Win Some and Lose Some

There was a forecast for rain showers this morning but Jake Thomsen and I both had raincoats!  We met down at the south end ramp, ran up the intercoastal, and began fishing the mouth of Jackstaff with a float rig and live shrimp on an outgoing tide.  Although we did have one good bite, we had no takers, so Jake switched to a jig and shrimp and that did the trick when Jake felt a bump, a heaviness, and set the hook. He boated a nice keeper sized flounder (released) to "knock the skunk" off. After fishing a sandbar pointe, we ran thru Horsehead and
found some dock pilings to fish.

BOOM! This did the trick. For about an hour we were hooking up with big fish. Jake landed a 20" Slot Red, then lost one in the pilings, then landed a 25" Slot Red, then lost one in the pilings, then a 26.5" Slot Red....it kinda went like that for a while.  I tried my hand a lost a few too! Boy were they some big fish.  We kept a couple of the Reds but put a few keeper sized ones back, including the big one. Jake caught a couple of feisty Black "puppy" Drum then another, bigger Flounder, which was also released, and tallied an "Amelia Island Back Country Slam" of Redfish, Flounder, and Black Drum.   We fished until they quit biting then made the run down to Broward Island.

Jake was making excellent casts to the downed logs which were now fully exposed. He said his jig had drifted out when, BOOM! A good bite, and fish on!  Jake played it perfectly, even as it got back in the current, and soon landed another Slot sized Redfish. After picking up a nice sized Stingray, then seeing a 6' Gator making a dash down the bank, Jake finished the trip by catching a fat Seatrout - he now had a Grande Slam!  It does seem like the fish "catching " is picking up here at Amelia Island, Florida.