Fish'n The Cul De Sacs

 It was a first for me, fishing Cul De Sacs today! I had met Laura (birthday girl) and Alex Winter out at Goffinsville Park early this morning. As I was waiting for them David Nease walked down and gave me a report from his fishing trip with his son yesterday - they had "wore out" the Seatrout! I assume David was fishing deep with "slip floats' and live shrimp.

We had a tide that was going out, still, for a couple of hours, so I thought that creek way up the Nassau would  be the trick. When we got up there it was severely low tide, contradicting my Garmin's forecast, btu we fished it anyway and it was Laura who "knocked the skunk off" when she hooked up and landed a feisty Redfish. Later, Alex followed that up with another small but feisty Redfish catch. We bumped bottom getting out of there! I thought we may have to get out and push and the water temperature was 61 degrees!

After running back down the Nassau we found a large drainage to fish with the jigs and live shrimp but we had not takes. We moved down to Spanish Drop and worked along the exposed shell bank and when Alex saw a "head wake", he tossed it forward and....Fish On! He played it patiently to the net and landed a ncie 21" Slot Redfish! The tide came to a standstill so we made a move, and boy was it a move! We ran up to Seymore's Pointe and fished some dock pilings on the first of an incoming tide with those jigs and shrimp. It didn't take long before this couple were putting fish in the boat. Lauren found a honey hole up in the Cul De Sacs and began to put Black "puppy" Drum in the boat, one after the other. Alex had a "nibble", set the hook, and Fish On! He worked it to the boat and landed a nice 17" Sheepshead - big enough to land him in 2nd Place in the Anglers Mark 2025 Bragging Rights Tournament-Sheepshead Category(scroll down the right side of this report for standings).

We stayed at that spot for another hour and caught those Drum. I had to keep count because they eventually hit their limit of 5 apiece. We tossed back another good handful of "keeper" sized Drum, but the neat thing was that as the tide got up they began to get Seatrout! The duo caught a good couple of handfuls of the Trout, with three of them being in the keeper size. Boy what a fishing trip! We had started slow but we "slayed' them late and it made for another great day to be fishing here at Amela Island, Florida. 

Flounder Skunk is Off

 I fished with the Averbuch boys today - "Poppa-Doc" Mark, his son Cutler and grandson Harvey, meeting
them down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp early. We made a short run up and over to the Nassau River and pulled up at Spanish Drop to begin tossing jigs and minnows and live shrimp to the drainage and shell bed. Mark had good luck early fishing off the stern - he tied in to a big Bonnethead Shark which we landed, photographed and released (All fish caught today were released).  He then picked upo a Gator Trout out deep - it measured 20 1/8", then he added a Jack Crevalle to his catch. 

These Averbuch fellows have had a drought on catching Flounder with me but today Cutler single handedly knocked that skunk off - he hooked up and landed a small Flounder. The trio added a handful of Catfish to the mix, another Jack, and when fished between two docks, Harvey put one of the biggest Croaker in the boat I've ever had. Cutler found his groove and caught and landed two more Flounder - one respectable at 18" and the other a doormat at 20", and he had another smaller flounder, too. Harvey expertly landed a bottom hugging Stingray before we moved on. 

After running thru Horsehead and to the mouth of Jackstaff we fished the "bank" where Mark battled a big fish - it took him deep, ripped some drag, but not like a shark - and after a good fight he landed a huge Jack Crevalle. We had caught a big variety of fish and some of them had some good size to them, so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

Trout'n

 I fished Friday running up to the annual Florida/Georgia football game - great weather for a great weekend!  I had met Brian Roach and his fishing buddy Jason down at Sawpit Creek. All week I had noted that the fish catching was really slow (non-existent) on the last of the incoming tide, which was what we had this day, so my "plan" was to run north up to a dock on the intercoastal and get there early before anyone beat us to it. Unfortunately, after the long run, there was a shore angler fishing off the dock in the "hole". Dang it. 

So ran back down the intercoastal and made it to Poteat Point and began to drift float rigs with live shrimp and luckily the Trout were biting. Brian got things started off and stayed hot catching a good handful of those "hungry" Seatrout, but we did get one that was of legal size. I noted that the water temperature was right at 74°. We moved over to Jackstaff and fished the "bank", working along it, and again picked up Seatrout. Jason got on the board, picking up a few Trout and a feisty Redfish. 

We then ran thru Horsehead and down to Pumpkin Hill to fish that last of the incoming tide. This hasn't worked too well during the first of the week but today it paid off. the duo stayed busy catching Trout, and a small Flounder for their Amelia Island  Backcountry Slam, and when we pulled up to the point and drifted the other side, I sensed a boredom with the Trout catching. Again, they weeded thru the shorts and picked up a keeper or two. After fishing the grass patch, we moved on.

Back to Seymore's Pointe to fish a large drainage. I can't remember if we got a Trout there but we had numerous "nibbles" that I felt sure were small Mangroves that won the battle (kinda like those mangy Dawgs did Saturday), and we moved on. Down the Nassau, stopping at Twin Creeks, we fished the two drainages. Both Brian and Jason were pitching to the "ripples" and it paid off with Trout catches. We may have added one more keeper sized fish here, and a couple of feisty Redfish

The final spot was at Spanish Drop, working the bank- More Trout, maybe another keeper (they ended the day with 5 keeper Trout, two were at 17") and another feisty Red or two. Brian battled a Bonnethead Shark to the boat before we headed back and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.