Setting The Bragging Rights Standard

 I had thought about putting Saturdays 26" and 25.5" fish on the Bragging Rights Board but I knew they would never stand thru the year. And today's fish proved it! I had met Gregg Fitgerald and his brother in law fishing partner John out at Goffinsville Park - it was 34 degrees on my truck thermometer when I launched and I could feel ice crunching under my boots on the boat deck. Unfortunately, the wind was forecasted to be blowing up to 12mph which can make a miserable day coupled with the cold, but these anglers were up for the challenge. We made our way around to Seymore's Pointe and that NW wind was blowing thru us as we set up on the first of an incoming tide to toss jigs and live shrimp to some dock pilings. I had hoped and expected to catch some Black "puppy" Drum but all we found were a handful of hungry Seatrout. 

We came back to Littlefield and fished the jigs deep and here we were out of the wind and we did pick up another handful of those small Seatrout - all of them were caught out in 27' of water. I noted that the water temperature was a little over 51 degrees.  We then made our way down to Broward Island and fished a few spots - one had a pair of Bald Eagles flying over. These anglers were making excellent casts but that wind was pounding into the shore and I think it negatively affected the bite. Gregg did hookup and land a keeper sized Black Drum.

After making a long run up the Nassau we eased into a creek and began to work back into the current. Out of the wind it was finally some pleasant fishing. The bite was a bit slower than in past trips but it was about to pay off. After getting one or two small but feisty Reds, Gregg had a strong bite that began ripping drag. I wasn't expecting a real big fish but this fish kept pulling south.  Gregg played it perfectly - he let it run, eased it away from some limbs a couple of times, worked it in, let it run, worked it in and slowly brought it to the boat. It had made some big rolls so we knew it was big but when it got closer we saw it was HUGE!  Greg eased it into the net and brought in a fish to set the Bragging Rights standard - a 31" oversized Redfish, boy what a fish.

We worked that bank thoroughly, twice. They tallied two Slot fish measuring to 25",  had a couple of smaller Slot fish, and had a good handful of nice feisty Redfish. The sun had come out, the wind had died just a tad and we had a live well of fish  in the boat so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.