35 Fish and Counting

Russ Henry was in town with his family, visiting Amelia Island from Valdosta, and took in a fishing trip with his four sons, Whiddon, Carter, James, and Will. I've seen the "ah-huh" look in folks eyes when I tell them we're catching 20 Redfish, or 25 Redfish in a four hour trip, but it's the truth! Granted, there's not much size to them, but they're fun to catch, hitting hard and putting up a robust fight. We left the Atlantic Seafood dock promptly at 7am and headed up to Jolley River, anchoring at a good runout. Whiddon got the ball rolling by hooking up with a nice looking Seatrout, then all the others joined in catching Trout at first, then Redfish must have moved in and it was non-stop catching for about an hour or two. Luckily, Russ was helping out as "first mate", de-hooking fish and running bait on one end of the boat while I was re-rigging, snapping pictures and netting fish! More than once did we have a "double" hookup going at the same time! We moved on up the river to find more Redfish, Trout and a we had a couple of nice fights with Bonnethead Sharks who were determined not to be boated.

They eventually found an oyster bed to cut themselves off on, but it was good experience for the young anglers to have a big fish on. They were keeping count of their fish catch and the last I heard it was up in the 30's. One of the young anglers found an oyster bed that was holding Black Drum and he pulled in three, two of them keeper sized. We made one more stop at the MOA (Mother-of-all) spots where we ended the day with a "moneyfish" 17-spot Redfish. Guess where I'll be stopping during next year's Spot Tournament? With the "moneyfish" in the boat, we called it a day, another great one to be out on the water!