Slam or Bragging Rights?

 I had to remind myself to look on the bright side this morning, knowing that there was no live shrimp to be had on or near the island. But I had my trolling motor back from the shop, I had some left over mud minnows,  I'd frozen some left over fresh shrimp from Friday, and I had a purchased pint of fiddler crabs...and the skies were clear, a beautiful sunrise awaited us, and the wind wasn't supposed to pick up until late morning!  I was meeting Ed Johnson, his old high school classmate Ken Coop, and angling buddy Don Smallwood out at Goffinsville Park. 

We made a short run down the Nassau to fish Spanish Drop, an exposed shell bed on the last of an outgoing tide. We worked that bank thoroughly, Ken tossing a jig with a mud minnow, Ed tossing a jig with fiddlers, and Don tossing a jig with "freshly frozen" shrimp. Not a bite. We moved up to a drainage and fished that but also to no avail. 

Our next stop was back at Nassaville, fishing Littlefield and although we had a nibble or two, we had no real bites. Back around Seymore's we fished a dock right at dead low, again, not a bite. We were getting skunked! But then we made the run down to Broward Island, still fishing the last of an outoing tide and as we worked the bank, Don, using the dead shrimp, hooked up deep with an almost legal Seatrout. We continued on, then moved up the island to fish the first of the incoming tide and again, Don had a hookup and landed an almost legal Flounder. He followed Ed in to one spot, right behind a stump, BAM! Another hookup. Don played it perfectly and brought to the boat his Amelia Island Back Country Slam, a feisty Redfish. 

The tide had been coming in for about an hour so we gambled and ran up into a creek, lifting the engine as we went in, and fished some downed logs. All three anglers were getting good casts to the 6' deep bend and finally it was Ken, still fishing the minnow, who had the hookup. This fish had some size - it ripped a bit of drag and came to the surface and thrashed, but Ken kept the pressure on and soon landed a big 19.5" Seatrout, big enough to kick off the 2023 Bragging Rights Seatrout Category (scroll down the right sid eof this report for details).  Although it had been a slow day, we had a slam and a "Braggable" fish, so as we headed back to the dock we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.