Football, Fishin and Friends

You just can't beat a great weekend of getting together with friends to do some fishing and attend a college football game.   Paul Damron and his friend Bill were looking forward to attending the football game tomorrow down in Gainesville pitting the Florida Gators against the Alabama Crimson Tide, but they starting off the weekend this morning fishing the beautiful backcountry waters of Amelia Island on The Anglers Mark.!  We left the Sawpit Creek boat ramp on Big Talbot Island a little after 7am and headed up the intercoastal to fish the oyster lined banks of Jackstaff Creek on an incoming tide.  When Paul hooked up on a nice fish after about his third cast I thought, "here we go!".  He landed the fat Seatrout expertly, but even though the guys were making excellent casts, the rest of the stretch only produced high jumping Ladyfish - fun to catch - but not exactly great table fare.  We made a short stop at Seymore's Pointe then headed over to Broward Island, fishing the south end with the tide already up in the logs.  Paul had a strong hookup but the fish got up in the logs and broke off.  Later he hooked up and brought to the boat a nice Flounder.  Later, Bill had a good hookup and again, the fish tried to get up into the branches, but Bill kept the pressure on and pulled out a feisty slot Redfish, fighting all the way to the boat and net.  The tide was up and the grass was flooding so we headed back to Nassau River and on our second stop, just off the bow, was a tailing fish!  Bill tossed a "Fiddler in the Grass" fly at what turned out to be a Sheepshead but it wouldn't bite.  50 yards away we could see more tailing fish - a couple more Sheepshead and a huge Redfish wallowing around in the grass gorging itself.  We all piled out of the boat and waded over, Bill tossing flies and Paul using a weedless jig on spinner.  Both were making excellent casts and Bill reported that one of the Sheepshead followed the fly for a short while checking it out, but we had no takers.  We had a great time stalking fish as it was a beautiful flat with clear water, a great way to wrap up a day on Amelia Island waters!