Heck of a Halibut

 

I wrapped my week up today fishing with Chris Sneed and his fishing buddy Chuck, meeting them up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp. We had overcast skies, but no forecast for rain until possible late afternoon, and just a (very) slight breeze blowing. Our first stop was over on the outside of Tyger Island and the duo began pitching jigs and mud minnows to a marsh runout. I was expecting to maybe get a Flounder "bump" but it was a Seatrout that Chris picked up. He mentioned that he had never caught a Flounder and it'd be nice to do so (Stay Tuned!).

We then ran around to the Jolley Bank, fished the "bank", picked up a Croaker, then moved on up to Snook Creek where we got skunked. The tide was getting pretty low and as we pulled up to the MOA (Mother of All), there was a lot of movement, a bunch of bait, Sharks finning, and we even saw a "tail" that surely was a Redfish. But we had a bunch of bites but no takers. 

Our next stop was around at Bell River, fishing some dock pilings. We were flipping back and forth from live shrimp and mud minnows and here Chuck got hot and got some action. He hooked up and landed a feisty Black "puppy" Drum then he battled a nice Slot 20" Redfish to the net. The tide had hit bottom and was already coming back in back towards the ocean so we made along run.

I was heading south but decided to duck in at Piney Island and fish some docks. We made a few casts and Chuck added another Drum to his catch total. We continued South, down the intercoastal, thru Horsehead and around to Seymore's Pointe and fished some more docks. The duo caught a handful of Mangrove Snapper with two of them being of keeper size. After fishing another dock, we headed down to Broward Island and fished a good stretch. In a hundred yards of fishing we only got one bite. But boy, was it a good one!

Chris had pitched a "soggy" shrimp up to the bank, let it sink, and was slowly letting it fall down the bottom when he hung up. I said, "I think I've got a stick", as he drug it back to the boat. But then it began to pull back into the current and act like a fish. I was thinking, "he's got a knot of wood or an oyster", but then the it tugged like fish. Chris worked it up off the bottom and when it came to the surface we saw it was a HUGE Doormat of a Flounder!  Chris kept the pressure on, eased it towards the boat and I swooped in the the net! Boy What a Fish! We measured it to be 24.5", big enough to easily move into first place in the Angler Mark 2021 Bragging Rights Tournament-Flounder Category.(scroll down the right side of this report for standings).

We wrapped the day up back at Seymore's Pointe where we tossed float rigs to the rocks and caught our limit of Mangrove Snapper, a few of which measured at 12" - they're getting bigger! Then we headed north, counting it as another great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.