Camp'n Out

 

It was a hot one today - the temperatures and the fishing! I had met Bob Hagerman and his sons Bob and Brandon down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp early this morning. All morning long, from sunrise to the bait shop to the boat ramp I was debating on whether to run up the intercoastal and fish Jackstaff or give the Nassau River and Spanish Drop one more try (yesterday we caught squat there). But I like that stretch of deep water coming up to shell beds so we picked Spanish Drop and made the short run, pulling up as the outgoing tide began to hit bottom.  The trio of anglers began to pitch jigs and live shrimp to the exposed oysters and it wasn't long before all were catching fish.

I don't normally stay at a spot more than 30 minutes, and most of the time it's less than that. When we were all done we had been there for an hour and a half!  Brandon knocked the skunk off with a nice Seatrout catch, then Bob put a Flounder in the boat.  Brandon followed that up with a nice Jack Cravelle. Bob Jr was laying back.  Then Bob Sr hooked up and when his drag began to rip we knew it was a nice fish. He played it to the boat and brought to the net a nice Slot sized 18.5" Redfish and as we were netting it Bob Jr hooked up and battled to the net another Slot Red, this one measuring in at 21".

The trio caught about everything you could think of - Reds, Trout, Flounder, Brandon added a tough-to-catch Sheepshead, Stingray, bait stealers, Catfish - we  camped out and worked up and down the bank a couple of times catching fish. When it finally slowed we made a short run up the river and worked another bank. This one only produced a Catfish.

The tide was up and beginning to flood the oysters so we ran down to fish Pumpkin Hill. We switched to float rigs and drifted long. The tide wasn't up as high as it was yesterday when we were at this spot, but it still payed off.  Brandon had a good drift going and when his float disappeared he slapped the bail shut, "caught up to it" and hooked up with a keeper sized Seatrout. Bob Jr. came in right behind him, drifting long, and had another good hookup. He reeled in another nice keeper sized Seatrout. We fished down another grass line, had a bite or two, picked up one Trout, then came back to the original side.

With only minutes to go and the "GPK" on the line, Brandon hooked up and landed a feisty Redfish and was minutes away from the win when......Bob Jr's float.....drifting thru a small bay....disappeared....and after Bob cranked it tight.....BAM! Big Fish On!  Boy what a battle. You could feel the tension in the air! But Bob was up to the task, played it patiently, worked it to the boat, let it run, worked it back, let it run, then brought to the net a big Oversized 28.25" Redfish! Boy what a fish! And with that, we called it a day, another great one fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.