59 Fish!

Mike Maron and his wife Shannon were wrapping up a two week vacation here at Amelia Island and took in one more Amelia Island fishing trip on The Anglers Mark.  I fished with Mike last week on the south end so today we met at Atlantic Seafood at 7am and headed up Lanceford Creek to fish the first of an outgoing tide.  Things started a little slow but Mike was making great casts to the pilings and he soon picked up a small Trout and shortly after his cork went under again, but this time with a vengeance, and he had a good battle with a keeper sized Trout.  Shannon had her camera out and was getting pictures of the amazing ecosystem, river shrimp boats, and wildlife, and the fishing!  The baitstealers were thick, but Mike persevered and it paid off because after casting his live shrimp under a float to the pilings the cork disappeared again, the rod bent, and the drag ripped!  FISH ON!  He battled the fish expertly and we soon netted his first Slot Redfish of the day!  We moved all the way around to the Jolley River and fished the MOA spot (Mother of All) and at first we had no real bites but we soon found some feisty Redfish up between the oysters and pulled 3-4 fish out.  Our next stop was at the mouth of Snook Creek and it turned out to be a good move because Mike had 4 bites in the first four casts with a jig/shrimp combo, picking up a few more small Redfish and then he had a good bite, his drag ripped, the fish ran for deep water, we thought it might be a small shark, but no,  Slot Redfish #2 of the day!  Our last stop was Jolley Bank and as we began our troll against the current Mike tossed his shrimp/jig combo to a nice runout and soon felt a heavy pull on his line.  He waited a few seconds and set the hook!  The fish put a good fight, but Mike worked it in and we netted a keeper sized Flounder, rounding out the Amelia Island Inshore Slam!  Shortly after he again had a strong hookup and brought in Slot Red #3 of the day!  When I asked Mike and Shannon how many fish we had caught for the day, Mike said, "59 Fish", because it seemed like it!  Not much later, Mike had another strong hookup and the fight was on, Big Time!  He battled the fish around the stern and out to deep water and back again with drag ripping as the big fish made its runs.  Shannon was on the video camera, The Anglers Mark's first, and Mike played it like a pro, bringing to net an oversized 8lb 29" Redfish! Wow, what a fish!  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be out on the water!