Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Rose Marie's Secret Fishing Spot

It was a somewhat gloomy morning that greeted us at the boat ramp with a few raindrops falling as I launched the boat. A thin fog was settled on the water but there was almost no winds to deal with. I had met the Alfrey family down at the City marina -  Adam Alfrey, his wife Olivia and 5 year old daughter Olivia and tagging along was Granddad Bill for the fishing trip. We headed up river to fish Eagans Creek on the first of an outgoing tide and our first stop at a clump of marsh grass produced  no bites on live shrimp under float rigs. Unless of course you count the No-See-Ums who attacked us
from the start. But we were ready with bug spray and young Olivia modeled a face net and this did the trick. Our next stop was at an old dock where we switched to jigs and shrimp and it was almost immediate for the anglers to begin catching fish. Grandad Bill "knocked the skunk off" when he landed a nice 20"+ Slot Redfish then it was BOOM! Fish on! BOOM! Fish on! BOOM! Fish on. There were smaller 17" "feisty Redfish" and then they'd get a stronger bite which took a while to work in, but they were patient and ended up landing at least 8 Slot Sized Redfish with a 24" one
that Olivia caught being the biggest. Rose Marie helped reel in a few of them and then she took over the role as "netgirl" to help land the fish. Just when we thought things were going to slow down the Black "puppy" Drum started biting. After putting two smaller ones in the boat they landed two nice keeper sized fish, the biggest being about 18". We wrapped it up at this spot after Oliva landed a small Stingray. Our next stop was up Bell River at some now exposed oyster beds and although the bite had slowed, Bill did hookup and land another Slot Redfish. Our last stop was around at Tiger Island and again, a slow bite, but then Adam had a good hookup, and FISH ON! He played the big Redfish patiently and a after a good battle landed the group's 10th Slot Redfish of the day. Bill made it an Amelia Island Grande Slam when he landed a keeper sized Seatrout. With that, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

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