and that was pretty accurate! I don't advertise it but once in a while I put a "shared trip" together, placing anglers with others to create a trip where they share the fee and today we pulled another one off. Estelle Wolfman was camping at Talbot Island and needed a fishing partner and Jon Slaughter answered the call. We all met up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park early this morning. It was so calm the 'ole sand gnats (no-see-ums) were right at home!

We ran up to the Jolley River and began fishing Jolley Bank with float rigs with mud minnows on an outgoing tide. Both anglers were making excellent casts but we had no takers.  We ran on up to "Snook Creek", switched to jigs and minnows and again, no luck. We fished the MOA - no bites there, then crossed over to some exposed oysters and finally, Estelle hooked up and "knocked the  skunk off" when she landed a hungry Seatrout. Jon added a Trout, Estelle caught another, then Jon put another in the boat. Jon had a somewhat stronger bite, hooked up, and landed a feisty Redfish.

We made the run back around to Tiger and fished the logs but all we found was a barely legal Flounder bur it did round out the duo's Amelia Island Back Country Slam of Trout, Redfish and Flounder.

After a short break we headed over to Eagans Creek and set up down current of some dock pilings. Within minutes Jon had a strong bite and, Fish On!  Jon worked it out from the pilings, played it patiently, and soon landed a nice 26" Slot Redfish, boy what a fish!  Just minutes later, BOOM! Estelle had a hookup and Fish ON!  She fought it in an Epic battle, worked it to the net, and landed a big Slot Redfish.

We bounced down two docks and BOOM! Big Fish On - but this one got up in the pilings and broke off. BOOM! Big fish on, and again, it ran up into the pilings and broke off. After that, it was like someone turned the light switch off. We hit one more spot then called it a day, another great one fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.