Fish On Fire

Chuck Leshinsky was visiting the Jacksonville area with his family so he and his three sons Ryan, Aidan and Nathan, along with their Uncle John Orr, took in a Amelia Island backcountry fishing trip on The Anglers Mark.  We loaded up with 7 dozen live shrimp, launched at 7am,  and headed to an flooded oyster bar with the tide still coming in.  It wasn't long before young Nathan had a strong hookup and he and his dad battled a hard fighting Blue to the net for pictures.  After that, all the young anglers joined in, catching fish right after left. Ryan was making perfect casts to some flooded marsh grass and it paid off with quality catches of Seatrout.  Aidan was getting in to the action, with help from his Uncle John, and boated multi-spotted Redfish and flashy Ladyfish.  Both John and Chuck helped with the young guys (thanks!) and the bite was non-stop for about an hour and a half.  We made a brief stop to "reload" with shrimp and then headed up the Jolley River to Snook Creek, anchored and fished our shrimp under float on the last of an incoming, first of an outgoing tide.  It took awhile, but when the tide changed, the action picked up.  Ryan had a quick breakoff on a Shark, then Adian's FINS braided line began to rip out and the fight was on!  He had everyone scrabbling to get out of the way as the Shark took him from bow to stern and back again, causing the other anglers to duck and bob to get out of the way, but Aidan held on and with help from his dad, we soon boated a 3'+ Shark on the light tackle rig!  Pictures were taken and the fish was released to be caught another day.  Ryan was now tossing a jig/shrimp combo and he began to pick up Trout and had some nice sized Whiting, so John and Chuck switched too.  Chuck's drag began to rip and he had his own Shark battle, fishing it like a pro, and he too brought it to the net for pictures.  John topped off the day by catching one of the bigger Trout we've had in a while, a 24"er, caught at 10:30am!  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be on the water!