Team W

Friends Tim and Wes Parker were in town for the Amelia Island Blues Festival this weekend and we had set up to do some Amelia Island backcountry fishing.  Thursday afternoon we met at the Fernandina Beach Harbor Marina and made a run up to the Lanceford Creek docks to fish the outgoing tide.  I thought the timing was almost perfect with the oysters showing.  Tim used one of his Temptation Baits, an artificial with a unique scenting process,  and caught a fiesty Redfish and Wes was tossing a live shrimp under float, catching a couple of Trout.  Although everything was "right", the fish just seemed slow to bite, so we headed up to the Jolley River for some real backwater fishing!  The oyster beds were almost fully exposed and the bite seemed to pick up - we caught a 3-4 Redfish at the first stop and another Trout, then crossed the river to pick up another Red or two.  Tim's Temptation Baits were catching as many fish, if not more and the neat thing about it was that he wasn't having to "re-bait" after every nibble like Wes and I!  When the tide changed and started back in, we fished Jolley Bank, catching more hard biting Redfish.   Then Wes's float went under with a vengeance and his rod bent, drag ripped and FISH ON!  I thought for sure it was slot Red.  But after Wes worked the fish expertly to the boat, letting it take drag as needed, the fish came to the surface and we all saw that it was a large Seatrout!  Tim netted the fish for his son, "Team W"!  Wow, what a fish!  We eventually moved around to Tiger Island and wrapped up the evening with two Flounder, one of which would provide some exceptional fillets!  The next morning I picked up Wes and his buddy James and we headed to the south end early, launching and motoring up to Broward Island to fish the first of an incoming tide.  Again, the tide and conditions were almost perfect and the two anglers were making excellent casts to the bank, working their jig and artificial Temptation Bait back slowly.  On one cast, "Team W" Wes felt a strong "bump" just after his chartreuse Juicy Lucey hit the water and the fish followed it and bit strong, FISH ON!  Wes worked the fish up off the bottom and into the net, a nice 19" Flounder!   We had  few bites along the bank but it just didn't seem to be a fish bite'n day so we move on to the Horsehead area where we picked up a few Trout on some artificial shrimp under float rigs.  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be on the water!