First Casts

For his birthday, Rick and Lisa Alexander treated their son Danny and a couple of his friends, Nick and Tanner, to a backcountry fishing trip on The Anglers Mark at Amelia Island, Florida.  We left the Atlantic Seafood dock at 7am with temperatures in the mid 60's and a stiff wind blowing, but these anglers were not to be deterred.  Heading up Lanceford Creek we found an area where the wind was blocked and baited up our jigs with live shrimp.  On the first cast, up near some pilings, we had a strong bite and Tanner reeled in a hard fighting Sheepshead - what a way to start the morning!  All the young anglers joined in and soon we were getting good bites.  Nick picked up an aggressive Snapper then Tanner's rod bent and, FISH ON!  He played the fish perfectly and brought to net a nice Redfish.  We moved to some more docks up Lanceford and Rick got in on the action by catching a Flounder, then Nick rounded out a sure-fire Amelia Island backcountry slam by picking up a Trout out in deeper water.   Danny was determined to get on the board and he wasn't to be denied!  He worked a jig/shrimp combo out from the docks and WHAM!  FISH ON!  He played the feisty Redfish like a pro and brought it to the net for pictures and released the biggest fish of the day.  We made one more stop up in Eagans Creek and Nick had the hot rod here, hooking up a couple times with "The Poor Man's Tarpon", thankfully releasing them at boatside.  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be out on the Amelia Island waters!