Seatrout Down Deep

If you've read between the lines of the last few days fishing reports you may have seen that the "fish catching" had been very slow with fish catches of 2-3 the norm. Today I met the Concannon family - Andy and Leslie and their adult sons Justin and Ryan-down at the south end boat ramp with only a slight breeze blowing and beautiful sunny skies. We ran up the intercoastal and dipped in to Jackstaff and began fishing the exposed oysters with jigs and live shrimp on the last of an outgoing tide. I don't think we even had one bite! After crossing over the creek and fishing a sandbar point to no
 avail, we ran thru Horsehead and around to some docks at Seymore's Pointe.

These anglers were making excellent casts to the dock pilings but we had no real bites. The 2nd dock we fished we did have a brief hookup that ripped a bit of drag, but it threw the hook.  We were going on about an hour and a half with no fish in the boat and I was beginning to wonder if the pattern over the last few days was going to hold.

Our next stop was down at Broward Island, still fishing the last of an outgoing tide and things picked up just a bit. Ryan put a keeper sized Seatrout in the boat then Justin landed a feisty Sheepshead. We worked down the bank and picked up another Trout or two. When the tide turned and started back in we moved to the end of the island and had a good flurry of fish catching. Justin picked up a nice 17" Seatrout, then another, then he tangled with a wiley Redfish that after a good battle, found its way under a submerged log - we saw the line tighten down - and BAP, fish off! But Justin was game and went back to the same area and pulled in a keeper sized Sheepshead. Then it was Andy's turn to hookup with a bigger fish and after a good fight, he landed the biggest Trout of the day, a 19" fish.

We made one more stop back along the Nassau River and just as we were about to leave, Ryan found a wayward Weakfish/Sandtrout and added it to the fish box for dinner! And with that, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.