Flatties and a Slam

 I wrapped my week up today fishing south after launching at Goffinsville and meeting John Raker and his fishing buddy Kenny early. We made a quick run over to Spanish Drop with plans to fish some exposed shell beds with jigs and live shrimp on a tide that still had an hour to hit bottom. Kenny "knocked the skunk off" with a nice Flounder catch and shortly after John added one that went in the box at 17".

We then made a short stop at Bubblegum Reef where we had another small Flounder to the boat, then we jumped over to some docks and fished the first of an incoming with the jigs. We were in the right place at the right time where Kenny made short work of bagging an Amelia Island Back Country Slam - he put a keeper sized Black "puppy" Drum in the boat then he added a keeper sized Seatrout.  We picked up a couple of more smaller Drum and then added to the box a good handful of Mangrove Snapper.

After moving around the corner we switched to float rigs to fish
some rocks and here the duo dueled with more Mangrove Snapper and almost reached their limit. Those Mangroves aren't real big(todays biggest was 12"), but you can keep 5 apiece and get some nice little fillets off for a fish fry or fish taco!

Our final stop was back at Spanish Drop, now fishing that incoming tide with float rigs. Kenny was on the stern and caught a hard fighting Jack Crevalle and a Ladyfish then John, fishing the bow, saw is float go slowly under. He tightened up the line, lifted his rod and let the circle hook set and, Fish On!  John played it patiently to the boat and landed another, even bigger, Flounder. After one more Ladyfish fight we called it a day and headed to the dock, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

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.