Book Ends

 I wrapped my "week" up today - 8 trips in the last 7 days - fishing with Rick Astor and his son Eric - meeting them down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp. We had a "book end" kind of day, catching fish early then late to make  good day of fishing.

We had run up the Nassau River and made a quick stop at Spanish Drip to fish an incoming tide with float rigs and live shrimp, working the bank, tossing the floats up near the grass. We eased along a flooded marsh line, had a couple of nibbles, then when we reached the "honey hole" we began to get hookups. Both Eric and Rick tangled with some nice sized Ladyfish, then Rick had a strong bite off the stern and the battle was on! He played it perfectly, worked it to the boat, and landed a big Jack Crevalle. The duo caught a couple of more fish then Rick had another hookup. When we saw it "roll up" near the bank we knew it was a Redfish. Rick was patient and slowly brought it to the boat and eventually landed a nice 21" Slot sized Redfish. 

We fished Twin Creeks for a bit with the float rigs but even though we were getting excellent drifts thru the mouths of those creeks, we had no bites. After running down to Pumpkin Hill we fished one stretch of shoreline then another, had some bites, but no takers, then we eased down to Broward Island and switched to jigs. But he wind had picked up and we were getting kicked around so we came back to the lee of Nassauville and fished a large outflow.  After getting just a few nibbles Rick had seen some fish action up between a floating deck and dock so we eased over there and went with just a plain hook and shrimp. Eric made a perfect toss, the fish took it, and BAM. He had a hookup. It was a quick battle but he landed it  - another high flying Ladyfish. 

We had gone from a good start in the morning to struggling to get a decent fish but when we pulled around to fish Seymore's Pointe things picked up. Tossing live shrimp under the float the duo caught a couple of small Mangrove Snapper. We then moved down teh way, fished between a couple of docks and here the action picked up. Both Rick and Eric hooked up and landed a good handful of Mangrove Snapper and  five of those turned out to be of keeper size. 

We had started out strong, finished strong, so as we headed in, we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.