Hunkered Down Redfish

Joe Lukasik and his family were visiting the Jacksonville area for over this Thanksgiving week holiday so Joe and his two teenage sons, Alden and Christian, took in an Amelia Island backcountry fishing trip on The Anglers Mark this morning.  We met at the Atlantic Seafood dock in downtown Fernandina Beach at 7am and headed down the Amelia River to fish the still flooding oyster beds and marsh grass with some live shrimp under floats.  The wind was blowing pretty good so we anchored and the anglers pitched their rigs up near the marsh grass.  Alden was the first to hook up with a hungry Seatrout then Joe caught one, too.  They went back and forth catching a few Trout with Joe landing a nice 19" one.  Christian was feeling a little left out but not for long!  We had a cork disappear and when Christian grabbed the rod the drag ripped out and the fight was on!  He battled the fish for a while then all of a sudden the fight came to a halt.  We even questioned whether Christian even had a fish in the first place!  His line was tight but wasn't moving and Joe and I both wondered aloud that maybe he was just hung in the oysters.  Well, he was hung but the fish was still attached, hunkered down tight in the oysters.  Soon he came out and the battle was on again!  Christian played the big Redfish perfectly and brought it to the net to be measured at 26", in the Slot.  Later we fished Lanceford Creek in three spots and picked up a Trout or two then tried behind Tiger Island where there seemed to be an armada of fishing boats, then we headed over to Eagans Creek to get out of the wind.  The anglers picked up a few more small Trout, then we made our last stop at some flooded oysters on the outside of Tiger Island on the first of an outgoing tide.  There wasn't much going on until Joe's float was yanked under and then he too had a fish fight on his hands!  He worked the fish in and to the net and we measured another nice Slot Redfish.  The anglers perseverance had paid off and helped wrap up another great day of fishing on Amelia Island!