SEC East Champs and Amelia Island Slam Fishing

Tom Pool and his son, Jackson kicked off a great weekend by taking in a Georgia Bulldawg win between the hedges in Athens to secure the SEC East Championship, then they hopped in their car and made the trip to Amelia Island to take in some backcountry fishing on The Anglers Mark.  I met Tom and Jackson at the south end Big Talbot Island Park boat ramp and we headed up river to the mouth of Jackstaff to fish a high and falling tide with float rigs and live shrimp.  The anglers were making excellent casts and were getting some action, but the trout seemed to be wary and would make hit and run attacks on our baits.  This put us on our toes and we soon boated a couple of nice Seatrout.  We tried our hand at Bubblegum Reef, picking up a handful of baitstealers, and then fished  few of the oyster outcrops in Nassau River where we had a few bites but no takers.  Our next stop was at Broward Island and although the tide was schedule to be low at Sawpit at around 9:45am, we still had an outgoing tide at Broward.  We had only been trolling and pitching to the log strewn bank for a few minutes when Tom had strong bite and hookup, FISH ON!  Not to be outdone and only seconds later, Jackson yelled, "FISH ON!" and we had a double hookup!  Both anglers played their respective fish perfectly and we soon netted Tom's feisty Redfish then we had Jackson's in the boat, too.  After some picture taking we released both fish to be caught another day.   We continued to troll against the tide which was still going out at 11:30am.  Jackson caught a another nice Seatrout and as we reached the southern end, Tom had a good hookup but the fish immediately headed for the logs and broke itself off!  OUCH!   But Tom went right back with his jig and shrimp combo, got a hookup and had a good fight on his hands.  He handed the rod off to Jackon who completed the catch of a nice 15" Sheepshead, rounding out an Amelia Island  Backcountry Slam of  Seatrout, Redfish, and Sheepshead.  With that, we called it a day and headed in, counting it as another great day of Amelia Island fishing!