It was such a pretty day the day after Thanksgiving so my wife and I and our good friend Ameera launched the boat at Atlantic Seafood shortly after noon and headed up to the Tiger Island area to do some fishing with the tide coming in. We hadn't been stopped long when we all started getting bites. The Trout were real hungry for our live shrimp floated near some submerged oyster beds. We caught about 8 or 10 in less than an hour and three of them were of keeper size. We made a short detour by Cumberland Island to check out some wild horses, then headed up to the Jolley River where I thought we'd have a shot at some larger Trout and maybe a Redfish. But they weren't biting. We made one last stop south of the Rayonier mill and even though we had to work for them, both Ameera and I landed 3-4 more Trout apiece and one keeper sized Puppy Drum. Ameera was making excellent casts and patiently worked her fish in to the waiting net. With the sun going down, we headed in, counting it as another great day to be out on Amelia Island waters!
I fished Friday and Saturday with Tim Parker and Brian Knicely during the Nassau Sportsfishing Association Backwater Tournament. We caught a bunch of Trout both days. A mess of Trout. Both days the weather was fantastic, cool in the morning, but clear and sunny with very little wind. It made for some great fishing. I calculated we hit 12 spots on Friday and 9 spots on Saturday! We picked up plenty of trout on live shrimp and mudminnows and Tim's Temptation baits. However, most were undersized. We also had a couple of rat Reds on both days, a drum and a couple of Sheepshead. On the day of the Tournament we ended up with two keeper sized Trout with one over 17" and a nice keeper sized Sheepshead. We entered the Trout, knowing that it wouldn't place us in the top 3, but we were "on the board"! It was two great days to be out on the Amelia Island waters!
