Sundown Redfish

Capt. Dave Morrison was in Fernandina Beach operating the Army Corps of Engineers survey boat and after wrapping up a work day on the water, hooked up with me to end the day fishing the backwaters of Amelia Island! We left the Fernandina Beach Harbor Marina on The Anglers Mark around 4pm and headed up to Jolley River to fish the first of an incoming tide. Dave had a number of hookups with high flying "Poor Man's Tarpon" Ladyfish, I had a few nibbles, but we didn't get any good bites like I had thought we would. I had fished earlier that morning with a young couple from Charlotte, NC and after dropping them off I went out on my own and fished a few hours and picked up 5-6 small Redfish on jig and shrimp combo's an the last of an outgoing tide. Now, the tide was excellent but we found no Redfish! We moved on up in to Jolley, fished a large creek and had no real bites, but we did find some finger mullet and we cast netted a dozen or so. The sun was working it's way down so we cranked the big Johnson and made a run to the backside of Tiger Island and after working the bank with our jig and artificial grubs, dropped an anchor at the south end of the island. Both Dave and I had some good bites on a finger mullet jigged to the bottom, but no hookup. Then, as Dave slowly worked his jig and mullet up the steep bottom, his rod tip began to bend. Dave patiently let the fish take the bait, then set the hook, FISH ON! And Wow what a fish! Dave worked the fish expertly, letting it take the drag, then working him back in, back and forth, back and forth. Finally, as the sun fell over the horizon, Dave got the fish boatside and we netted a 7lb 26 1/2" Redfish! What a way to wrap up a long day of fishing! With that, we headed in, counting it as another great day of fishing on Amelia Island waters!