Trout Makes The Slam

 I fished this morning with Eric Slavens, meeting him up at the Old Town Bait and Tackle ramp early. We
eased out of Eagans Creek and made our way over to the logs of Tyger Island to toss jigs and live shrimp on the first of an incoming tide. It wasn't long before Eric had a strong hookup and after playing the fish perfectly, he landed a nice feisty Redfish. We worked up and down the bank and Eric picked up two more of those Reds, and then we had an "almost legal" Flounder come to the net. 

We then made our way out and around Tyger and up to the Jolley River - running a good ways up in there to set up at a point of grass with the current splitting either side. Switching to floats made the difference. I think Eric's first and second drifts produced bites and on the third he had a hookup. I fought it patiently to the boat and landed a Seatrout to round out his Amelia Island Back Country Slam of Redfish, Flounder and Seatrout. We worked that point good and landed another handful of Trout, one of which was keeper size.

On down the river, just past Snook Creek, we turned into the current and worked back. We were casting in to the wind but when Eric got his float up near the grass he picked up a fish - more Trout and another of keeper size. After fishing Jolley "bank" for a stretch we realized that the tide had hit its peak and we weren't getting any bites. We ran back around to the outside of Tyger and caught the first of the outgoing tide there and this paid off with a few battles with some hard fighting Bluefish. 

It had been a beautiful day, we had stayed in the backwaters and had some action here and there so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

Remember When Someone Took YOU Fishing?

 Today Frontis Clark treated his 6yo granddaughter Briele to an Amelia Island backcountry fishing trip, and she brought along her own gear! We met out at Goffinsville Park boat ramp and made our way over to the Spanish Drop area of the Nassau River where we put out two Crab traps, baited with some Pogeys. Then we moved down the way and began fishing a large drainage with jigs and live shrimp. We picked up a nice Flounder right off, then a Jack Crevalle, and tangled with some high flying Ladyfish.

We moved back up the river and fished another drainage and drug in some "oyster fish" and another Jack before we headed over to some docks and pitched the pilings. Here, both Frontis and Briele hooked up and expertly landed some fairly nice sized Mangrove Snapper. We came around the corner and played cat and mouse with some bait stealers then we decided to go check our traps!

The first trap we checked "Trap 2) was absolutely loaded with Conch shells and their guests - some Hermit Crabs! There were probably 20 of them in the trap!  Then,. we moved up to the next trap (Trap 1) and eased it in. It was neat to see that in that short amount of time we had three huge Blue Crab caught.

We had introduced Briele to some bait -live shrimp and minnows and Pogeys, seen some wildlife-Roseate Spoonbills, Cranes, Egrets and Oyster Catchers and Porpoise, and we had caught some fish and Crabs so as we headed back we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.