The Bite is Back!

 

We had a better tide today, and warmer water temperatures and it made all the difference in the "fish catching action". I had met Dennis Fritz and his fishing partner Jim down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp early and we ran up the Nassau River (which was like glass) to make our first stop at some docks with plans to fish the pilings on the first of an incoming tide with jigs and live shrimp. It didn't take long before these two anglers were putting fish in the boat. They were subtle bites - just a "tap, tap, tap" and with a quick hookset they had Fish On!  Most were Black "puppy" Drum in the 15-16" range, some were smaller, and they also picked up a couple of hungry Seatrout.

We then ran up the river to Broward - the area I wanted to fish was taken, so we continued on to the "2nd choice". I don't know if Jim had even had a chance to get his line in the water but Dennis had made his cast and BAM! Fish On!  He played it perfectly and soon landed  nice 24" Slot Redfish. We were fishing right under a Bald Eagle and when Jim hooked up and brought to the surface a Seatrout, it was flopping  a bit and the Eagle dove on the fish!  Very neat to see. The angler up north of us vacated his spot so we moved up there, fished it, to no avail, then moved up a little more. Jim was fishing off the stern, making excellent casts, and letting his jig/bait drop deep and it paid off. He said at first he thought he was hung but then it started fighting and Big Fish On! Jim played it patiently and soon brought to the net a 5lb plus 21" Black Drum. Minutes later, he followed that up with another big Drum of equal size. 

We then made a run further up the river and dipped into a small creek and began to work that incoming tide. It took a few minutes but then both Jim and Dennis had hookups and landed feisty Redfish. We worked along and Dennis put another 18"+ Slot fish in the boat, then Jim followed it up with a nice 19" Slot fish. Dennis wrapped things up when he battled on Oversized 29" Redfish to the boat that will move him into 3rd Place in the 2025 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament (scroll down the right side of this report for standings). 

We had some beautiful weather when the sun finally came out, we had some good action of fish catching, come nice fish in the box for dinner, an Amelia Island Back Country Slam under their belts, so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.