2nd Biggest....so far

Things are heating up in the 2018 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament - Redfish Category. It was just this past Monday when Bob Blalock moved in to 2nd place with a 31" Oversized Red, but it was topped today, by a smidgeon, just four days later!  I had met Bart Mathews and his buddy Steve down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp with the tide low and still going out. We ran west and up the Nassau River and made our first stop along some shell beds and began to pitch jigs and mud minnows up current. We slowly worked the bank, had a few bites and picked up a small fish or two. After
hitting one more marsh runout, we moved on to some docks at Seymore's Pointe.

The two anglers were making excellent casts to the dock pilings and right off, Bart had a strong bite and, Fish ON!  But the fish quickly wrapped around a piling and, Fish OFF! Ouch, boy that hurts! They kept fishing and Steve hooked up and landed a large Croaker. We fished a few docks up the way and after Bart had one of his minnows stolen, he went back to the same spot, felt the bump, set the hook, and caught a nice keeper sized Flounder (all fish caught today were released).

Our last stop was down at Broward Island and here, with the tide still going out, both anglers landed a handful of small but feisty Redfish. Bart was fishing a pocket between a stump and some limbs and his bait had gotten out deep when , BOOM! Fish On!  He worked it out from the trees and kept the pressure on as it made some deep, hard runs. It turned out it was bigger than we initially thought! But Bart was up to the task and eventually landed a big 31.5" Oversized Red which put Bart squarely in 2nd place in the Bragging Rights Tournament (scroll down the right side of this report for standings).  Boy what a fish! 

We fished up and down the island and not too long later Steve had a good hookup. He fought his fish to the boat and landed a nice Red that was just a tad bit undersized, but a beautiful copper color.  The sun was up, it was hot, so we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.