Amorous Bald Eagle, One Legged Herons, and Redfish

 I probably sound like a broken record but the weather has been playing havoc in the fishing trips. But today ae decided to squeeze in a trip before the predicted 4-6" rains came thru. I met Tom Kretschmar and his son Sam down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp early and we made a beeline all the way around to Broward Island to take advantage of a tide that had been coming in for about an hour. The duo were tossing jigs and live shrimp at the first spot - we might have had a nibble, but no takers.

After moving down the island and turning into the current we began to work the bank slowly and this paid off. Tom knocked the skunk off when he hooked up and landed a sizable Whiting, then Sam had a strong bite battled to the boat a feisty Redfish.  Up above us was a pair of Bald Eagles getting "amorous" -  they had no shame!

They picked up another Red or two, then a Seatrout, then a Flounder to round out their Amelia Island backcountry slam. We then made a short run back to Nassauville and fished between two docks, again with the jigs and here Tom got hoy catching hungry Seatrout. After coming back to Pumpkin Hill we switched to float rigs and worked a flooding grass bank. Tom had a big one on for a bit but is as Sam who landed another Seatrout.

The tide was really getting up and rather than fish the grass we elected to run to the shelter of a creek and just a minute after we pulled up, Sam had a hookup. He played it expertly to the boat and landed a fat keeper sized Seatrout. We worked the entire bank, Tom on the bow and Sam at the stern. After Tom fished a small pocket Sam went in and Bam! Fish on! He brought it to the net and landed a feisty Red. He then followed that up with another. Again, sitting overhead we saw a Heron that looked like it only had one leg! Eventually it unfolded the other.

But the last pocket we hit was all Tom. He and Sam could go in side by side and the fish would eat
Tom's. He pulled out 4 Slot Reds and a couple of smaller Reds. And with that we called it a day, and as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.