A Couple of Slot Reds

After a couple of days off I was back fishing today, meeting Brooke Jordan and her son Christian and their friend Mike, down at the City marina. For bait, we had live shrimp to begin with - some really nice ones - although I would have preferred mud minnows. There was a little more breeze than we've been having so we ran up to Tiger Island to get a little shelter and with the very last of an outgoing tide, it was a good move. The three anglers were tossing their baits on 1/4oz jigs up to the bank and fishing them slowly back and in a short time Mike had a strong hookup. He played the fish perfectly and in short order "knocked the skunk off" with a nice Slot sized Redfish! We fished up and down the bank, dueling with "bait stealers", but still managed to land a couple of small Flounder, a keeper
Flounder and Christian added a nice Croaker to the box. We were going through shrimp fast so we made a run back to a bait shop and picked up some mud minnows then ran back around to the Jolley River. The oysters were still showing, now on an incoming tide, and the "fish catching" heated up. Mike caught a Flounder on his first cast, then added a handful of small, but feisty Redfish. All three anglers tangled with Ladyfish then Christian had a strong bite and, FISH ON!  This was a nice fish  and it was pulling hard but Christian kept the pressure on and even though it made a dash deep and under the boat, Christian turned it's head and brought it back out. After an epic battle, Christian landed another nice Slot sized Redfish, boy what a fight! We worked that bank, picked up another Flounder or two, then ran further up the river and wrapped things up tossing float rigs. It was another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.