First Cast Jinx?

 Usually when our first cast of day catches a Slot Redfish I'm thinking "that's a good start". That's what happened this morning after I met John Fredericks and Dan Forsch up at the Old Town Bait and Tackle boat ramp and we hit our first spot - some dock pilings down the Amelia River. We were fishing on a tide that still had a few hours to go out, tossing jigs and live shrimp and first cast, BAM! Fish on!  Dan worked him out from behind a piling, played it perfectly and soon landed a 19" Slot Redfish!

But after that we fished and fished and had only nibbles from the "bait stealers'. After trying another dock we found anglers fishing from the dock so we moved on. Our next stop was way up Bell River, fishing a bend in the river and here the "first fish jinx" was off!  Both Dan and Robert caught Seatrout - a good handful of 14" fish but they also landed a couple of keepersize. We also had one or two "big" ones get off. They also caught a handful of smaller Black "puppy" Drum. We worked up and down that bend for a while, then moved. 

A brief stop at the MOA, with oysters exposed, and the tide low and still going out, but again, no luck.

Our final stop was around at Tyger, fishing the first of an incoming tide. Again, both anglers caught fish - feisty Reds, and then Dan put a nice 25" Slot in the boat. He also found what must have been a school of 10" Puppy Drum. We fished a downed tree - Dan had made an excellent cast, let it fall down by the limbs and BAM! Big Fish On!  Dan worked it patiently and when it came to the surface we saw it was a big Sheepshead and when netted it measured right at 20" - big enough to move in to First Place in the 2024 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament, Sheepshead Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings). 

We had gradually built up a nice box of fish so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.