Oversized Redfish Makes Quite The Battle at Amelia Island, Florida

The days can't be any prettier here at Amelia Island! 

I fished early this morning with Todd and Debbie

Johnson, meeting them up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp. We headed north and west to the outside of Tiger Island to fish a tide that had been going out for about 2 hours. Our first stop was at a large drainage where the two anglers began pitching jigs and mud minnows. I was hoping for a Flounder bite but we didn't have much luck. 

So we moved around to the Jolley River and began easing along the "bank",  now tossing float rigs and alternating between live shrimp and the mud minnows. Both Todd and Debbie were getting excellent drifts but  it wasn't until the  oysters started to show when we began to get bites. The duo began to catch some feisty Redfish and and a Trout here and there and since we were getting some good action, I let the boat drift back in the current and we fished the "bank" a second time, and it paid off. 

We ran further up the river, to just shy of Snook Creek, pitched to the bank with the float rigs, and again caught a Red or two.  We then bounced across the creek mouth, eased in to the oysters

and after Debbie had made an excellent cast, BOOM! Big Fish On!  We couldn't tell it was big at first but when it got out to deeper water it was giving Debbie quite a pull. But she was up to the challenge and worked it slowly to the boat and we eventually netted a big Oversized 28" Redfish. After a quick picture or two, it was released and thrashed off to deep water. Boy what a fish!

Our next stop was around the corner and now the oysters were really exposed. We switched to jigs and minnows and continued to catch fish. Todd got hot fishing off the stern and picked up Redfish, a small Flounder, and Trout to tally an Amelia Island Back Country Slam.  After fishing the MOA briefly, we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.