The Graff's were in town for a long week of relaxation and they took in an Amelia Island Back Country fishing trip the day after Labor Day. I had met Jim Graff and his wife Sarah and his daughter Casey down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp early this morning. The tide had just started out up at Nassauville so I made a bee-line for the "Spot". Maybe I should call it the MOA2? That might jinx it!
The trio of anglers set up with float rigs and live shrimp and began to toss their baits to the grass and were getting good drifts along the edge and it paid off. Almost immediately they were putting fish in the boat. They tangled with a couple of high flying Ladyfish then Casey "knocked the skunk off" with a feisty Redfish catch. Then her and Sarah doubled up, both with small but hard fighting Redfish.
But it was after Casey had made a long cast forward, got a good drift, and BAM! Float gone and drag ripping! You can always tell when it's a bigger fish because it doesn't come right to the boat, and it almost always "boils" up, and this one sure did. Casey kept the pressure on and played it perfectly and after a good battle, landed a nice Slot sized 24" Redfish, boy what a fish!
We caught a good handful of Reds there, and Jim added a hungry Seatrout,and of course the Ladyfish, then we moved on, making our way back down the Nassau River and over to Twin Creeks. Again, we had good action early on the float rigs. Casey and Sarah were drifting long and picked up a couple of more Ladyfish, a Jack, and a couple of Seatrout while Jim, on the bow, switched to a jig and shrimp and caught a couple of Redfish on the bottom. Then it was Sarah's turn for the big fish. She had tossed her float rig up near the bank and it sure enough, the good cast paid off. Down went her float and zing went her drag -big fish on! Sarah worked it to the boat expertly, battle thru a couple of deep runs, and landed another Slot sized 21" Redfish.
After moving down the river further Sarah caught a Flounder to round out an Amelia Island Back Country Slam while Jim stuck to catching Redfish. The sun was up and the bite was slowing and the Captain was getting hungry so we called it a day and as we headed back we counted it as another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.
