Oversized One, Two and Three

 That was some wind we had the last two days. 20mph plus winds so I was off. Carol and I walked the dog downtown and then down to the Marina and boy was it ugly out there! But those winds dropped last night and this morning greeted us with only 3mph, sunny and cool temperatures in the high 40's, boy what a pretty day! I met Dick Conley and his crew, David Gray and Henry Ross, down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp early on a low and still outgoing tide. We eased around to the Sawpit bridge, anchored with the I=Pilot and David and Dick began drifting slip floats out the back baited up with live shrimp. They had a good number of drifts and did see some action - both hooked and landed legal sized Weakfish. (All fish caught today were released). Henry was  up on the bow tossing a DOA shrimp and picked up the loan Seatrout at that spot.

We then ran up the Intracoastal, up the Nassau and made our way to a drainage between two docks, where I thought it would be a sure thing to catch Seatrout. Dick and David were fishing jigs and live shrimp, Henry stayed with the DOA and...we didn't get a real bite. Ouch. We then ran down to Broward Island to fish it on the last of an outgoing. Here, we did get some action. All three anglers caught Seatrout tossing jigs or the DOA. Actually, the DOA produced pretty good. Throwing the shrimp though, David and Dick caught a feisty Redfish each. But then David had a strong bite, one that dug deep and ripped that drag. I must losing my touch - I didn't think it was going to be HUGE - "just" a nice Slot Red. But David proved me wrong. He worked it in patiently, brought it to the net, and landed an Oversized 30.75" Redfish. 

As we eased down the bank, drifting with the current, these three anglers put a good mess of Seatrout in the boat. There were a handful of keeper size, but we tossed them back. Then it was Dick's turn to battle the big fish. He had tossed up into a shadow, hooked up, and BAM! Big Fish On! Dick played it expertly - kept the pressure on, let it run, worked it in, let it run, worked it in, and eventually landed another Oversized Red that measured right at 28".  Boy what a fish!

We came back to fish a dock at Seymore's Pointe where Henry quickly put a Seatrout in the boat, but we were looking for Drum or Reds so we moved on. The final stop was at Spanish Drop, fishing some shell beds with the jigs and shrimp. Just when I thought the fish had had enough, Dick had made a coast up behind a shell bar and BAM!. There went the drag ripping again!  Another Big Fish on!  Dick battled it valiantly and soon worked in another Oversized Red, this one measuring in at 29". What a great way to wrap up a fishing trip! e had had beautiful weather and had put some big fish in the boat so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.