After a few days off, I was back fishing today with Garland Clark and his son Kris, meeting them down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp early this morning. We made a short run up the Nassau and pulled up at Spanish Drop and began fishing the edge with jigs and minnows and shrimp and finger mullet. Kris kicked it off pretty early when he battled a strong Jack Crevalle to the net for photo and release. After moving up to a large drainage and fishing the very first of an incoming tide and the action went wild!
Kris got hot hooking up with one Flounder after another - we counted 5 or 6 with a few of those being in the keeper 15" range. Garland added a small but feisty Redfish to the catch, then Kris landed one too. Kris added a small but feisty Black "puppy" Drum to the catch total. After making our way up to some docks and fishing the pilings, we had a nice keeper sized Mangrove Snapper caught.
After that we headed down to Broward Island and fished the first of an incoming there. Kris had a strong hookup that stayed on for a few seconds and after we eased down a bit we caught more fish: Another keeper sized Flounder (#4), a Slot 19" Redfish (released), and a keeper sized Mangrove. Stopping back by some docks at Nassauville in hopes of getting a few more Mangroves, Kris surprised us with a big bite. he played it perfectly and we were speculating "Redfish" but when it came to the surface we netted a big 20" Gator Trout! boy what a fish! Shortly after that Kris had a nother one of those tell-tell "thumps" - he worked it to the boat and landed a big 18" Flounder, keeper #5!
We finished the day over in Jackstaff working the bank with float rigs, then we headed back to the ramp counting it as another great day fishing the back waters of Amelia Island.
