Beautiful Afternoon For Fishing

 

It rained all morning yesterday so I kept an eye on my Weather app to see what was in store for us to do an afternoon trip. As I pulled  up to the bait shop at noon the skies were still ugly with dark clouds but the forecast called for clearing. I met Barb and Dennis Lockard up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park at 1pm and we headed over to Soap Creek with plans to fish float rigs and live shrimp as the tide fell. It had been going out for a few hours so I knew we wouldn't be on the floats for long!

Barb had the hot hand early. Dennis had gotten a good bite that stole his shrimp and Barb's float was following his on a long drift so she let it keep going and BAM! She had a hookup. After expertly reeling it in she landed a nice hungry Seatrout. We found that spot paid off a couple of times. We had a bite or two and Barb landed another Seatrout.

After moving up about 30 yards we fished some exposed oysters, first with the floats, then we switched to jigs and

shrimp. The switch paid off for Barb. She had made a close cast to the oysters and had a hung a bit, but when it came off, BOOM! She had a strong bite. This fish fought a bit more and sure enough, when she landed it, we saw it was a feisty Redfish.

Our next stop was over in Lanceford Creek, fishing some dock pilings. We had a bite or two but no takers. As we drifted outside of a dock, back towards a shell bank, Dennis went in close and finally had a the hookup he was looking for. Dennis played it perfectly and brought to the net another feisty Redfish.

We fished along Lanceford for a bit, waiting for the tide to hit bottom, then made the run around to Tyger Island. We worked up and down the island, pitching jigs to pockets among the stumps. The skies had cleared, the sun was out, and it had turned out to be a beautiful day. Dennis picked up three more Redfish and had a "double" on the third when Barb landed one of her own. 

The day had started out gloomy but had ended well so as we headed in we counted it as another great day to be out on the water and fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.