Beautiful Day On The Water

After a couple of weeks of downtime I was able to get out on the water yesterday with Tandy
Morton, our friend Chris Yarborough, and his son Conner. We met early out at the Goffinsville Park boat ramp, launched and made a quick run over to Broward Island - the tide had been coming in for a few hours but I thought we'd give it a try while we were in the area. We were tossing jigs an live shrimp but the first spot produced no fish, not even a real bite, so we moved down the way, passing a pair of Bald Eagles, to set up on the outside of some logs. Things were looking pretty good but we still weren't getting any bites until, BOOM! Fish on.
Conner was on the rod and he patiently worked it to the boat and  net, a nice 18"+ Slot Redfish. Just a short while later Tandy put a hungry Seatrout in the boat.

We then ran back to the Spanish Drop area and set up along a marsh line. The tide was already up here, covering the oysters, so we switched to a fixed float rig baited with live shrimp. Tandy was on the bow casting forward while Conner took up the stern.  As we approached a "corner" we began to catch some fish. First, we had a nice 6-spot Slot Redfish, then we landed a couple of undersized Reds, one of which Conner hooked and landed.  Then Conner tangled with a Bonnethead Shark which he valiantly battled to the boat.  Then It was Tandy's turn for a big fish. He and I both were watching his float drift just a foot away from the grass when we saw his float ease under. Tandy took up the slack, lifted, and, Fish On! He battled the fish away from the oysters then handed off to Conner to do the heavy lifting! Conner worked it to the boat and landed a nice 24.25" Redfish. Boy what teamwork!

Our last stop was back at Pumpkin Hill. We were tossing the floats up into a shallow "bay" and letting them drift back and across a shell bed. There wasn't much action going on until Tandy had another strong bite. It was a big fish and we were all guessing what it was - it didn't look like a Red. Again, Tandy fought the fish out then handed it off to his team mate Conner who brought it to the net - a big 20" Seatrout -the biggest of the year on the Angler's Mark, and big enough to grab first place in the 2020 Bragging Rights Tournament(scroll down the right side of this report for standings).  We finished out that stretched, hit a small grass patch, but the tide had reached its peak and there were  no bites going on. So we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.