Catch'n Eaters Here At Amelia Island, Florida

It seemed just a tad bit cooler this morning when I met the Williams family -John and Mary Margaret and their two young anglers Hadden and Ruth, down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp. We had clear skies and nice breeze blowing as we headed west and up the Middle River and over to Pumpkin Hill to set up at a grassy island to begin pitching live shrimp under floats. We had a nibble here and there and when John hooked up I thought we might have a decent fish but it was just a short Mangrove Snapper - not the "Eater" that Hadden was looking for!

We move around the corner and down a ways and not the tide was starting out. I think John's first cast to the backside of a small drainage produced a bite and, Fish ON!  John and Hadden worked it patiently to the boat and landed a nice 22" Slot sized "Eater" Redfish! We eased down that bank and again John had a hookup. This fish was big and ripping drag and running deep. It took John from the bow to the stern where we had a standoff for a while before John was able to work it to the boat and land an oversized 27"+ Redfish - good for pictures and release.  We continued to fish and after John had put a keeper sized Seatrout in the boat, he hooked up and landed another big fish. He and Hadden fought it valiantly and soon brought to the net a "Tournament Size" 26.75" Slot fish, boy what a fish.

After a short pit stop at Goffinsville we ran down to Twin Creeks, fished with jigs and shrimp and mud minnows and here the family put a nice 3' Bonnethead Shark in the boat, a couple of Jack Crevalle, a keeper sized Flounder, a small Flounder, and Mary Margaret got on the board with an exciting Stingray catch. Somewhere there was a pretty Blue Crab caught!  Ruth was helping out giving encouragement to all the anglers.

We finished up at Spanish drop with one more keeper sized Flounder catch before we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.