The Highlight Was The Tripletail

 

....or the hard fighting Jack Crevalle, or the Black Tip Shark, or the flurry of Flounder catches! The bite picked up as the day went along. I had met the Norton family - Robert and Katie and their "kids" Julia and Will - early, down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp. The tide still had a couple of hours of coming in so we made a quick stop at Twin Creeks and drifted float rigs with mud minnows with the incoming current. I wasn't expecting much but I thought for sure we'd get a few bites, but it wasn't much to brag about. Julia did tangle with a high flying Ladyfish which she released at the boat and then she battled a hard fighting Jack Crevalle to the net for photograph and release - all fish caught today were released.

We then made our way down to Pumpkin Hill and I was expecting big things. We did have a stronger west wind blowing than what it has lately - the breeze felt good but our floats didn't cooperate.  We had no real bites on that first stretch. We moved around the point and drifted down that edge and had a little bit of excitement when Greg hooked up with a strong bite. I saw it come out of the water and nailed the ID - a Black Tip Shark - about the 4th we've caught in that general area this week. Greg played it expertly and brought it in to the net for a photograph.  After fishing Broward Island on the last of that incoming tide with jigs and minnows, to no avail, we moved on. 

The tide had started out back at Seymore's Pointe so we headed over there and drifted a large drainage with the floats and had good action sparring with the Mangrove Snapper. The group out smarted a few of them but the biggest was around 8" - we have yet to get a "keeper" sized Mangrove this year. I was about ready to leave when Julia hooked up and when I saw the rod bent I was thinking, "finally, a keeper Mangrove" but when it flashed near the boat we saw that it was a Tripletail! What a treat! I checked my notes and the last time we had one caught on my boat was June 2023. 

Our next stop, after running thru Horsehead, was over at the mouth of Jackstaff, tossing jigs to a "cut" int he grass and here we had a good Flounder Catch Flurry. Will led the way, catching three of the four with the biggest measuring 15". He picked up another keeper and a smaller one while Gloria added the fourth with a Flounder catch of her own. The bite had picked up as the tide went out, the breeze had stayed with us most of the morning and so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.