After a miserable slow bite yesterday I was back fishing south today, meeting Eddie Byrd and Bob Kossman down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp early. We made the run up the intercoastal, turned in to Jackstaff, and dipped into a side creek to fish a marsh edge with a tide that had been going out for about an hour and a half. The two anglers were tossing float rigs and live shrimp to the bank. Eddie had made an excellent cast up into a pocket and as his float drifted around a corner it disappeared. Eddie tightened the line up and let the circle hook do its job and Fish On! The fish fought for a little while up near the grass and we were thinking "surely Slot Redfish" but then it got out into a little deeper water, bulled down, and had its way for a while. It did boil up a time or two so we knew it was now a Redfish but the way it fought made us wonder, and sure enough, when Eddie brought it to the net, it was a 28.25" Oversized Redfish, but boy what a fish!
We continued to work along that bank and at a large drainage Bob hooked up and landed a keeper sized Flounder. We then motored (slowly) thru the marsh to the Nassau River and fished the eastern edge of Middle Marsh with jig, to no avail. We crossed over and fished Spanish Drop with float rigs but had no luck, but when we switched to jigs, BAM! We had a hookup and landed a feisty Redfish. Bob went back to the same spot and had a good, strong bite and, Big Fish On! I thought for sure it was going to be another big Redfish, but when it got out deep it dug down, and stayed down which led us to suspect a Shark. Sure enough, after a long and patient battle, Bob brought to the boat a 4' Bonnethead Shark, photographed and released.
Moving up to Seymore's Pointe we fished some docks and caught a good handful of Mangrove Snapper, a few which were of keeper size. Eddie battled a hard fighting Jack Crevalle to the boat, had something big enough to rip some drag that came off, then we moved on. After fishing some rocks at Seymore's with float rigs, and getting a couple of small Mangroves, we move down the way, and tangles with a couple of Ladyfish.
Our last stop was back at Twin Creeks, fishing at almost a dead low tide with jigs. Eddie caught and landed a hungry Seatrout and Bob added another big Ladyfish to the catch, then we headed back to the ramp and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.
