That's What Friends Are For

Boy what a pretty morning we had today when I met Wade Kirkland and his buddy Greg up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp. We left the ramp early and made the short trip over to Tiger Island with a plan to fish the downed logs on a tide that had been coming in only about an hour. I was impressed at how good both anglers were casting ( we didn't lose a single jig fishing the logs - probably a record!) But the bites were few and far between until Greg finally hooked up and landed a feisty Redfish.

Our next stop was up the Jolley River, fishing some still exposed oysters with float rigs and live shrimp. Wade was on the bow and Greg was at the stern and shortly after we started our drift Greg had a hookup and it was big enough to pull some drag. Sure enough, after an efficient battle, Greg landed a nice 21" Slot Redfish.

Shortly after that I noticed that Wade was "pulling" his bait. We'd see movement or nervous water and I'd point it out to Wade but when he cast he'd pull it up short and as we drifted by,  Greg would have a shot at it.  I guess that's what friends are for! And just minutes later, Greg had another strong hookup and, Fish On! I knew this was a big fish - it wasn't coming in and was ripping drag at will. But Greg kept the pressure on and after a long battle, landed an oversized 32" brute of a Redfish. This catch put Greg in a tie for 2nd place in the 2019 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament-Redfish Category(scroll down the right side of this report for standings).

After that I think we landed only one more fish, a small Bluefish. We fished a few more banks, the outside of Tiger, and some docks down at Piney Island, but had no luck. But it was a beautiful day so we counted it as another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.