What a Difference a Day Makes!

We went from almost summertime conditions yesterday to a tad bit cooler, cloudier, and windier today which made all the difference in the "catch" for the day. I met Howard McClure and his son-in-law David up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp early and we then made the long run out to Bells River to try and stay out of the 13mph wind and fish an outgoing tide. After setting up between two docks the two anglers began tossing jigs and live shrimp - David on the bow fishing up current while Howard took up the stern fishing some dock pilings.  It was David who had the first strike,
hooking up a small but hungry Seatrout. After he caught one or two more, Howard joined him and too began caching Trout.

We moved down the bank to another set of docks and here we caught Trout again, but this time we had a few that were of keeper size (all fish caught today were released). We worked back up thru the docks and picked up a fish or two, all on jigs and shrimp, all on the bottom.

When the bite slowed we continued on, made the turn in Jolley and made a brief stop at the MOA but had no real bites. Our next stop was at Jolley Bank where we tried to fish some exposed oysters but the wind was just too much so we picked up and ran around to the back side of Tiger Island where we had it to ourselves and the wind was blocked, making for some very comfortable fishing. Working the bank, David picked up two more Trout of keeper size while Howard landed a surprise Flounder that could have been kept, too.  Although our options were limited with the wind, we were able to find a couple of areas to fish and it made for another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.