I was again down at Sawpit this morning, but a little bit later, which turned out to be a good thing and a not-so-good thing. I met Cheryl McBride with her two adult kids Rachel and Michael and we ran up the intercoastal, dipped into Jackstaff, and then into a creek and began tossing float rigs with live shrimp up near the grass and at run outs on a tide that had just started out. Michael got things going when he caught a couple of feisty Jack Crevalle, and then he put a keeper sized Seatrout in the boat.
We then moved around to Pompano Point and fished that outgoing tide. I was about to give up on the spot, and even mentioned the "4 minute rule" when the bite really turned on. Rachel had a strong hookup and, Fish On! She played the fish expertly and brought to the net a nice 21" Slot Redfish. But "Raging Redfish Rachel" wasn't finished! She had another hookup, fought it like a pro, and brought to the net another 22" Slot Redfish. While she was fighitng one of those Cheryl went north of a grassy point and BAM! A hookup. She patiently played a keeper sized Seatrout to the net. Both Cheryl and Michael battled 3' Bonnethead to the boat for photo's and release, then Michael had a good bite, hooked it up, and battled to the boat another Slot Redfish. The trio also caught a handful of Bluefish, Jacks, and Ladyfish while we were there. We thought Rachel had topped it off when she caught and landed here third (the boat's 4th) Slot Redfish but then Michael had something take his shrimp and all heck broke loose! This fish was ripping line and we felt comfortable it was a shark, and boy was it! It came out of the water and spun then ripped line, then came out of the water and spun, then ripped line as it circled the boat and jumped and twirled. At one time we thought it was coming in the boat! But eventually it dove under the boat and ran and popped the line, what a crazy battle!
We finished the morning over at Twin Creeks, still fishing the floats, but when we had no real bites we switched to a jig and shrimp and this paid off with a keeper sized Flounder that Cheryl reeled in. Boy was it hot now! We headed back to the ramp and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.
