Saturday, August 10, 2013

She THINKS She Has a Fish

TJ Mahan and his wife Melissa were in town again this past week and took in another Amelia Island backcountry fishing trip on The Anglers Mark.  This time they brought along TJ's brother Harris and Harris' daughter Kelli and we met at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp at 3pm Wednesday afternoon to get in some late afternoon fishing.  We headed up the Amelia River and eased into Jackstaff as the tide was just covering the oysters on an incoming tide.  We had a mixture of mud minnows, finger mullet and shrimp for bait and were tossing 1/4oz jigs to the grass line.  TJ got the "skunk off the boat" early by catching a nice Flounder then all the anglers were working through the pesky Croaker.  During one of these bites Kelli announced that she "thinks I have a bite"  and as her rod bent double and the reel's drag began to sing we all knew that this was a BIG fish!  She fought the fish from stern to bow and back and her uncle TJ stepped in to help her out, showing her how to keep the pressure on with the rod and lift and reel and after  great battle we were able to land a nice 28 1/2" oversized Redfish!  Boy what a fish! We snapped some pictures, made sure the fish was revived,
and sent him on his way.  Shortly after Melissa hooked up with something big, too!  This big fish ripped line and we soon figured out that it was a Bonnethead.  Melissa played the fish patiently on the light tackle TFO Spinning Gear and after a good fight, landed a big 36" Shark.  We made a run around to the Nassau River where TJ put a nice 21 3/4" Slot Red in the box.  The anglers also had more Croaker and Jack Crevalle.  Our next stop was at Broward Island where TJ had something big to the boat but we never got a chance to see it, then Kelli added a nice keeper sized Seatrout.  Our final stop was back at Jackstaff on an outgoing tide.  We had more Croaker, a Catfish, then Harris hooked up with a final big fish, FISH ON!  He patiently played the fish, working him in slowly, and after another long battle, landed a BIG 29 1/4" oversized Redfish!  And with that, we called it a day!  Another great day to be out on Amelia Island waters!




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