Boy what a beautiful day we had! Sunshine, only a slight breeze, and just cool temperature to make it just right! I met Len Pelletier who had his son Scott and grandson Kevin with him to round out the fishing team. We left the Old Town Bait and Tackle boat ramp as the sun was coming up and made our way over and around to the back side of Tyger to fish the "logs" with jigs and live shrimp and mud minnows. Len and Scott were fishing the shrimp and got nibbles regularly and eventually hooked up and landed small "baitstealers" - small Mangroves, Pinfish, Grunts, and Perch, and a wayward Sea Bass. Kevin, fishing off the stern, stayed with the mud minnows. He wasn't getting near the bites but as we reached the north end of the island, BAM! He said it hit it hard, and Fish On! Kevin played it perfectly and battled to the boat a nice 22" 4-spot Slot Redfish!
We then made our way around and on up to the Jolley River and turned into the "bank" and worked back, tossing float rigs to the flooding marsh. They stayed with the same baits all day, Scott and Len fishing the shrimp, Kevin fishing the minnows. We may have a had nibble along that stretch but nothing too big until Len hooked up and landed a hard fighting Bonnethead Shark.
After running further up the river, just past Snook Creek, we turned again into the current and worked along the bank, and that paid off. Both Scott and Kevin caught a feisty Redfish, then Scott put two Seatrout in the boat, one of which was "having a bad day" - it had recent wounds from something trying to eat it!
Our next stop was back on the outside of Tyger, working the bank on the last of an incoming tide with the jigs. I was looking for Flounder but when Scott had a strong "take" and is drag began to rip I felt like we had something else. It didn't make a long run like a Shark but it didn't "boil" like a Redfish so we had to wait - Scott played it patiently and worked it slowly to the boat and when it surfaced we saw that it was a big Redfish! He brought it to the net and it measured right at 25". Just minutes later Scott had another good bite and after a brief battle he landed a.....juvenile....Cobia! Hah! We don't see them very often in the Back water!
We had a beautiful day to fish and caught some quality fish so as we headed back to the dock we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.
