We Got One Big One!

 

It looks like today may be the only day we get out this week (hopefully the winds die down later in the week - we'll see). This morning I meet Ed Birkett and his fishing partners Paul and Gary down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp. We had pushed the start time to 8am with plans to fish the first of an outgoing tide. After running up the intercoastal we dipped into Jackstaff then eased in to a creek and set up at large drainage. The trio of anglers began tossing float rigs and live shrimp to the mouth and I was encouraged when Ed hooked up fairly quickly and brought to the boat a hungry Seatrout. Shortly after that he had a strong bite that ripped drag - it did seem to "boil" a bit on the surface and we were thinking "Redfish" but as he battled it to the boat and we saw the downward "tug, tug, tug" we changed our guess to "Jack" and sure enough, that's what it was. Fun to catch, but we threw it back. All three anglers had some good bites but no real takers, so we moved on.

After running thru Horsehead we made a stop at Seymore's Pointe and tossed to an outflow and had good action. The Mangrove Snapper are still here!  All three anglers caught keeper fish - they worked thru the small ones but ended up with 6 keeper fish in the box. Our next stop, after running down the Nassau, was at Spanish Drop where we worked the bank with the floats. Both Paul and Ed had strong hookups with what turned out to be feisty Redfish -small but fun to catch. 

Back up the Nassau we went, around to Back River where we fished a stretch with the floats and here we had really good action. Gary was on the stern and caught a couple of the Reds, Ed was midship and caught a few of the Reds, Paul was at the bow and caught a good handful of the Reds. They were all just undersized until Paul had one of those drag ripping bites. He played it perfectly, following it down from the bow then he applied the pressure, worked it in, and landed a bulky 25.5" Slot Redfish, boy what a fish!

They caught a good handful of the Reds there, and a couple of Seatrout, and luckily, a small Ladyfish! We were running low on bait so we slicked it up and iced it down for the next stop. After running back down the Nassau we set up at another drainage, switched to jigs tipped with cut Ladyfish and worked the bottom. Gary got a Flounder right off the bat, then added another couple of Redfish to his catch total. Ed and Paul added a couple of Reds then we headed back to the ramp, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.