Breakout Monday

I was back down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp today, meeting the Gross family early - David and Kerry and their kids Madeline and Drew.  We met early and ran up the Nassau River to make a quick stop at Spanish Drop. There was bait getting popped everywhere and as soon as these anglers got their jigs and shrimp in the water they were catching fish.  Ladyfish, Ladyfish, Flounder, Ladyfish, Jack Crevalle, Flounder, Ladyfish, Flounder...boom, boom, boom! Madeline contributed one of the keeper Flounder, Drew put the only slot Redfish in the boat, then David added a couple of more keeper sized Flounder. Kerry got in on the action with a nice Jack Crevalle catch, a feisty Redfish catch, and a Seatrout catch. We
lost track  of all the fish we caught!

We moved up to Athens Drop with the tide still having about an hour or so to the bottom, fished jigs and shrimp and mud minnows and here, David hooked up with something big,  patiently fought it to the boat, and landed a big 22" Seatrout, a fish big enough to force a 2nd place tie in the Anglers Mark 2020 Bragging Rights Tournament-Seatrout Category(scroll down the right side of this report for standings). We picked up another couple of fish before we moved on.

After catching some nice finger mullet to supplement our bait, we fished Seymore's Pointe with float rigs for the Mangrove Snapper but had no luck. We then motored down to Broward Island with the tide still going out. We saw a Bald Eagle (to add to the numerous birds we'd seen today) then fished the bank, drifting backwards and slowly working our baits. David put another 20" Seatrout in the boat (released) then had a strong hookup out deep, and FISH ON! This was a big fish and luckily it came out deep where David gently applied the pressure, worked it up, fought it as it ran, then Drew netted the big Oversized 30.5" Redfish, boy what a fish!

We'd had good weather all morning, a slight breeze, some cloud cover, but it was serious sunshine now, so we called it a day and counted it as another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. Edit...and the family had a great fresh cooked fish dinner at Kitchen 251!