Getting Away From It All Today

 

Fishing north again today, I flipped a coin this morning - fish the docks up Lanceford or stay away from civilization. Heads one and after I picked up Craig and Paula Rutledge and their friend Brent, we headed over to fish the backside of Tyger on the first of an incoming tide. The trio of anglers were tossing jigs and live shrimp, letting it fall in the deep water, and retrieving it slowly. They were getting good casts but all we got were "nibbles", here and there. 

The sun was up and we had clear skies and a nice little breeze as we came out of Tyger and rounded around to the Jolley River where we set up fishing the "bank". Craig "knocked the skunk off" when he boated a small flounder then he hooked up and gallantly battled what I believe was a shark, but eventually it tired of playing with us, broke off, and went on it's way. He then had a good bite on his jig, up near the oyster banks, and Fish ON!  Craig played it expertly and soon landed a nice 21" Slot Redfish. Paula, fishing from the stern, had seen a swirl up near the bank, made her cast just to the side, let it sit and when her line tightened she set the hook and, Fish On! She patiently brought it to the boat and landed a beautiful Seatrout. 

We ran further up the river and fished Snook Creek thoroughly, to no avail. Our next stop was back around
at Tyger, now fishing the outside with float rigs and here Craig and Brent tangled with the high flying "poor mans Tarpon" - Ladyfish. Paula added another Seatrout catch to the board, then we moved on, stopping at a flooding point up Bell River, briefly, then we moved on.

Our final stop was up Lanceford Creek, then into Soap where we fished a flooded shell/grass island with float rigs. Craig had a float drifting between the island and the marsh and as the float slipped under Craig tightened up his line, lifted the rod and let the circle hook set and had another good fish on. He played it perfectly - I thought it was a small Red, but when brought it to the surface and to the net we saw that it was another 21" Slot sized Redfish, which made for a good way to wrap up a great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

Wind? What Wind?

 Yesterday was a beautiful morning with that front of storms bringing in clear and colder weather. But thewind was forecasted to begin at 8mph and increasing to 16mph so we made a plan and stuck with it, and it paid off!  I had met Todd Johnson and his longtime friend Todd "Raleigh" Durham up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp early on a tide that was low but still going out. We skipped around to Eagans Creek and set up current from some dock pilings. Todd had gone up under a floating dock with his jig and live shrimp and we both saw his line start moving towards shore. Todd tightened up and gave his rod a firm "hookset" and, Big Fish On!  He played it patiently and soon brought to the boat a big, multi-spotted Slot Redfish - a great way to start the day. We picked up a couple of more smaller Reds there then Raleigh hooked up and landed a keeper sized Seatrout. 

After moving up a dock or two the two anglers got busy catching fish. We were out of the wind and it really made for a good day for two old friends to get together and catch up. Raleigh seemed to be tuned in to the Seatrout bite while  Todd stayed with the Redfish. They added a couple of more keeper fish to the box. They also caught a handful of small Sheepshead.

As we headed out and got into the river we could tell that the wind forecast was right! I had decided to head south to get out of the wind down at Seymores Pointe but we made a "pit" stop along the way, fished some rocks, and got into some fish! Raleigh found a "honey hole" and caught one Trout after another. Todd picked up a couple of Reds and a couple of Trout, before we moved on. 

We made it down to Seymore's Pointe, again out of the wind. The duo picked up a couple of more Trout and a keeper sized Sheepshead. We moved around to the Nassauville rocks, fished Littlefield Creek, and again, a couple of more Seatrout were caught. As we headed back north, bucking the WNW wind, we knew that it had been a great day for two old old friends to get together and fish here at Amelia Island, Florida.