Doormats and More

I was back to work today when I met John Raker and his mother Betty out at Goffinsville Park early – it was overcast, misting rain, and wind was predicted to reach 14mph before the end of the trip. But we were up for fishing so we headed across the river and drifted some float rigs with live shrimp and although it wasn’t “on fire”, John did pick up a feisty Redfish.

We went down the river to Twin Creeks and switched to jigs and worked the bottom, then we moved down to another drainage and fished it good, all to no avail. The water was muddy and I was thinking this might be a bust. But after we had turned into the outgoing current down at Spanish Drop and made a few pitches to the still submerged shell bank, John had a slight “bump” – he tightened down and set the hook and Big Fish On! John played it patiently as it dug deep up the river then got into the current and went down river. After a long battle on that size 1000 reel, John netted an Oversized 28.5” Redfish!

Our next stop was up at Nassauville, fishing some docks and I think it was first cast with the jig and
Betty had a strong bite. She worked it slowly to the boat – it was staying deep, and not making any runs and sure enough when it came to the surface we saw it was a massive Flounder. Betty kept that pressure on and brought it to the net – a monster 24.5” Flounder which blows the doors off the Anglers Mark 2026 Bragging Rights Tournaments Flounder category, boy what a fish. And only minutes later, John was up on the bow fishing a drainage and BAM! He had the same hookup. He worked it in slowly and boated a huge 21.5” Flounder and moved into 2^nd place in the Bragging Rights Tournament!

We fished down at Broward Island with the jigs on the last of an outgoing tide  - John found a good handful of Seatrout and a smaller Flounder while Betty found a Redfish hole off the stern – she put 5-6 in the boat, a couple were right at 17,5”. They ended the day with two keeper Trout for “Trout Tacos” and went home with some Bragging Rights, and as we headed back to the dock we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island.