Four Foot Shark on a Size 1000 Reel

I wrapped my week up today fishing with Laura Abel and her friend Paul, meeting them down at the Big Talbot Island Park boat ramp with plans to fish thru the last couple of hours of an outgoing tide. We ran up the intercoastal and made our first stop at the mouth of Jackstaff. Paul was on the bow tossing a jig and live shrimp and Laura was at the stern fishing a float rig up near the recently exposed oysters. We worked along one bank but had no bites then crossed to a point of grass that tapers to a sandbar. Both anglers were fishing the jig and both picked up some hungry Seatrout. After
that we ran thru Horsehead and over to the Nassau River and fished a dock to no avail. Crossing the river, we found some old exposed oysters and within a few minutes Paul had a strong hookup and FISH ON! He patiently played the fish and even though it got back in the current, he worked it slowly to the boat and eventually landed a nice Slot Sized 21" Redfish. We continued to work along the bank and later saw a big Bonnethead cruising the oysters....and minutes later a hookup! The drag sang as line ripped out but Paul kept the rod up and bent, keeping pressure on the fish. It was a long battle on the light Shimano Stradic 1000 but it held  up and Paul brought the 4 foot shark to the boat. Now that was a battle! We worked the bank thoroughly then made a run down to Broward Island to fish the very last of the outgoing tide. All of the longs were exposed but the west wind was kicking up the water and  making it real muddy and we had no bites. Our last stop was at Seymore's Pointe and both Laura and Paul tangled with some sneaky Mangrove Snapper. The won some and lost some!  And with that, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.