Jacks Galore and Tasty Mangroves

 

It had to be the prettiest day in a long time that we've had here at Amelia Island - clear skies, sunshine, only a slight breeze, and temperatures below 70 when I met Tim and Laura Wolfe down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp. The tide was high and coming in, so we made quick run over to the intercoastal and up the Back River and around to Pumpkin Hill where we set up to drift float rigs and live shrimp. Both anglers were getting good casts and good drifts and even though we had a bite or two, we had no real takers. I keep waiting for this spot to turn on, but it wasn't today. We fished the point and had not takers, but as I used the trolling motor to take us down to a grassy island, we could see fish feeding on the surface.

I eased the bow around into the current and Tim put his bait up above the commotion and within seconds he was on, and boy was it ripping some drag!  He fought it from the bow, followed it to the stern, then battled it from around the engine, eventually to land a nice hard fighting Jack Crevalle. For a good while there the fishing were boiling on the surface and we could see the Jacks backs as they raced thru the water and it was a good time as both Laura and Tim hooked up and caught the Jacks.

We then ran around to Seymore's and fished a pointe on the first of an outgoing tide, then ran thru Horsehead and fished a creek off of Jackstaff with the floats, to no avail, then back thru Horesehead we came.

Our final stop was between two docks at Nassauville and here, like yesterday, the Mangrove Snapper were hanging out. You had to be within a foot or two of the rocks with your float, but they'd bite almost immediately. Laura got hot fishing off the stern (the tide was STILL) coming in here) and she hooked up and landed some nice keeper sized fish. Tim was on the bow and caught a couple of smaller Mangroves until he switched back to the jig then he too was getting keepers. It didn't take long before they had their limit of 5 apiece and then we caught some more, culling smaller ones and keeping the bigger ones.

We had a nice fish in the live well, it had been a beautiful day, so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.