Goodbye Irene

Mike Langston and his family were visiting Amelia Island this week so he scheduled an Amelia Island backcountry fishing trip on The Anglers Mark this morning.  He brought along his son Scott, his son-in-law Rhett, and his brother-in-law Billy Pate and met me at the south end boat ramp at 7am.  Hurricane Irene just passed off the coast but the skies were clear and there were just some remnants of wind. We headed up the intercoastal and cut in to Jackstaff to fish the flooded grass on the last couple of hours of an incoming tide.  Our shrimp didn't seem to survive the trip but we used them anyway and it wasn't long before the anglers were getting bites, with Scott leading the way by hooking up the "poor man's Tarpon", a Ladyfish and then following that up with a hard fighting Jack Crevalle.  Bill and Mike added a couple of smaller Jack's and while Rhett was tossing a topwater lure, he had a nice roll on the plug bit it didn't bite.  We moved further up into the Horsehead area and fished over a large expanse of flooded oysters but had no bites, so we headed over to Broward Island on the very last of the incoming, first of the outgoing tide.  This is always tough fishing but the guys were making excellent casts up between the submerged logs and it paid off when Bill's float went under and he had a battle on his hands.  He played the fish perfectly and brought to net a nice Redfish.  Even though the tide was high, we switched Scott and Rhett to jig/shrimp combos' and it paid off.  Scott hooked up first and played his Redfish expertly to the net.  Mike switched to the jig/shrimp and on his second cast he had a strong hookup, fought it like a pro, and landed a nice 21" Slot Redfish!  Rhett got in on the action by tossing his jig up between some limbs and, FISH ON!  He worked the fish in and to the net for pictures and release and then Bill wrapped it all up when his float disappeared, his rod bent and a good battle ensued.  He fought the fish to a standstill and we brought it aboard, another 23" Slot Redfish!  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be on Amelia Island waters!