It seemed we were catching fish this morning right from the start! I had met Mark Averbuch and Paul Clark down at Sawpit Creek early this morning and after a short run up the intracoastal, then up the Nassau, we made our first stop just north of Spanish Drop at a nice drainage that poured thru some oysters into fairly deep water (12'). We didn't have mud minnows today! Evidently there is a shortage, so I went with live shrimp and fortunately they were perfect sized mediums, and healthy! Although the bait stealers did cause some issues, not enough to curtail our fish catching! That first stop, within minutes, Paul had a strong bite and his rod bent and his drag ripped and Big Fish On! Paul played him perfectly as it ran from shore out, digging deep and...Mark hooked up with a big one - we had a Double! They both were doing and excellent job playing these big fish and....Paul's came off, dang it! That's twice in the last two trips we've had big Reds just come off and both times the anglers had that pressure on - they must have not been fully hooked. But Mark still had his own and this one cooperated and we eventually netted a nice 26.25" "tournament" Redfish. Paul came back and hooked up and landed a nice hungry Seatrout before we moved on.
Our next stop was back at Spanish Drop, fishing the very first of an incoming tide and boy did we catch some fish - they put one feisty Redfish in the boat after another. Paul had some good battles with a Jack Crevalle and a Bonnethead Shark while Mark reeled up a Flounder to round out their Amelia Island Back Country Slam. Our next stop was up at Seymore's Pointe fishing some dock pilings. Mark hooked and landed a Black Drum to make it a Grande Slam, then Paul had a good hard thump and hooked it up. He played it perfectly and worked in a big 18.25" Seatrout (all fish caught today were released). After they snagged a handful of small Mangrove Snapper, we moved on.
After running down to Broward Island and fishing one spot for a bit, we moved down a ways and fished a drainage and that did the trick. They caught a couple of feisty Redfish that were feeding on bait at the mouth of the drain, then as we moved down the island Paul had another strong take - we could tell, it was ripping drag and wasn't coming in! But Paul had other plans and he worked it to the boat expertly and soon landed a nice Slot sized 21" Redfish. We fished Pumpkin Hill with float rigs for a bit, but did I mention the wind? It had picked up to 14mph and was kicking us around and after Paul tangled with a couple of Ladyfish we decided to head back, but we had caught some good fish this morning and so as we headed back we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.
