Monday, July 1, 2024

Making Due With Bait Shortage

 There was as slight hiccup in the bait supply the last couple of days and luckily I got a text from AIBT
last evening about there being no bait to buy this morning, so I made plans to get up a bit earlier than usual, loaded my gear and some old frozen shrimp and headed to the Sawpit Creek boat ramp. After launching the boat I set out a minnow trap then trolled the bank looking for finger mullet. The tide was fairly high and I guess the mullet had not come out of the creeks, but when I checked the minnow trap I had a couple of dozen so I stored them, re-set the trap and kept at it until I had 4-5 dozen. I then ran up to Goffinsville Park and met William and Dara Blalock for a morning of back water fishing - bait problem solved!

We crossed over and fished the corner at Middle River, had a few bites, but no takers, then ran thru Horsehead and over to Pompano Point and fished those stretches of grass with float rigs and the minnows. William put a small Catfish in the boat, then a feisty Redfish. We came back and fished the entrance to Jackstaff and picked up another couple of smaller Reds when we switched to jigs. Dara had a hangup on a oyster shell but when it came off she felt a tell-tell "bump" and when she set the hook, fish on!  She worked it to the boat and landed a nice 18" Flounder. 

After running back thru Horsehead and down to Spanish Drop we fished a drainage and picked up another smaller Flounder or two. Further down the river we fished some shell beds, added another small Red, then Dara had another one of those bumps, just off a finger of grass that had fallen in. She was fighting it expertly - we saw a nice Flounder flash and....fish off!  Ouch!

Our final stop was over at some docks at Nassauville where the duo added one more small Flounder to their catch and a couple of keeper sized Mangrove Snapper (all fish caught today were released). We had made due with the bait we had and had caught a handful of fish so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

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