From Nursery to Primary School

 I fished with John Raker this morning, picking him up out at the Oyster Bay Marina early, then we headed down the Amelia River to fish some structure on a tide that had been going out for a few hours. John was tossing jigs and shrimp to some rocks and letting it slowly fall down the river bottom and the technique paid off when he started catching some small but feisty Redfish. Most were in the 16-17" range, or as John called them, "nursery fish". But he did get a couple that were just slightly in the Slot. 

We also had a big fish on, this one digging deep, ripping drag and staying close to the bottom - a fish that I thought surely was a Black Drum, but a couple of minutes in to the fight it just threw the hook, Ouch! Before we left that spot John also landed a Flounder on a slip float rig. 

We made our way back up the Amelia and eased in to behind Piney Island and fished some dock pilings on the last of the outgoing tide and here things really heated up. beginning with an excellent cast John had made under a gangway, Fish On!  After landing another Slot sized Red it was one fish after another - we counted at least 15, most smaller but another in the Slot range. 

When the tide turned we ran over to Tyger Island and fished the incoming there and although the tide was right, the wind was blowing right up the river and the shoreline was murckey with mud. John did manage to score an Amelia Island Back Country Slam when he hooked up and landed a feisty Black "puppy" Drum. The sun had been out all day, we hadn't had to deal with any wind to speak of, so as we headed back we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.