Fishing For Rabbits

WhooWhoo! What a pretty day we had for fishing the back waters of Amelia Island! I met Bud O'dell and his longtime friend Fred Hough down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp on a high and outgoing tide and we made a quick run up the Nassau River, stopping at a flooded shell bank along the river - Spanish Drop area. The two anglers started tossing float rigs up current, drifting their live shrimp along the edge and BOOM! Fish On! BOOM! Fish On!...that's how it went for almost an hour of fishing. They were catching feisty Redfish and hungry Seatrout, with a Ladyfish and Jack Crevalle thrown in for
fun.

When the bite finally slowed we moved on up to fish some docks at Seymore's Pointe. I had fished the same dock yesterday and we only picked up one Redfish and a small Snapper, but we had a better quantity show up today. Both Bud and Fred put a few Black "puppy" Drum in the boat that measured right at legal - we could have debated with the Game and Fish guy, but you know how that goes - so we tossed them back. We had picked up some finger mullet before we left the last spot and Bud hooked up and caught a nice Seatrout on one of the mullet.

Our final stop was down at Broward Island, again, the same spot as yesterday where my guests put a nice slot Red in the boat, but have something big pull lose later. Fred had hit the mark with his cast, kept the line tight, and we both saw something bumping his bait.  Fred gave it a second or two and then set the hook, UMPH! and Big Fish ON!  Fred played it perfectly, keeping that pressure on, and after a good battle landed a big 22" Doormat Flounder, big enough to tie him for the lead in the Anglers Mark 2018 Bragging Rights Tournament-Flounder category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings). And note, the minute the pressure came off the line when it was in the net, the hook popped right out!

We fished a few spots along Broward and picked up another handful of Redfish, then we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.