What Started As a Slow Day

 ...turned out to be a Fish Catch'n day here at Amelia Island! I had met Darryl and Tanya Gainsford down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp early this morning. We ran briefly up the intercoastal but turned into the Back River to make the short cut thru to the Nassau River. Once there, we found a flooded shell bank to drift float rigs and mud minnows on the first of an outgoing tide. Both anglers began getting bites, but they weren't takers - the float would disappear, they'd tighten up, but not takers.  Finally, Tanya hooked up and landed a fat Seatrout and that seemed to open the gates. They tangled with Ladyfish, caught a couple of small Jack Crevalle, and landed a couple of feisty Redfish.

We moved up the river and fished another flooded shell bottom on that outgoing tide, and again tinkered with some small but fun-to-catch fish. After moving around the corner and as we were about to leave, Darryl had a good hookup - he played it perfectly and when we saw the huge maw of a Trout mouth, we new it was a good fish! Darryl worked it to the net and landed a 20.5" beautiful Seatrout. (all fish caught today were released).

After running back down the Nassau we set  up at Twin Creeks, still fishing with the floats. I don't think we got a bite on those floats but after we switched to jigs and the minnows Darryl had a nice "thump", set the hook, and landed a (big to me and Tanya) 18" Flounder. Tanya followed that up with a feisty Redfish catch.

That spot worked pretty good so we moved down just a 100 yards and fished another large drainage and here the duo got in to a mess of Flounder. Both Tanya and Darryl reeled in the flat fish and put 4 more keeper sized fish in the boat. Again, we moved down, fished thru a drainage, and along some exposed shell beds. Tanya caught another feisty Red, then was we neared the end of that shell bank Darryl had a strong hook up and, Big Fish On!  It rolled up near the bank which signified "big Red" - and rolled up a couple of more times during the battle. Darryl couldn't have played it any better, patiently working it to the boat and the net to land a 23" Slot sized Redfish. 

We fished one more stretch, picked up another small but feisty Redfish, then headed in, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.