Third Time is the Charm

The boys from Kansas were still in town and today was the third trip Chris Pyle had lined up a trip to fish with his friends John and Byron. We had a pretty good day yesterday fishing the south end so we elected to do that again today. But this time we wanted to try our hand at catching a big bull Black Drum so we brought along some heavy tackle and some large dead shrimp and clams (the bait shop was out of crabs).  We ran up to "Middle Marsh", dropped an anchor and began fishing the outgoing tide with three rods in the water. But after over an hour of fishing we only had a nibble or
two. So we eased across Nassau River and broke out the light tackle and live shrimp. It was Byron's first cast and almost immediately he got a big bite and FISH ON!  He played the fish patiently and after a good battle that took him around the stern and back he landed a nice Slot sized Redfish. All three anglers began to get in on the action, tossing their jigs up stream and slowly working it back in. Slowly!  Chris got the the hot rod as he got the hang of how they were biting and put Trout after Trout after Trout in the boat. And so did John and Byron. We hopped up to the next jut of land and oysters and repeated the catch rate. And then we move a third time and caught a few more. Our next stop was over to some docks at Seymore's Pointe and here the trio picked  up a feisty Redfish and a hungry Seatrout. We went back to Bubblegum Reef, picked up one Trout deep then worked the old oysters west. For a second day in a row this turned out to be a good move as we found plenty of Seatrout holding on the drop off.  We slowly built a sizable well of keeper Trout. With just a short while to go, we made the run down to Broward Island and got there just as the tide started back in. And when it started in, the fish began to bite. They caught a couple of small Black "puppy" Drum, a couple of feisty Redfish and a good handful of Trout. We worked some logs and BOOM! Fish ON! Chris hooked, fought and landed keeper sized Slot Red and as we netted it Byron yelled, "FISH ON" then John yelled "FISH ON" -they both had fish. Byron patiently brought his fish to the boat but Johns was having none of it. It ran deep then long and from starboard to port but John kept the pressure on, letting the light tackle rod do all the work. After a good battle we netted a big 26" Slot Redfish - boy what a fish!  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.