Whole Lot Of Catching

The fish catch'n seemed to get better as the morning went along today. I had met Mike Moavero and his relatives, Tommy, Will and Jackson up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp early and with a low and still outgoing tide, we headed over to and up the Bell River. I had passed a stretch of bank that was lined with oysters yesterday and with the tide still gong out, I thought it would be a good start for our first spot. The anglers were pitching jigs and live shrimp to the bank and as we worked along we seemed to spook some big fish that left wakes in the trail. But one must have hung around because after making a perfect cast Mike had his bait hit hard and, Fish On!  We could tell this was a big fish by the way it rolled up near the bank a few times and ripped some drag. But Mike kept the pressure on, worked it to the boat, and landed a nice 22" Slot sized Redfish. We continued along that bank and Tommy got in on the action and landed a keeper sized Flounder.

Continuing on up the Bell, we stopped at another likely spot and here Jackson heated up, catching a handful of small but fun to catch Seatrout. We went further up the Bell and fished some dock pilings. Here, things really heated up. They caught a handful of Black "puppy" Drum to make it an Amelia Island Back Country Grande Slam of Redfish, Flounder, Seatrout and Drum. Then Tommy snagged and landed a Sheepshead to make it a "Super Grande Slam", and Jackson finished it off with a keeper sized Seatrout.

Our next stop was around at the Jolley River, just east of the MOA, in a deep bend in the river, and still tossing jigs with the tide now coming in. The bite just got hotter! Will got on the board with a couple of Seatrout catches, one that was just a hair below the size limit, and then Mike hooked up and landed another keeper sized Flounder. Tommy had a strong bite, a hookup, and battled to the boat another nice Slot sized Redfish. All four anglers were catching Croaker, a couple that were big enough to throw in the box.  We finished the day down at Jolly Bank catching Golden Croaker, then we wrapped things up, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.