Trout Game

 

What beautiful weather we're having here at Amelia Island this week, and today was no different with clear skies, sunshine, and flat water! I met fishing buddies Tom Gaslin and Steve Foss out at Goffinsville Park early and we made a short run over to the mouth of Pumpkin Hill and set up along a stretch of flooding marsh grass with plans to toss float rigs and live shrimp to the bank and drift them long with the current, and we did just that, and it paid off. Both anglers found that there was a "honey hole" back there and they caught hungry Seatrout, one after the other. We moved down the bank a bit and Steve again went long and again found Seatrout. When you're drifting long sometimes you build up a bunch of slack and it becomes a game when that float disappears- you have to slap the bail shut, crank like crazy to catch up and then lift the rod to have the circle hook set. You win some you lose some.

We move around the corner and again found Seatrout up by a grass patch. Our next stop was at a large marsh drainage back at Seymore's Pointe. The duo found that they could toss their float up beyond a grassy pointe, let it drift around the corner and, BAM. Trout bite. We jumped around the dock and fished the grass line and here Tom got hot and picked up another handful of Trout, one of which was of keeper size. 

Our next stop was down the Nassau, again fishing a marsh drainage with jigs and shrimp, but we only picked up one small Seatrout. Moving further down to Spanish Drop, we worked some submerged shell banks, drifting with the current. We were almost ready to make another move when Steve had a strong bite, one that ripped his drag. He played it perfectly and landed a nice feisty Redfish. He picked up two more of those Reds and one of them made it into the Slot. 

Our final stop was back at some docks at Seymore's Pointe. We fished the pilings with the jigs and shrimp, had some nibbles, but not takers. We then worked along the docks, tossing jigs and picked up another Trout or two, then aa nice  18" Black "puppy" Drum. It had been a gorgeous day, we had some good fish catching action, so as we headed in, we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.