First Fish, First Redfish, and Oversized Redfish

We set a couple of milestones today on the Angler's Mark when I fished with Brad Lanier and his buddy's Patrick and Matt. We met down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp and buzzed up the Nassau River to set up alongside a flooding marsh line with plans to toss live shrimp under a float. We worked along that bank for a bit, had a bite here and there, then Matt "knocked the skunk off" when he landed a keeper sized Seatrout.

After moving down a 100 yards, we tried the same technique and here Brad hooked up, played
it perfectly, and brought to the boat a feisty Redfish, his first ever.  We fished some docks later and added a panfish sized Croaker to the box, then ran down to Broward Island to escape the wind that had picked  up (weather forecasters missed it again). Matt had the hot hand catching a couple of hungry Seatrout fishing the bottom with a jig and mud minnow.

Our next stop was up towards Pumpkin Hill. Crazy how you fish for 10-15-20 minutes and just as you're about to leave, BOOM!  Patrick had a fish on and it was big enough to pull some drag. As he patiently played it, BOOM! Brad had a hookup and Fish On! Both anglers did an excellent job working there fish to the net and together they landed a Slot Redfish each.

We moved around the corner and fished a grassy island and after Brad had tossed his bait to the backside of it, he had another good hookup. He fought it to the boat and landed their 3rd Slot Redfish.  Back around the corner we went and began to drift another marsh line. Matt was on the stern, left his bail open after a pinpoint cast as his float drifted down the grass line we both commented how good a drift he was getting and...….BOOM! Big Fish On!  This was a big one!  Matt applied the pressure, worked it out to deep water, then patiently fought the fish from the deep. After a good battle he landed a big Oversized 31.5" Redfish, big enough to move him into 3rd place in the 2020 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament - Redfish Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings) 

We hit one more spot and caught a couple of Mangrove Snapper, then called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.