Teamwork Lands Fish In Epic Battle

I had the pleasure of fishing with Jeff and Penny Parks and I met them down at the Big Talbot Island Park this morning with plans to fish the last of an outgoing tide. It was a beautiful day as we ran up the Nassau River to make our first stop at a couple of marsh run outs. I think it was Jeff's 2nd cast when he had a hookup and as he got his fish to the boat - a keeper sized Flounder - Penny had a hookup and she landed one, too! We fished that stretch a while, picked up another Flounder, then moved down to another run out
where Jeff caught a feisty Redfish, and so did Penny. Penny put a hard fighting Jack Crevalle in the boat before we ran further up river to fish some fully exposed shell beds. The two anglers "worked 'em silly", but we had no real bites until we got up to Bubblegum Reef. Greg landed a keeper sized Mangrove Snapper then the fun really began. Penny had made an excellent cast between the reef and the shell bed. But I had my back to the cast when I heard her drag begin to sing, and FISH ON! I could tell this was a big fish. Penny applied the pressure and tried to pull the big fish away from the reef and I took the trolling motor off anchor and tried to move further away too, but it was to no avail...the fish got wrapped up in the reef! Well, we trolled right up to it, with me standing on the bow and watching the propeller get inches away from the structure while Penny handed it off the rod to Jeff who reached out and with the tip, unwrapped the line and when it was free....FISH BACK ON!  Penny took the rod back and the battle was on.  Luckily the big fish headed away from the reef and so did we!  This time it was a short battle and as Penny got the fish close to the boat, Jeff reached out and netted it, a nice 25 1/4" Slot Sized Redfish! Boy what a fight! We made one more stop down at Broward Island, had a few nibbles, then called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.