Boehm Lowers The Boom

Another beautiful day today!  I met Frank Boehm (B-O-E-H-M) and his fishing buddies Jack and Mark and Pat early up at Old Town Bait and Tackle and with a high tide that just started out, we made our way over to the outside of Tyger to fish float rigs with live shrimp. There was a bit of breeze coming from the NE but luckily it hadn't gotten too strong.  We had a couple of "takes" but no hook sets and I was beginning to worry that we missed our shot then Jack hooked up played to the net a feisty Redfish to knock the skunk off. He and Frank traded catches then Frank had a good bite, lifted his rod, and BOOM! Big Fish On!  We could tell it was big as the drag was ripping.  Frank fought it patiently as it went to the stern and under the boat and eventually brought to the net an oversized 28" Redfish, big enough to move in to first place in the 2024 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament- Redfish Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings). Boy what a fish!

And shortly after that Jack hooked up with another big fish. He played it perfectly and soon landed a nice "right in the slot" 23" Redfish.  He followed that up with another 18"+ Slot Red. We did pretty good there, adding a few more small but  feisty Reds. I think Mark might have had the biggest one on of all but this fish hadn't gotten big without reason - we were in three feet of water and it must have dug down into the oysters and BAP, fish off. Ouch.

We made a run down the river and up Lanceford, fished a grass patch to no avail, then moved even further down the river to fish some structure. The first "demo" cast with jig and shrimp produced a feisty Red, then all four anglers were catching fish - Redfish. After Pat and Mark had put fish in the boat, Frank "BOOM" Boehm had another strong fish. This one was big . Way big. It was digging deep and ripping drag and digging even deeper and....it was off! Dang it!  When Frank reeled up it hadn't broke off - the hook had bent! Crazy. 

Our last stop was back at Tyger fishing jigs and here Pat got hot with catching Seatrout down deep. Frank added one more Redfish before we called it a day, and as we headed back to the ramp we counted it a s another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.