Hot Fishing Early Hot Fishing Late

 

We had a bit of overcast skies this morning but it was dead calm at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp - calm enough that the sand gnats almost carried me off as I waited for Jeff and Jinny Key to walk up for the fishing trip! We quickly loaded up and headed up the intercoastal, turned into Middle River, and made our way over to Pumpkin Hill with plans to drift floats along a flooded marsh line on a tide that still had about 1 and half hours of coming in. 

Luckily there was a slight breeze and the gnats weren't a problem up here! Jeff  was on the stern and after casting to the grass line, left his bail open and let his float drift long and sure enough, BAM! Float Gone! Jeff quickly slapped the bail shut, cranked down, lifted his rod and  let the circle hook do its job and, Fish On!  He patiently brought it to the boat and landed a keeper sized Seatrout.  He duplicated that a good handful of times, landing one fat Seatrout after another. Jinny squeezed in off the stern and did the same, letting her float drift long and BAM! She too had a hookup, a good battle, and a keeper sized Seatrout landed!

Eventually the bite slowed so we moved around, fished another edge, then made our way down to Broward Island. Here, fishing under the watchful eye of a Bald Eagle, we switched to jigs and live shriup and fished the bottom, but to no avail. We made our way back to the Seymore's Pointe area and fished a large marsh runout but the tide had dropped a bit too much and we were snagging the oysters. 

I final stop was down at Spanish Drop, sticking with the float rigs, and working along a bank where the shell was just beginning to show. Jinny had set aside her rod and was "coaching up" Jeff, who worked the bank thoroughly as we eased along. Not a bite until we got to a corner then, after Jeff had made an excellent cast and his float drifted around the corner, we saw his float take off, UPCURRENT!  Jeff tightened up and lifted and, Big Fish On!  He had a good battle on his hands, especially after the fish got back into the current. But he was up to the task and soon landed a Slot Sized Redfish.  Minutes later, he was back along the edge with a cast and sure enough, BAM! Another big fish on!  Jeff played it perfectly and soon landed an even bigger Slot Redfish.

We had had a good beginning and two Slot Red's in a row made for a good way to wrap up another great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida