After looking at the weather forecast last night, I was a little apprehensive about the chances of success fishing today. Temperatures were predicted to be in the mid 40's, which was OK with me, but wind predicted to be at 15mph which would make it challenging. But Bob Blalock and I were up for the challenge so we met up at Old Town Bait and Tackle boar tamp and made our way up the creek to fish some dock pilings on an outgoing tide that still had 2 hours to hit bottom.
It didn't take long fishing with jigs and live shrimp to begin to get bites. We had a good flurry of catches - small but feisty Redfish, and a Black "puppy" Drum. One of those Reds though, was in the Slot. All fish caught today were released. But then it was like a light switch was flipped and they turned off! So we moved down a couple of docks ,set up, and again caught fish, a handful of Reds and Drum. After about thirty minutes, with the tide almost at the bottom, we moved back to the original dock and BAM. BAM. BAM! Bob began to hook and land fish after fish. Redfish, Black Drum, and an occasional Seatrout. We kept an informal count of the Slots and we had at least 4 with one of them measuring right at 26.5", a "Tournament Red"! We tagged this fish and released it. It can be followed at Gray Fishtag Research GFR62478. One small Red that had 21 spots! Bob also had his limit(if he was keeping) of Black Drum.
We eventually made a run to some more structure, fished it with the jigs, and caught another handful of Reds and Trout. Our final stop was at the mouth of Eagans Creek, fishing the rocks, and although we had some nibblers we had no takers. S we eased back to the dock and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida
I fished with John Raker and his buddy John this morning. With the last of an outgoing tide, we decided to fish some dock pilings up Eagans Creek and bow was it some hot fishing for a little over an hour! We were tossing live shrimp on a jig and it was one fish right after the other. John had kicked it off with a keeper Seatrout catch then it was Redfish, Redfish, Redfish and more Redfish. Most of them were smaller "feisty" Redfish, but we did end up with five in the Slot.
When things finally slowed we made the run over to Tyger Island and fished the logs with the jigs. John put a feisty red in the boat, they added another keeper sized Black Drum, then Robert had a "bump" up near a downed cedar and , Fish On! Robert fought it up from the depths and brought to the net a nice 16" Sheepshead, big enough to move into a tie for First Place in the 2023 Bragging Rights Tournament-Sheepshead Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings) And minutes later John hooked up and put a 13.5" Sheepshead in the boat to take 3rd place in the tournament! After Robert landed another feisty Black "puppy" Drum, we moved on.
Our next stop was up in the Jolley River where we switched to float rigs and the live shrimp. Although we had a few nibbles we had no real bites, which was a bit disappointing - it was such a pretty morning! But we finished the day around on the outside of Tyger, switching back to jigs, and it paid off. Both John and Robert started out catching hungry Seatrout then they both had strong bites. John's tossed the hook but Roberts stayed on. He played it perfectly and brought to the net the3 biggest Slot Red of the day(#6). Then John had a weird "thump" - he let him have it, then set the hook, played it patiently, and brought to the net a nice 17" Flounder to round out the duo's "Super Grande Slam" of Redfish, Seatrout, Black Drum. Sheepshead and Flounder. Robert wrapped things up with one more Slot Red catch -number seven for the day! Note we tagged this last slot redfish, see Gray FishTag Research GFR62477
And with that, we called it a day and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida
