Pretty Good Species Count at Amelia Island

Redfish, Bonnethead Shark, Seatrout, Flounder, Mangrove Snapper, Black Sea Bass, and Silver Perch -
not bad if we were in a "species tournament"!  But the ones that counted were a couple of Slot Redfish, three keeper sized Seatrout and a Mangrove Snapper. I had met Eric Stevens and his friends Mike and Steven out at Goffinsville Park early this morning and our first stop was down at some docks fishing jigs and live shrimp on a tide that still had a couple of hours of going out to do. We fished it good, had a few bites, but no takers, which surprised me just a bit.

Our next stop was down at Spanish Drop, working exposed shell beds with jigs and the shrimp and even though all three anglers were making excellent casts, we had not takers, which worried me just a bit!  But after moving up the river we set  up outside a large drainage and in no time all three were catching fish. Steven hooked up off the stern and expertly played to the net a keeper sized Seatrout, then Eric and Mike were trading turns catching feisty Redfish, then Mike had a strong bite, one that ripped some drag, and he fought to the net the first Slot Red of the day. He followed that up with a battle with a Bonnethead Shark then shortly added another, bigger, Slot Redfish. Steven, fishing off the stern, found a keeper sized Seatrout out deep. 

After fishing one more stretch of shell beds we headed over to Seymore's Pointe and fished some dock pilings. Not much happening there but we did get some Mangrove Snapper and a small Sea Bass. We then made the run down to Broward and fished under the watchful eye of a Bald Eagle. I thought I saw him smirk as he flew off, we didn't get much of a bite, other than another Black Seabass. 

Our final stop was at Pumpkin Hill, drifting floats along the marsh line and here we had a good flurry of nice Seatrout catches. Steven got hot and put a couple more keepers in the boat, the biggest being right at 18".  And then Eric caught the sole Flou8nder of the day. We had beat the wind and had a couple of spots where we had good flurries of fish catching so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Flroida.