Fighting Through To Catch Fish

Matt Miles and his fishing buddy Paul were in town on business and wanted to squeeze in a fishing trip before their conferences started. They pulled in within minutes of our scheduled start time, said goodbye to their spouses and we were off! Unfortunately, the last of incoming tide was not my favorite and with a stiff wind blowing, I knew we were in for a tough go at it. But these two anglers were looking forward to getting out on the water so they toughed it out and ended up with some nice catches. We started out fishing a flooded oyster bed in Bell River with float rigs and mud
minnows, but had no real bites. Our next stop was at the Tiger Island logs. They were flooded and I knew it would be difficult fishing with jigs, and sure enough, it was. We bounced outside of Tiger, went back to float rigs and had a few bites, but no takers. Crossing over the river and hitting another flooded marsh line, the bite picked up. Paul landed a high flying Ladyfish, then added a feisty Redfish that was laying up near the grass. Matt put a fat Seatrout in the boat then both anglers tangled with a few more Ladyfish. We then ran up to the Jolley River, slipped into Snook Creek, and here Paul put a keeper sized Trout in the boat. He got us all excited when he had a big fish hookup which he battled successfully, but unfortunately it turned out to be a large Stingray. We had been fighting the wind all evening but our last stop over at some Bell River docks was perfect with the wind being blocked and the sun creeping down. Both anglers were making excellent casts to the pilings and when we got to the "hot dock", they began to put fish in the boat. Trout were schooled up and they added a handful more of keeper sized Trout. It was dusk and getting dark very quickly so we called it an evening, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.