Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Out of the Blue

Wow! Another beautiful day here at Amelia Island, Florida!  I met Jack Dickens, his wife Julie and his sister Sparkle up at the Dee Dee Bartels boat ramp and we headed out with a live well full shrimp with plans to fish the last of an outgoing tide. At our first stop, we worked some dock pilings and both Jack and Sparkle hooked up and landed some feisty Redfish. We made a long run up the Bell River and fished some more dock pilings but we found our fish our deep. Julie was working a slip float out the back and put a good handful of Seatrout in the boat while Jack and Sparkle tossed  jigs and shrimp up current and they too had some Trout. Our next stop around at the mouth of the Jolley produced no real bites. The tide was right with the oysters showing but the wind had picked up and was blowing out of the south and right down the river. We made one more run around to Tiger Island.  The three anglers were making excellent casts and almost immediately began to get bites. Most were "baitstealers" but they picked up a Trout or two and then, out of the blue, Jack had a strong bite and, FISH ON! We could tell this was a nice size fish with the way it dug deep and bent the rod, but Jack was up to the task and played the big fish perfectly. After a good battle he landed a "not so puppy" 20"  Black puppy Drum. Now that was a nice fish. And shortly after that Sparkle had a strong bite. She too played the fish perfectly and landed a nice Slot sized Redfish. We continued to fish for a while, picked up a small Trout or two, then headed in, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

A very interesting fishing tale told by an experienced Sea Captain of the estuaries around Fernandina Beach.