Thursday, December 31, 2015

Wrapping Up a Great Year of Fishing

We had another great day of fishing to wrap up a great week and a great year of fishing here at Amelia Island. Jeff Wood, his girlfriend Virginia and her son Will fished with me this morning, meeting me down at the Atlantic Seafood dock on the very first of an incoming tide. There was just enough breeze to keep the no-see-ums off as we pulled in to our first spot. There were ideal conditions with the tide creeping in and all three anglers were soon pitching 1/4oz jigs with shrimp or mud minnows to the bank. It was not  a "fast and furious" kind of morning but it was packed with quality fish when they bit!
Jeff got it started when he hooked up and landed a nice keeper sized 18" Black "puppy" Drum (all fish were released today).  Then he followed that up with a big Slot sized 22" Redfish.  We fished the area thoroughly, working our way thru  tons of  "baitsealers" then Virgina had a hookup and FISH ON! She played the fish perfectly and after a good battle, landed an even bigger 25" Slot Red. Shortly after that young Will had a good hookup and he too had a big fish on.  He worked the big fish patiently to the boat and we netted the biggest Redfish of the day, a nice 26"+ fish. Other than the
baitstealers, the anglers landed four fish and all of them were of keeper size. The wind had picked up so we ran around to Oyster Bay and fished the Tiki hut but had no real bites. Our last stop was around at a grass patch in Lanceford Creek with the tide still coming in. We switched to float rigs and our first cast produced a keeper sized Seatrout that Will landed like a pro. From then on all three anglers were catching fish - a Trout here and a Trout there. They caught about 10 of them and 3-5 of those were keeper size with the biggest being about 18". With that we called it a day (and a year) another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Fun Fishing at Amelia Island

I had a window of opportunity to fish with some friends, Tim Parker and his brother Brian Knicely this evening so we met at the City marina and ran up Lanceford Creek to fish the first of an outgoing tide. We hit a small grass patch first, tossing shrimp and mud minnows under floats but we had no takers. We then fished some dock pilings and picked up one small but feisty Redfish. We had one more strong bite that broke us off in the pilings but after that there were  no more real bites, even though the tide was getting
down and conditions were ideal. We made a run around to Tiger Island and with the logs exposed we again worked the jigs. Tim struck first when he put a keeper sized Trout in the boat. He also landed  a couple of small but fun to catch Flounder then it was like someone turned a light switch on - BOOM, FISH ON!   BOOM, FISH ON!  BOOM, FISH ON! We caught fish after fish. Sometimes it would be a big Slot Redfish and sometimes a nice keeper sized Seatrout. We ended up with 5 Slot sized Reds, threw back a good handful of smaller ones, and had 5 keeper sized
Seatrout and a bull Whiting. Brian added a small Black "puppy" Drum to round out an Amelia Island Back Country Grande Slam and a great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

The Girls First Fish

We've had excellent weather this week and that included today -just a few clouds, a slight breeze and balmy temperatures. I had met Tripp Miller, his fiancé Carla and his daughters Kaylee and Lila down at the City marina and we headed up to Eagans Creek to fish the first of an incoming tide with jigs and live shrimp and mud minnows. It didn't take long for Kaylee to "knock the skunk off" when she landed a nice Seatrout. From then on it was some steady fish catching. Carla was taking pictures as the other three anglers boated fish. Both Tripp and Kaylee put Slot Redfish in the boat
with three of them measuring at 23", 22" and 22" with a total of 5 Slot Reds caught along with a good handful of smaller ones. Lila seemed to have the hot hand at catching Seatrout with her "down, up" fishing technique and she put at least three of them in the boat. We fished over at Tiger Island and although things were slower, Tripp hooked up with a big Redfish and landed it with ease - another Slot sized 25" Redfish, the biggest of the day! We toured Cumberland Island and saw a large herd of horses, eased by Fort Clinch and wrapped up the trip at Old Town to make it another great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.