Weeding Thru Rat Reds to Find the Slots

 With my boat trailer repaired I was back out at Goffinsville Park, meeting John Raker, Kenny King, and John's mother Betty early for a half day of Amelia Island back water fishing. We had bait - seven dozen live shrimp, about a dozen mud minnows, and I cast netted for about 4 dozen finger mullet - and we went thru all of it! After leaving the ramp we headed over to Horsehead, ran thru it, and around to Poteat Cut where we set up on a tide that had been going out for about 2 hours. Using float rigs, the trio of anglers drifted the bank and caught fish. Jacks and Ladyfish then rat Reds and more rat Reds. Then John had a strong hookup which he played expertly to the boat and landed a nice 19" Slot Redfish. Betty added the only Seatrout caught for the day.

We came back to Jackstaff and fished the "bank" and again caught a good handful of the smaller Reds. John added one more 19" Slot Red to the catch. After running back thru Horsehead and down the Nassau we set up off a large drainage and switched to jigs. Again, small Reds, then Kenny had a strong bite and, Fish On!  Kenny played it patiently, let the drag rip when needed, and slowly worked to the net a nice 22" Slot Red - they had their limit!

We fished over at Penney's Point with the float rigs thrown over the sandbar, to no avail, but as we worked around the corner and came to a shallow mud flat they began to get fish again, - those small Reds, but John hauled in another 19" Slot Red. We saw one big boil from a large Redfish, and saw 4-5 flounder go airborne chasing bait. It was a good way to wrap up another great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.