We Squeezed In a Trip Before The Front

 Looking at the weather forecast last night, it appeared that this morning we may get wet as we
launched...but when I got up this morning the rain chances had diminished. It did show the winds increasing late morning, so luckily we were able to squeeze in the trip before a big rain front came thru. 

I met Ron Oblen, his son Shawn, and Shawns "kids" Shane and Samantha up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp early and we made a quick run over to Eagans Creek to set up fishing some dock pilings on a tide that had been coming in about an hour and a half. We were fishing jigs and live shrimp and in just a few minutes, we were catching some feisty Redfish. Ron and grandson Shane  had good hookups and hauled in a handful of fish. We moved around to the other side the dock and caught a couple of more Reds, then Shawn hooked up and landed a Black "puppy" Drum. 

We then made a run down the Intercoastal, all the way down to
Seymore's Pointe, to fish some more dock pilings. These anglers had few nibbles before Ron hooked up an landed a hungry Seatrout. Our next stop was down at Nassauville, and again, Ron had the "hot" rod, landing a couple of Seatrout. 

We fished Pumpkin Hill then ran back thru Horsehead and fished float rigs up by the grass and there Shawn brought the GPK home with a Seatrout catch.  I was most impressed with young Samantha who persevered with the best casting of the bunch and although the fish didn't cooperate, she hung in there and fished to the last minute. The wind was up, the skies were overcast, but as we made the long run back to Dee Dee Bartels, we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

Cool and Clear For Trout and Redfish

 We fished out of Dee Dee Bartels Park today when I met Mark Averbuch and his son Cutler and grandson Harvey early this morning. It was still in the 30's but there were clear skies and the river was alike a lake. The tide still had a couple of hours of going to out to hit bottom so we made a long run up the Bell River to fish a deep bank with jigs and live shrimp. It didn't take long before Mark "knocked the skunk off" when he hooked up and landed a keeper sized Seatrout - and he was out deep. Then Cutler was fishing the outside of a dock and he too had a hard bite and a hookup - he landed another nice Seatrout. But it was Harvey who had the Redfish catch - after making a good cast to the pilings he felt the "bump", set the hook and Fish On! As you can see in the video, the fish was no match for Harvey who expertly brought it to the net. 

We another dock along there, to no avail, then made a run over into the Jolley where we fished the MOA on the last of the ougoing tide, then we continued on around to behind Tyger Island and fished deep with the jigs. Again, no real bites.

Our final stop was over at Eagans Creek where we set up current from a dock and here the action turned on. All three anglers caught Redfish - about 7-10 in all. We had a couple of breakoffs but these anglers went right back in there and picked up another one. The sun was up, the temperature was now up into the 50's and as we headed back we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.