Relationship Building

 

After fishing today, my guests and I came up with a new "service" that I could add, "Relationship Building"!  I had met Russ and Denise Kesel early this morning up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp and they had along with them their son Noah and his girlfriend Alysa. The tide had been going out for about an hour so we skipped across the river to the outside of Tyger Island and began fishing  an edge of grass as the current flowed around it. It was the new girl, Alysa, who "knocked the skunk off" with a nice Redfish catch. Then Denise, who was casting out of the stern, caught and landed a hungry Flounder. We were getting bites and I would have liked to have fished it more, but the tide was already down enough that the engine was bumping bottom so we moved on. 

Our next stop was around at the Jolley River where the two couples began tossing their float rigs up current, baited with live shrimp. We had good action along that stretch, catching a good handful of feisty Redfish. Russ expertly battled a big Bonnethead Shark and Noah and Alysa had a "double hookup" where each landed a nice Redfish. Noah had something big on for a bit but it got tangled in Alysa's line - eventually it made a strong move and broke off. 

I've seen on multiple trips where friends and couples are fishing and "things" happen - folks get in the way of each other, they get their lines crossed, they get tangled, they hook each other and when out on the boat, you just gotta work through it and have a good time. Noah handled it well and kept on fishing!

We moved up the Jolley to Snook Creek and again drifted the float rigs. and again we had good action. All four anglers were catching fish - feisty Redfish, hungry Seatrout, and the ever present baitstealer. We eased along, crossed the creek, worked the cut and had good action along the way. Then, while Noah and Alysa were baiting up, Russ went long and up near the bank, up ahead of the boat and, BAM! He had a hookup. The fish didn't pull hard at first, heading south ahead of the bow, but then it turned and headed north towards the stern and this time it was ripping drag. Russ played it patiently, going from starboard over to port then worked it in slowly to the net. We measured this nice golden Slot Redfish right at 23", boy what a fish. All fish caught today were released.

I had planned to fish the MOA but the oysters were still covered so we kept going around to Bell River and fished some docks. Again, we caught a couple of Reds, a Trout or two, and a couple of Mangrove Snapper.  We finished up fishing Jolley Bank again, this time with jigs and here the two ladies battled for the GPK. Denise had set the standard with an earlier Redfish catch, Alysa boated a 9" Redfish, then Denise followed that up with a 15.5" keeper sized Flounder. We were right down to the wire when Alysa hooked up again but her fish came in just under the 10" mark so Denise took home the coveted award. As we headed in the sun had peaked thru the clouds and knowing that we had some good action fishing, we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.