Rock Fish at Amelia?

 

Although it was a bit cool to start out with the day ended up being beautiful and the temps warmed nicely to make for some comfortable fish catching! I had met David Vice and his fishing buddy's Gary and Lee out at Oyster Bay dock early and we made a long run back down the Lanceford, up the Bell and thru Tyger basin around to the outside of Tyger to set up and toss float rigs with live shrimp on a tide that had just started out. We had not a bite. No luck at all.

We then made our way over to Eagans Creek and set up current from some dock pilings and it didn't take long before these guys were catching some fish. Lee got hot early and put a couple of Redfish in the boat, one of which was Slot size, and David picked up a Trout out deep. We then made our way over to Lanceford Creek and fished a grass patch, then a bulkhead with the floats and again, no bites. Those float rigs fished in shallow water are just not producing!

After making the run back down Lanceford and then down the intercoastal we made our way to another set of docks Kee got hot again and pulled a couple of Reds out from underneath, and David, fishing off the  bow, worked a drainage and caught a good handful of Seatrout, two were of keeper size. Then Lee, who had been quite for most of the morning, began to get hookups. He put a couple of feisty Redfish in the boat and a few of those Seatrout. Between him and David, they caught bunch of those Trout that measured 14 7/8" .

David worked those dock pilings again and BAM! Big Fish On!  This fish was putting up a crazy battle and digging deep and ripping drag. I was thinking the battle looked different and sure enough, when David brought it to the boat we saw that it was a 23.5" hybrid Striper, boy what a fish. This is only the 2nd Striper landed on my boat in the 18+ years of guiding. But then topped that fish when he battled and brought to the net, a big 25" Slot Redfish. Gary wrapped things with another couple of Seatrout catches before we headed back to the dock and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

Surprise Surprise!

 I was back to work today after help put on our fishing Tournament over the weekend and boy was it a pretty day to be fishing! I met Dave Burkhart and his fishing buddies Robert and Ed up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp and we then headed south down the intercoastal and then dipped into Lanceford Creek to pull up to a marsh runout on a high and incoming tide.

I was feeling pretty confident that we'd be catching fish today after a great week last week and then some good catches coming in to the tournament Saturday, but after fishing that first spot with float rigs and live shrimp for 15 minutes and not getting a nibble, I had a gnawing feeling that this might be the day that we might get "skunked". 

We ran further up into Lansford, turned into Soap and set up at another marsh drainage, fished it for a bit (no bites), then eased along the bank working it with each cast. Finally, these anglers began to get some bites then they caught a few Seatrout, one of which was of keeper size. We moved on around to some docks off of Lanceford and switched to jigs and this did the trick. Dave and Robert hooked up and brought to the boat some keeper sized Black "puppy" Drum and Ed outsmarted four (yes four) Sheepshead! Then Dave went deep, to 15' of water, and had a strong bite and a battle ensued. He played it perfectly and eventually landed a 22" Slot Sized Redfish. Robert also put two undersized and out of season Flounder in the boat, and released.

Our next stop was up Bell River and I think the first cast with a jig produced a Seatrout. Then they were all catching, with a couple of more being of keeper size, and the biggest, right at 17", caught by Ed. Robert went to some structure and had his shrimp picked up and then his drag began to rip, Fish On! This was crazy. The fish ran hard up the river, then down the river, then up the river, then down the river. It kinda boiled up behind the boat and we all thought for sure it was big Redfish but when it finally came to the surface we saw that it was a Striped Bass (and Ed correctly identified it as a Hybrid). The first Striped Bass ever on my boat! Boy what a fish!

We fished Jolley "bank" for a bit, tangled with another big fish, then headed in, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.