Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Life in the Backcountry

Young Dan McBryan set up an Amelia Island backwater fishing trip today with  his dad, Lou, while they were visiting the area.  We made a plan to get started extra early, 6am, to take advantage of the first of an incoming tide.  Our first stop was an oyster lined bank of the Jolley River and the guys were tossing 1/4 jigs with Gulp minnows and shrimp.  Both anglers immediately began to get bites and soon Lou yelled, "fish on" and he reeled in a feisty Redfish.   The baitstealers were nipping the tails off of the Gulps so we moved on up the river to a large creek where Dan worked his jig slowly along  an oyster bank.  He felt a heavy weight and expertly hooked up on a fish, playing it perfectly to the boat and we netted a good sized Flounder for pictures and release.  He also caught a weird fish that we have yet to identify!  Later in the morning we fished outside Tiger where we were joined by Manatee, then we went inside Tiger and were treated to a large number of Roseate Spoonbills roosting.  The bite had slowed so we made one final stop outside Tiger at a flooded oyster bed and had Dolphin and Manatee cruising by, along with a large pod of Stingray.  We eventually called it a day, another great one to be out on the water!

1 comment:

flafin said...

That's a lizard fish. They are found mostly around mangroves and oyster beds.