Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Pulled Out a Amelia Island Back Country Slam

I fished north again today, meeting Scott Jones and his fishing team - Mathew and Andrew - up at the Old Town Bait and Tackle boat ramp. We eased down Eagans Creek and made our way over to the outside of Tyger Island to set up tossing float rigs with live shrimp on the first of an outgoing tide. These anglers had made a good handful of casts and only had some small nibbles and I was beginning to get a bit worried when I heard Scott's reel "rip" and when I turned around and saw his rod bent I knew we hand a nice fish on. Scott said later he thought it was a nice Redfish but after expertly playing it to the net we saw that it was a big 22.25" Seatrout, boy what a fish, and big enough to move him into first place in the Anglers Mark 2023 Bragging Rights Tournament-Seatrout Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings).  

Then Mathew had a strong hookup and this big fish was half way to Georgia before it slowed down!
Mathew stayed patient, worked it in, let it run, worked it in, let it run, but eventually wore it out and brought it to the boat -a 4' Bonnethead Shark which we photographed and released.

We crossed over the creek and fished a large drainage and here Scott put a couple of Slot sized Redfish in the boat and Mathew added another big Seatrout to the catch total. After running up and around Tyger, we tried our hand with some jigs and minnows at a run out, tangled with a couple of Ladyfish, and moved on. We then worked Jolley "bank" with the float rigs, battled the Ladyfish, and picked up another nice Trout.

On further up, at Snook Creek, Scott went in close to the shore with a float rig and hooked up and landed the biggest Redfish of the day, one that measured right at 22". Andrew woke up and brought a few Ladyfish to the net in quick succession, Scott fought and landed a Bonnethead, then Mathew had a "bump", set the hook and reeled in a Flounder to round round out their Amelia Island Back Country Slam of Seatrout, Redfish and Flounder. After fishing the MOA for just a bit, we headed back to the ramp and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

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