Bookend Slot Redfish

We had another beautiful day today when I met David Traul and his son Andrew up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp this early this morning. The tide was high and had just begun to go out so we slipped over to Tiger Island and fished the outside over some flooded oyster beds. We had only been casting for a short while when we saw Andrew's float begin to bob and go against the current! When it went under Andrew set the hook and, FISH ON! When it boiled to the surface we knew it was a nice sized fish. Andrew kept the pressure on, fought it valiantly, and soon landed a
Slot sized 20" Redfish!

We worked that marsh, had no more bites, then crossed the creek to fish another shoreline and here David hooked up and caught a nice feisty Redfish on the float.We bumped around to the backside of Tiger and fished a runout where a flock of birds were congregated, tossing jigs and dishing the bottom - but no bites.

After a long run up the Bell we stayed with the jigs, tossing them
forward and into the current, letting them fall to the bottom and be swept along and this garnered a few Seatrout. Andrew also caught another feisty Red up near some dock pilings. Our final stop was back at Tiger - the tide was down now- and as we worked along David made an excellent cast to a pocket with a jig and huge mud minnow. I saw the pole bend when the big fish hit, and after David set the hook with a firm "uumpf", the drag began to sing! Boy what a fish. There was a time when we think the fish had foun d some structure, but David kept the gentle pressure and it was free and still hooked.  David worked the fish up off the bottom and Andrew netted it, a "barely legal" 26 3/4" Slot Red to bookend with Andrew's earlier one, makin g it another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.