Introduction to Amelia Island Backwater Fishing

 Lee Kaywork had one of his grandsons visiting this week and wanted to introduce him to some Amelia Island light tackle back water fishing so we met up at Old Town Bait and Tackle early this morning. We made our way over to the outside of Tyger Island and set up on a point to toss float rigs and mud minnows up current as the tide had just started out. Both anglers got some nibbles but no takers, and it wasn't much of a high tide because the engine was already bumping oysters - so we got out of there! We eased across the creek and fished a soon-to-be-known spot as "Bon Point". We had switched to jigs and the minnows and tossed the to the point. The water was sweeping around the point and Bon began to catch fish. He boated 3 nice Flounder in pretty quick succession and played them perfectly to the boat.

We then moved on north and west and fished along the bank outside of Tyger. We were getting good casts, had a few bites, and finally Bon hooked up and put another Flounder in the boat. He was on a roll. We made a short run over to the Jolly River, ran up it a bit, then fished a large drainage. Lee was drifting a float off the stern, letting it slide down the bank and we had a hookup. He worked it in patiently and landed a feisty Redfish. Bon, who had been fishing off the bow with a jig, switched to the floats and followed his grandfather down the bank and when his float slowly went under, he tightened up his line and let the circle hook set and Big Fish On! This fish was ripping drag and going long but Bon was up to the battle. He slowly worked it in, let it run, worked it in - it made it's way over to the bank and the oyster beds but Bon worked it out and after a good fight, landed a nice 25" Slot sized Redfish. Boy what a fish!

After fishing further up the Jolley - 3 spots, to no avail, we made one final stop back towards the sound and here Lee hooked up and landed a hungry Seatrout to round out there Amelia Island Back Water Slam. We had a nice Slot fish in the box, we had had some good weather, so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.