Fishing For Walleye

 We had another hot day forecasted and they didn't miss this one! I met Brent Laurint and his girlfriend Brandi up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp and I had made up my mind I was going to try and get them away from civilization a bit so we headed over to the inside of Tyger and fished the logs on the first of an incoming tide - perfect conditions to ease along and pitch to the bank with jigs and live shrimp. Both anglers were making excellent casts and we worked the bank thoroughly, getting nibbles here and there, until Brent up with a good cast alongside a log and BAM! He had a hookup. I thought for sure it was some sort of Drum - a Red or a Black and boy was it putting up a fight. Brent played it perfectly and soon landed a 16" Tripletail! In my 16 years of guiding, this is only about the 7th or 8th Tripletail landed on the Anglers Mark. The size limit is 18" so we took a picture and released it.

We headed up to the Jolley River, all the way up to Snook Creek and turned into the current and fished the oyster beds back. Brent did find a feisty Redfish along there to catch. Switching to floats, Brandi got on the board with an ugly ol Toadfish, then a small Jack Crevalle catch. We moved back down the river and fished the "bank" and here Brent battled a nice Bonnethead Shark to the boat for pictures and release.

After moving around to the outside of Tyger we worked a bank - Brent with a jig rod on the bow and Brandi with a float rig off the stern. Brandi had mentioned that as a young girl she wanted to catch and/or eat Walleye but unfortunately we didn't find any off of Tyger. Brandi did however tangle with a good handful of Walleye-like Ladyfish! Then Brent had another strong bite and this fish began to rip the line off the spool, heading to Kings Bay. Brent followed it back to the stern and fought it until he had enough, then handed the rod off to Brandi to finish it off. I felt sure it wasn't a Shark, and it didn't "boil" like a Redfish so I wasn't sure what it was. But as Brandi wore it out we saw it was a huge Jack Crevalle - the biggest I've had on the Anglers Mark in the back waters of Amelia Island.

We then ran thru Tyger and around to the Bell. The sun was getting up and hot but we made a few casts to finish up. Brandi had placed her float between two grassy areas and we saw her float began to bob a couple of times and then disappeared. Brandi tightened up the line and let the circle hook do its thing and, Fish On! Brandi patiently worked it to the boat and landed a nice 18" Seatrout - Ceviche for the weekend!

After fishing one more spot on the outside of Tyger, we headed back to the dock and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.