Monday, August 9, 2010

First Fish, Biggest Fish, Most Fish

Joe Segraves was in town, visiting from Kennesaw, Georgia, and treated his grandson, Gavin, to an Amelia Island backcountry fishing trip. The guys were raring to go at 7am as we left the Atlantic Seafood dock with a live well full of frisky shrimp. We headed up to the Tiger Island inlet, shut the big engine down, and trolled in to the flooded marsh grass, with a high tide expected at 9:30am. We saw a few Manatee flippers but they were out deeper so we eased in and lowered over the river anchor. Gavin and Joe had a little competition going with a challenge to see who caught the first fish, the biggest fish, and the most fish and it wasn't long before the competition began! Joe got on the board with the "first fish" by catching a nice Seatrout but Gavin soon followed. After that it was tough to keep count as the anglers boated Trout after Trout after Trout, with a few feisty Redfish thrown in. Then Joe hooked up with a fish that had some weight to its fight; he played the fish perfectly and soon netted a 19" Trout! After each angler caught more Trout, a few Croakers, a few Blues, and even a Ladyfish, Gavin's cork disappeared and he had a battle on his hands; he cranked the beast in and we soon netted a 19" Trout that trumped his Grandfathers! When it seemed the Croaker and Blues were getting more prevalent than the Trout and Reds, we eased out of the area, cranked up, and went to the docks at Lanceford Creek. We had a number of nibbles, then Gavin had a hookup that ripped drag and had him going from stern to bow, under the anchor rope and back, with rod bent almost double. After many minutes of a battle, Gavin subdued a monster of a Stingray, which we photographed and released. We tried a few more docks, adding another Trout, then called it day, with Grandfather Joe getting the "first fish" category, but Gavin taking the "most fish" and "largest fish" to take the competition, but we were all winners, counting it as a great day to be out on the water!

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