Christmas Came Early

 After a howling windy day yesterday, today was "picture perfect" - zero winds, and sunshine when I met William and Dara Blalock out at Goffinsivlle Park. The sun had just come up, the tide had started in about an hour earlier, so we made short run up the Nassau River to try our luck with jigs and live shrimp at Broward Island. These two anglers are always getting good casts and today was  no exception - they were tossing their jigs baited with live shrimp to the bank and letting that incoming current bounce the bati down the river bottom, and it paid off!  Dara hooked up off the stern and expertly reeled in a hungry Seatrout - the skunk was off!  We worked along the bank for a bit and picked up a handful of Trout, two of which were of keeper size. We moved down to the other end, fished under the Eagles, and picked up another Trout or two, and  one feisty Sheepshead.

Our next stop was way up the river where we found a small creek to dip into and work a shallow bank. Right off, Dara hooked up and landed the first Redfish of the day, then William went in behind a tree hanging over the creek and BAM! He hooked up, then Dara hooked up, we had a "double". They both landed Redfish. We worked along and had another Double hookup or two, then they landed a few Slot sized Reds, then we hit another spot where they put more feisty Reds in the boat It was worth the run  up there!

Back down at the mouth of Pumpkin Hill we switched to float rigs and drifted the bank, on each side of the point, but got not much more than a nibble. Back down the Nassau and around to Seymore's Pointe -we set up on a large drainage and drifted the floats. The tide was just trying to start out and it was slow for a bit, then the duo caught a few feisty Redfish. Then Dara had strong bite and this one was ripping drag. I was worried that it would dig down deep across a visible oyster bed in front of us but she worked it across and landed a bulky 23" Slot Red.  William got in on the action when he battled to the boat a keeper sized Black "puppy" Drum. We had made a cast and dropped the rod into a rod holder when William yelled "fish" - that rod was bent over and ripping drag. Dara scooped it up and battled another 23" Slot Red to the net. Boy what a beautiful day, and we topped it off with an early Christmas present of a box full of good eating fish, so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.