Tripletail Surprise

 

After a long weekend off with the Memorial Day holiday I was back at it today when I met Tom Jenkins with his son Braden and friend Steve, with his son Zach. We met early up at the Old Town Bait and Tackle boat ramp, eased out of Eagans Creek, and made our way over to the outside of Tyger on a tide that had been going out for about 2  hours. That first stop we drifted float rigs and live shrimp and did pick up a couple of small Seatrout.

We then motored on up the way and stopped briefly at a large drainage to toss jigs and mud minnows in hopes of a Flounder, but it was to no avail. Continuing on around to the Jolley, we worked the "Bank" with the float rigs and here Tom found a feisty Redfish (with 5 spots). They caught another small Trout or two and a couple of Croaker.

After running further up the Jolley, we made a stop at Snook Creek and here Braden finally woke up! He hooked and expertly played a nice keeper sized Seatrout to the net, battled a Ladyfish or two, and then battled a surprising Tripletail to the boat!

We continued on up the Jolley and fished an exposed oyster bank, now tossing jigs, and here Tom put another 5 spot Redfish in the boat, slightly undersized, but still fun to catch. With time running out, we hit one more spot, the MOA. Steve had made a good cast with the jig and live shrimp and when his hookuip began to rip some drag we knew it had some size. Steve played it perfectly and soon landed a nice 19.5" slot sized Redfish. Then Steve, fishing a bit deeper, had a good "thump" he played it patiently and brought to the net a big 22" Seatrout, a fish big enough to move him in to 2nd Place in the 2023 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament-Seatrout Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings).

Zach had been making excellent casts all day long and had a handful of small bites - he got to feel a good battle for just a bit before the fish finally broke off - it just wasn't to be (I wonder now if he had his lucky hat on?) The sun had shown most of the day, we had just a little bit of breeze and as we headed back we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.