What Does a Pirate Call a Long Fish? GaaaaarrrrFish!

Although we expected a beautiful morning today, and although it was a bit overcast for most of it, the sun did win out and it turned out to be as expected, beautiful!  I had met Derek Wilson and his fishing buddy Tim down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp and we made a good run up the intercoastal, up the Back River, and around to Pumpkin Hill and set up with fixed floats drifting a shell bottom on the last of an incoming tide. And the plan paid off! Both anglers almost immediately began to get bites and catch fish- Seatrout. They were getting excellent casts and excellent drifts and caught a good handful of Trout with a couple of them being of keeper size. Tim had a weird bite, lifted his rod and, Fish On! We could tell by the bend in the rod that this fish was big - it made a flash when it saw the boat and began to pull drag. Tim was up for the challenge and kept the pressure on and after a couple of those runs, brought to the net a big 'ole GaaarrrFish! We photographed and released it.  

We bounced around that area hitting a few spots on the very last of high tide - had a few nibbles, but no real takers, so we moved on.

Our next stop was around at Seymore's Point, fishing a large out flow with the floats, but again, no real bites. We moved down the way and switched to jigs and fished deep- had a few nibbles, but no takers, so, we moved on. Around at Nassauville we stuck with the jigs and did pick up another Seatrout.

After making a run up the Nassau we dipped into a small creek and began working the bank as the tide started out with the jigs, fishing structure as we went. I was beginning to wonder if the run was all for naught when Derek had a hookup and Fish On! He played it expertly and brought to the net a nice feisty Redfish. From then on it was on fire for a good bit with a "double" hookup for good measure. Just about every fish measured right at 17.5-17.75", so none in the Slotm but fun to catch, nonetheless. We fished down to the last shrimp and finished with a Redfish and as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.