Tale of Two Halves

It was forecasted to be a nasty day and it didn't disappoint!  Overcast skies, sprinkling rain on occasion, and cooler temperatures greeted us at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp when I met Mark Averbuch and his fishing buddies Gerry Mathe and Paul Clark.  The good news was that the wind wasn't blowing so we made our way up the Nassau to make our first stop at a large drainage at Seymore's Pointe. We baited up live shrimp under fixed floats and got Mark out off the stern with his cast then Gerry out behind him. I was getting Paul set up and when I turned around I only saw one float - the other was missing!  Gerry started cranking and had the hookup and Fish On!  Gerry worked it to the boat expertly and landed a nice1 16.5" Flounder! Skunk off the boat!

What a great way to start a fishing trip but he excitement was short lived. All three anglers were getting good casts and good drifts but we had no real bites at that spot. We then ran thru Horsehead and over to Poteat Point and drifted floats there along the marsh grass, but to no avail We came back to Jackstaff "bank" and switched to jigs and live shrimp. Again, we were getting good casts but had no bites.

Back thru Horsehead we went and down to Nassauville where we fished between two docks. I had high hopes for Seatrout here, deep on the bottom, but after a dozen casts and no real bites I was beginning to worry. But perseverance paid off - Mark, fishing off the stern, found a "honey hole" and began to catch Seatrout, getting a bite on almost every cast.  He had figured out to slow his retrieve to almost zero, just taking up slack as the jig bounced along the bottom and when he felt the "tap", bam, he had a hookup. Paul picked up on the technique and began to put fish in the boat, then Gerry caught a few, too. All of these fish were in the 12-14" range but we did have one of keeper size (released). We probably could have stayed there and caught fish until we ran out of bait, but we moved on to seek bigger fish. 

After running way up the Nassau River we dipped into a creek and worked the bank with the jigs. I was expecting Redfish but I was beginning to think they were going to let me down. But Paul, casting to the "palm and pine" hooked up and Fish On!  He played it patiently and brought to the net a feisty Redfish. He went back to the same spot and BAM! Bigger fish on. This one was ripping drag, a sure sign it was in the Slot, and sure enough, after a good battle, Paul landed a nice 20" Slot Redfish. We worked further down the bank until we hit marsh grass and with a little time to kill, we dropped back to the Palm and Pine and this did the trick. All three anglers began to get Reds. A couple were right at 17+", and one was in the Slot  at 20", and a couple were small but "feisty".(all Reds were released today) It was a good "grande finale" - the first half of the trip had started slow but the 2nd half we had finished strong so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.