Slam In The Box

 We had a beautiful Sunday morning when I met the Huffman group down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp-Jacob and his father Kevin and brother Gunner. We headed up the intercoastal and dipped into Jackstaff and then into a creek and set up fishing with float rigs and live shrimp. The anglers tangled with some small Ladyfish as I worked the bank, picked up a small Jack Crevalle, then Kevin, after making a nice cast to the grass line, had his float disappear. This fish was giving a weird fight and we should have known it - as it got to the boat it began to thrash and we saw it was a large Flounder. Kevin kept the pressure on and eased it to the net, and landed a nice 19.5" Flounder.- big enough to move Kevin in to third place in the 2022 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament-Flounder Category. (scroll down the right side of this report to see standings).

Then to top that, just another 30 feet down the bank, Kevin hooked up again and, Fish On! This fish was ripping drag and when it boiled up quick we knew it was a big Redfish. Kevin was working it in slowly and it made a couple of drag ripping runs but it was no match for Kevin as he patiently played it to the boat and landed a nice 23" Slot sized Redfish, boy what a fish1

We crossed over to the other side of Jackstaff and fished that stretch and picked up a couple of Seatrout, a couple of smaller feisty Redfish, then it was Jacob's turn to fight the big fish. His hit with a BAM and was off - heading east to England, but luckily the 10lb braid held and then we settled in for a long, long battle. This fish took Jacob from the stern, up the port side to the bow, around the trolling motor, back around the trolling motor, back to the stern, and back again. Jacob stayed with it and after a long battle landed a 4' Bonnethead Shark. Now that was a battle!

After running thru Horsehead we made our way down to Twin Creeks and fished those two drainages, again catching a few small Seatrout and Redfish and Jacks, then we moved up to Seymore's Pointe and lost the battle to Mangroves and Pinfish - they're getting sneakier! But Gunner added another fish to his "catch count" when he hooked up and expertly landed a Stingray.

Our final stop was down at Spanish Drop, fishing with mud minnows and shrimp. Both Jacob and Gunner caught some fat "almost legal" Seatrout and Kevin rounded out his "Slam in a box" when he hooked up and landed a legal Seatrout. The sun was up and it was getting hot but as we headed back we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.