Redfish On Fire

I had the pleasure of fishing again with Dennis Brizzi and his buddy Hal today, meeting them out at the Goffinsville Park boat ramp. There was a shortage of bait this morning so we started out with about a dozen mud minnows, tossed the cast net for a dozen finger mullet then ran down the river to toss out a minnow trap - then we went fishing! At the first stop at S;panish Drop Hal had a strong hookup that bent the rod, ripped the drag and broke the leader. Although things appeared to be getting right, we had no more bites so we moved down the river another bump or two. Dennis knocked
the skunk off with a keeper sized Flounder catch, then he tangled with a Lady Fish then both anglers put a few small but feisty Redfish in the boat. Then all heck broke loose! Hal had a strong bite, a good battle, and landed a nice 24" Slot Red. Then he put another Slot Red in the boat then Dennis got in on the action and landed a couple - they had 5 Slot Reds total, plus another handful of smaller rat Reds. Then Dennis had a big bite and his dragged ripped -his light tackle rod bent over and Dennis was in the fight of his life! But he was up to the task and after an extended battle, Dennis landed a thick 28" Oversized Redfish. We checked our minnow trap and had a couple of dozen minnows then moved on up the river, NE of Bubblegum Reef and began to work the now exposed oysters.  Dennis landed a nice 14" Mangrove Snapper that was good fight then it was Hal's turn on a big fish. When he first hooked up we thought, "well this is nice fish", then when the big fish dug deep we knew it was going to be a fight. Hal kept the pressure on as the fish took him from bow to stern and after a good battle, he landed another 28" oversized Redfish. Now that's the way to wrap up a great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida!