We had another gorgeous fishing day out on the water here at Amelia Island. I had met Bob Blalock and his fishing team made up of brother and sister-in-law Tom and Martha up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp early. We had a tide that had been coming in for a few hours and I wanted to fish some flooding oyster banks so we headed up to the Jolley River and turned into the "bank" to cast float rigs and live shrimp. We worked along that entire bank, the trio of anglers making excellent casts, and I don't think we had much more than a nibble, if that. Crazy.
I had passed a nice drainage on the outside of Tyger and had thought it would be a good day to fish it so we moved back around to it and switched to jigs on the bottom. That particular drainage didn't produce a fish but as we eased along the shore line, heading back to Fernandina, we began to pick up fish.
Bob "knocked the skunk off" and brought in a Seatrout then Martha, who had switched back float, had a strong hookup, and a after a good battle, successfully brought to the net a feisty Redfish. Tom had a "Tap", set the hook, and landed a keeper sized Seatrout(all fish caught today were released), then Bob followed that up with a keeper sized Flounder. We worked that shoreline all the way around to Tyger Creek - catching Ladyfish, a Jack Crevalle, another keeper sized Seatrout, a smaller Redfish. At one point we saw some wakes up in a drainage, beyond a grassy island. Tom put his float and live shrimp over into a pocket and sure enough, BAM! He had a hookup. Although we would liked to have a bigger fish, this one was just the right size to pull over a shell bar and through some grass! Tom landed a nice feisty Redfish.
We eventually ran thru Tyger and around to Bell and set up along a grassy point and fished the very(very) last of the incoming tide, which I believe shut down the fish bite. But we fished on, working along a grassy line. Bob saw a big wake move off from the grass and minutes later, after Martha had made a pinpoint cast to the spot, her float disappeared with a vengeance and her drag began to rip, Big Fish On! Bob and Tom got their line out of the water and soon we were out in the river battling the big fish. Martha was doing great, working the fish slowly to the boat, but alas, it made a sharp dive and, BAP, fish off! We felt comfortable the way it fought it was a Shark.
After hitting one more spot on the outside of Tyger we called it a day and counted it as another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.
