Boy, Were We Wrong

 It was one of those "Chamber of Commerce" days with clear skies, sunshine, and only a slight breezewhen I met Jeff Key and his fiancé Sally down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp early this morning. The gnats were bad at the dock but after we made our way up the river we never saw them again. Our first stop was up at Pumpkin Hill where we drifted float rigs and live shrimp with the last of the incoming current and it didn't take long for Jeff to hookup and bring to the boat a nice keeper sized Seatrout. He caught a couple more smaller Trout then he had a good hookup, one that was ripping some drag - I called "small Redfish" but as Jeff worked it to the net he landed a big 19.5" oversized Seatrout - big enough to move Jeff in to 2nd Place in the 2026 Bragging Rights Tournament-Seatrout Category(scroll down the right side of this report for standings). But I wasn't done being wrong!

On another drift Jeff had a hard take and almost immediately a big dark form rolled up. Jeff and I called it a "Ray" while Sally called it a dolphin. It was ripping drag and digging deep and I thought for sure that, being a Ray, it would break off any minute. But Jeff kept the pressure on and fought it patiently -it rolled again but didn't actually show, but we new it was big! Jeff worked it around the stern of the boat, let it run, worked it closer, then I saw that it was a huge Redfish. After landing the fish we measured it (twice) as 27.5" - oversized but big enough to move Jeff into 2nd Place in the Redfish Category of the Bragging Rights Tournament! We added one more keeper Trout along here, and also had some small throw backs. 

We fished around a point and picked up another smaller Trout, then ran back to Seymore's Pointe where I just knew we'd be getting some more fish. Wrong again! We didn't get a real bite. Thru Horsehead we went and on the other side we set up and fished a drainage, to no avail. We went over and fished Poteat Point where Jeff did hookup and land another nice keeper sized Seatrout. Back over at Jackstaff we pulled up to fish a cut with jigs. The two anglers weren't getting any bites but then I saw Sally's rod bend and Fish On!  Sally played the fish expertly and slowly worked it up to the surface - a tale-tale sign- and sure enough as it came up we saw it was a nice Flounder. Sally brought it to the net and we measured it at 16.5", big enough to set the bar for 1st Place in the 2026 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament-Flounder Category. And shortly after that Jeff hooked and landed a smaller Flounder. 

We ran back thru Horsehead and down to Twin Creeks where we wrapped the trip up tossing jigs and minnows. We had some good fish in the boat, had thrown back some oversized ones, and had made a mark on the Bragging Rights board so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.