Young and Old(er) Compete For Big Fish

 We were able to squeeze in a fishing trip yesterday morning before this bad weather came thru. I had
met Mark Averbuch, his son Cutler, and grandson Harvey down at Sawpit Creek early - there was absolutely no wind, but we did have some cloudy skies as we ran up the intercoastal, then up the Nassau to make our way to some docks at Seymore's Pointe. I was hoping for some Black "puppy" Drum on this first of an incoming tide, and they didn't disappoint!  "Poppa Doc" got hot early and hooked up and landed a nice keeper sized Drum, then a Seatrout chased his live shrimp on a jig. Then Harvey jumped in on the action and caught another keeper sized Drum. Cutler hauled in another hungry Seatrout, then the anglers tallied 3 more keeper sized Drum - they were very subtle nibbles, and these anglers had to be ready to SET!

We then made our way down to Broward Island and fished the first of the incoming there. Mark hooked up and landed a nice 18" Seatrout, then Harvey, tossing to the outside of a tree branch, had a strong take. That fish hit hard and started ripping drag heading south!  I knew it was a big one, and soon Harvey did too! But he played it perfectly, let it run when it wanted to, worked it in, and soon landed a big 25.5" Redfish. Boy what a fish!  We worked that bank in a couple of spots and picked up a couple of smaller Reds and moved on. 

Our next stop, after running way up the Nassau River, we worked a bank for about 75 yards. I was
beginning to think we may have made the run for nothing but then the trio began to get fish - Redfish! They took turns catching smaller "rat" Reds, but then every once in a while, they'd get a Slot 19" Red. There were multiple times we had "double hookups" and came close to triple hookups. At one point Mark had sole access to a gap up behind a stump and he took advantage of it, hooking up and reeling in multiple fish. But there was one that began ripping drag and ran up current - a big fish! Mark played it patiently and worked it to the boat to land a nice 26" Redfish to take Big Fish of the day honors.

I counted up that these anglers could have kept 5 Black Drum, one Seatrout and three Redfish but they elected to return all fish back except one for fish sandwiches!  The sun had actually peeked out a couple of times, it had never rained on us and we had good action most of the morning so as we headed back to the ramp, we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.