Monday, May 5, 2014

20" Trout on a Fly

We started the week with a beautiful morning -sunshine, no wind and temperatures in the high 60's.  The plan was for Cathy Case and her cousin Julie to meet me at the Big Talbot Island Park boat ramp and do some back water Amelia Island fishing with an emphasis on fly fishing.  We headed up the Amelia River and ducked into Jackstaff to fish the very first of an incoming tide.  Cathy was at the stern of the boat tossing a shrimp-like fly on an 8w outfit. We worked the whole bank one and half times and even though Cathy had a couple of hits, there were  no takers.  We made a run all the way to Broward Island to catch the incoming tide there but her Cathy switched to an intermediate line with a chartreuse/white Clouser and this paid off.  She had just made an excellent cast to some downed tree limbs, let the fly sink naturally and when she made her first strip, BOOM!  FISH ON! We could tell this was a nice fish but Cathy kept the pressure on, pulling the fish out of the tree limbs.  The fish ran deep, putting a big bow in the 8w Sage but it was no match for Cathy and we soon netted a fat 20" Seatrout!  After measuring and getting pictures we sent this beautiful fish back to the water to be caught another day.  We fished the area for a while, had some "bumps", then switched to bait and jigs for a break.  The moment we switched we began to get bites - Cathy caught a nice feisty Redfish and then hungry Seatrout for her Amelia Island Back Country Slam. She added another Sheepshead and then a fat keeper sized Seatrout before switching back to the fly to fish a nice run out with all kinds of bait action going on.  Sure enough, BOOM!  A fish hit her Gummy Minnow and streaked back up to the mouth of the creek and....FISH OFF!  It was not to be.  But it was all fun, another great time to be out on Amelia Island waters!

No comments: