A Different Kind of Grande Slam

 I fished with the Sleeth brothers this morning, Brad and Jared, meeting them out at the Goffinsville Park boat ramp early. We had a tide that was still going out for a couple of hours so the "plan" was to motor down the Nassau, turn into the current at Spanish Drop, and fish back along the exposed oysters, tossing jigs and live shrimp and minnows. Brad was on the bow tossing the shrimp while Jared took up the stern tossing mud minnows and all told, they were about even on the "catch rate". 

Brad "knocked the skunk off" when he hooked up out deep, and after playing it perfectly, brought to the net a keeper sized Weakfish (Yellow Mouth Trout, Sand Trout). We worked along the bank and both anglers hauled in some small but feisty Redfish.  We also tangled with some Ladyfish and Jack Crevalle and a Catfish.. After moving up to a large drainage, we added another couple of small Reds and  a couple of hungry Seatrout (which made it an Amelia Island Back Country Slam).

 We then moved up to Twin Creeks and here we could see the bait getting busted and Jared zeroed in to a small pocket and pulled out a couple of keeper sized Flounder - we now had a Grande Slam! Working up the bank just a little bit further and it was Brad's turn for the big fish. He had a strong hookup and as the fish got out deeper it began to rip some drag. I was "negative Nellie", thinking it was just another big Catfish but when it flashed to the surface we saw that it was a nice Slot Redfish. Brad kept the pressure on, played it perfectly, and landed the 21" Slot Red.

We fished a dock at Seymores and pulled out one keeper sized Mangrove Snapper, then made our way down to Broward Island to catch the first of an incoming tide. Which was a waste - we didn't get a real bite. We then moved up to Pumpkin Hill and fished it thoroughly and had some good action catching small "Rat" Reds, and a handful of Seatrout. We had stayed busy with action for the most part so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.  

Captain Lawrence Piper is a fishing guide in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Florida and is a 

 US Coast Guard licensed charter boat operator