Breakout Day

 The way the bite has been non-existent lately I was even more worried when I stepped out this morning
and saw an almost full moon. But I've been thinking that the bite has to turn sooner or later and why not today? When I met Steve Locke and his fishing buddies Jason and Todd out at Goffinsville Park I did give them the sad news of poor fishing lately, but they ignored it, thankfully! We made our first run down the Nassau and pulled up at some structure on a tide that had been coming in for about an hour and we went with jigs and live shrimp and minnows.

Todd was new to the boat but he didn't waste any time - he hooked up with a hard fighting fish and expertly landed a Slot Redfish. Steve hooked and landed a keeper sized Seatrout and Jason added a
feisty Redfish to the catch. Then it was Todd's turn again - he said it was "just a nibble" but when that drag started ripping he knew it was a Big Fish. That fish dug deep and headed south - Todd followed it to the stern of the boat keeping that pressure on it - he went from starboard to port and back again, working it up as it dug deep time and again. Finally, after a good battle, Todd brought to the net a nice 26" Slot Redfish, boy what a fish! We fished that stretch for a while, picking up another couple of smaller Reds, then we moved on.

Our next stop was way up the Nassau, where we pulled  into a small creek and worked the bank. We got a couple of small Reds then Jason hooked up and expertly battled a nice 5 spot Slot Red to the net. Steve then had the big battle - he was working in smaller confines as his fish ripped drag-I was worried that it would surely find a log to wrap itself, but Steve kept that pressure on and worked it out away from the bank and soon landed a fat 25" Slot Redfish, another big fish for the day!

Our final stop was back down at Seymore's Pointe as the tide was ebbing, fishing floats. All was quite until a strike almost snatched the rod out of Todd's hands. It ripped some drag a bit and I was thinking "small Redfish" but as he brought it to the boat we saw that it was a big Seatrout, one that measured right at 20.5",and with the new regulations, had to go back. But it was big enough to move Todd into first place in the 2026 Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament-Seatrout Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings). After a few weeks of poor fishing, we had caught some quality fish today so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

Eventful and Productive

 

What a great day! After meeting Roger and Tina Pickett down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp early this morning we headed up the intracoastal with dolphins rolling off to our port. Our first stop was up at Poteat Point and first cast produced a fish - Tina was on the rod to "knock the skunk off" when she expertly battled a big Jack Crevalle to the net. Both anglers got busy caching fish - more Jacks, a Ladyfish, a Seatrout and a couple of Redfish, one of which was in the Slot (all fish caught today were released). While we were fishing Tina heard a noise behind us and when we checked it out we saw a few Manatee surfacing not far off. 

We ran thru Horsehead and down to Back River and fished the outgoing tide and here they picked up a couple more Redfish. It seemed every Red that Roger caught had multiple spots with one having 16 - a sure money winner in any Spot Tournament.  We crossed the river and fished a stretch of grass and here Tina hooked up with one more Red. Around the corner we fished across a sandbar and finally got "skunked", but as I was going to lift the trolling motor to leave a Tripletail drifted right back to us - kinda cool to see.

We fished Littlefield with jigs for just a bit, then went around to Seymore's Point and fished some dock pilings where Roger nabbed another keeper sized Trout, then we made our way down to Spanish Drop. The duo added another Redfish to the catch total, then Roger wrapped things up nicely with a keeper sized Flounder, caught on a mud minnow. We had a good day of fishing, had seen some neat wildlife and so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.