Perseverance and Hard Work Pay Off

 I fished with the Burke group today, Marvin and Nicholas and Mason, meeting them out at the Goffinsville Park boat ramp on a tide that had been going out for about an hour. We made a quick jump across the river to the corner of Back River and fished float rigs and live shrimp and minnows along a stretch of grass and I thought for sure we'd get a fish or two, but we got skunked. We did have a couple of nibbles but no takers.

We then ran down the Nassau and thru Horsehead and over to Pompano Point and set up with the floats and it was only minutes and this trio of anglers were hooking up. Marvin kicked it off when he hooked up and caught a hungry Seatrout, then Nicholas got in on the action and caught one, then both of them "doubled up" and caught Trout. Marvin added a small Catfish to the catch total before we moved on. The next stop was back behind us at Jackstaff where we worked the "bank".  Marvin caught and landed another, bigger, Catfish, then Nicholas had a strong hookup and, Fish On!  He stayed patient and worked it slowly to the boat, let it run when it needed to, ripping drag, but he kept the pressure on and eventually landed a keepers sized 19" Slot Redfish!

We worked along there and picked up a couple of small Reds, crossed over and fished a point with the

jigs, to no avail, then moved on. 

After running back thru Horsehead and down the Nassau to Spanish Drop we worked a bank and picked up a Red or two, then we moved up to a large drainage. Mason had been making good casts all day but he must have not worn his "Lucky Hat" because he had a couple of hookups but they threw the hook. I had been stressing "Optimism, Perseverance, and Positive Attitude" and it paid off - Mason finally had a good hookup and expertly brought to the boat a "just undersized" feisty Redfish, then he and Nicholas had a "double" hookup and both brought in a Redfish. Nickolas went to the outside of  (backside of?) of a partially submerged bar, had a "thump" and set the hook. We could tell it was a fish but it was  hanging heavy and sure enough, after patiently working it to the boat, we netted a nice 17" Flounder. 

Mason added a feisty Jack Crevalle to his catch total and Marvin added another Red or two to his then we headed back to the ramp and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.