Friday, February 25, 2011

Goldfish Gang Track Elusive Redfish

Jaime Maloney, with his kids Aidan and Maeve, along with Jay Cutler and his kids Quintin and Emmy, were visiting Amelia Island and their mother/grandmother, a resident of the island, so they scheduled to take in a backcountry fishing trip on The Anglers Mark.  They had come all the way from Massachusetts and were enjoying the great warm spell that we've had and as we launched the boat and headed up the Nassau River we saw that it was going to be a beautiful day.  To start with, anyway!  We got to Bubblegum Reef and baited some bottom rigs with shrimp and the kids soon had rods in hand, waiting for some nibbles.  It wasn't long before Emmy pulled in a nice Whiting and then Quintin had a good battle with a Stingray and shortly after Aidan hooked up with a Rock Bass.  The wind picked up some so we moved to Seymor's Point and attempted to anchor, but the current and wind were playing havoc with the effort so we made few pitches to the docks with a jig/shrimp combo then headed on up river.  Our last stop was at Broward Island where we anchored near shore and tossed out the bottom rigs.  It wasn't long before we were yelling, "FISH ON" and the Elusive Redfish were found!     Aidan and Maeve and Quintin and Emmy all had Redfish hookups and deftly brought the fish to the waiting net.  A couple of times we had "double hookups" and once we thought we had a "triple", but it actually was one Redfish and a Black Drum caught by two of the young anglers!  Emmy eventually hooked up and brought a 20" Redfish in for the dinner table.  The Dads had been super helpful throughout the whole trip, putting the kids fishing experience ahead of their own, but as we began to wind down - I actually was stowing away gear for the ride back - Jaime had a good bite and drag began to rip from his Shimano Stradic 1000, FISH ON!  He played the fish expertly, working it out from some tree limbs and we soon had a 24"  5lb+ Redfish in the boat to close out the day.  The wind was whipping up white caps by now so we headed back to the boat ramp, counting it as another great day to be out on the water!

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