Two Big Trout Makes For an Engaging Fishing Trip

 Boy what a beautiful morning we had today!  I met Tatum Nolan and her NEW fiancé Victor Jelici down at Sawpit Creek early and we made our way around to Sawpit bridge with slip floats and live shrimp, to no avail. I have fished with Tatum and Victor a few times in the past but this time they announced that they were newly engaged!  We made our next stop at up Spanish Drop, fishing the exposed shell beds on a tide that still had a couple of hours of going out to hit bottom. We worked along that bank and could see some bait movement up along the edge, but we had no real bites.

After running up the river a bit we fished some dock pilings with jigs and live shrimp and here we finally "knocked the skunk off". Tatum reeled in a small but feisty Black "puppy" Drum then she went back to the same spot and BAM! -Right off, had a hookup. She played it expertly to the net and landed a big 20.25" Seatrout, boy what a fish! This fish moved Tatum into 3rd place in the 2024 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament-Seatrout Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings). We added one more fish, a Jack Crevalle, before we moved on.

Our next stop was up the Nassau, fishing between two docks. The duo added a small Flounder then it
was Victor's turn to battle the big fish. Had cast up shallow, let his bait fall down the river bottom, and in about 20' of water, Big Fish On!  Victor played it patiently and after a good battle landed another 20.25" Seatrout to tie his future spouse in that Bragging Rights Tournament!

We came back and fished Bubblegum Reef and caught a Mangrove Snapper, then made our way down to Broward Island to fish the very last of that outgoing tide. They had a flurry  of catching a small Seatrout, a small Flounder then Victor had a strong hookup. He fought it to the boat and landed Slot sized Redfish. 

We had had good weather, caught some fish, and celebrated a new engagement with a fishing trip, so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.