A Frosty "morn

 

A beautiful sunrise coming up over Amelia Island greeted us on a cool (32 degrees) morning when I met Chuck and Marca Benton and their daughter Kristin our at Goffinsville Park. But we were all bundled up in layers and I had my "baclava" wrapped around my neck as we headed north and around to Seymore's Pointe to with plans to fish some dock pilings on a tide that had been coming in for about an hour. The trio of anglers began pitching jigs and live shrimp to the pilings and it wasn't long before their efforts paid off. 

Kristin was first on the board with a strong hookup - she had felt the "bump" set

the hook, and FISH ON! Kristin played it perfectly, took here time, and soon landed a nice 18" Black "puppy" Drum. I think she put one or two more in the boat before her Dad got in on the action and he began to catch fish. Then it was Marca's turn - she hooked up and landed a nice keeper sized Drum, too.  Before long we had a good boxful of Drum. When the bite slowed we eased up to the pilings to try our hand at some Sheepshead "drops". I thought we were going to get skunked but then Chuck hooked up. He fought the fish valiantly under the dock and brought it to the net....a nice feisty Redfish!

Our next stop was down at Broward Island. We were still tossing the jig and shrimp combo. Chuck got hot off the stern and put a few Redfish in the boat, two of which were in the Slot. Kristen set the hook on a Seatrout to make it an Amelia Island Back Country Slam, then Chuck found a keeper sized Sheepshead make it a "Grande Slam".  Marca had set aside her rod to warm her hands up but she contributed immensely by "coaching them up".

We fished the rocks back at Nassauville, had a bite or two, then wrapped up the day fishing the now flooding marsh grass with float rigs. The sun was up and we had warmed a bit and we had a boxful of fish so we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.