Slick As Ice

 That's how the water was today, not a ripple. And a whole lot of sunshine after the sun got up. I had met
Steve Locke and his fishing buddy Tony out at Goffinsville Park and after making a quick run down the Nassau we set up at Twin Creeks to fish float rigs with live shrimp on a tide that still had a couple of hours of coming in to do. Nibbles. That's all we got! Crazy.  So we made a run back up the Nassau to Pumpkin Hill and that did the trick. The duo almost immediately began to get bites and it was Steve who "knocked the skunk off"  - he had a strong bite  and it was ripping a bit of drag - Steve played it patiently and soon brought to the net a nice 17" Black "puppy" Drum. Tony battled a nice Jack to the boat and we had a few other bites. We then moved  up to a point and fished down the other side and like yesterday, this was the ticket. They caught a good handful of Seatrout, most of them right at 14", but Tony did hookup and land a keeper sized Weakfish. Steve put a nice keeper sized Whiting in the box, and a keeper Seatrout, so we had a good "mess" going. 

We moved down the river and fished around a grassy island where Steve battled a big Bonnethead Shark to the boat, then Tony hooked up and when his drag started ripping we knew it was a nice fish. He played it perfectly and brought to the net a nice 21" 10-Spot Redfish. This fish probably would have earned money in this weekend's AIGA Inshore Classic (CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO). They added another big 18" Seatrout to round out their "fish fry".

We fished back down the Nassau at Spanish Drop, hooked up with a couple of big fish, one turned out to be another Bonnethead, then we called it a day. The wind never did pick up and as we headed back to ther ramp on water slick as ice, we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

Baitfish Signals Good Bite

 There were tons of bait fish passing thru Sawpit when I launched this morning -finger mullet and some
small pogeys. I already had a baitwell full of live shrimp but I couldn't pass up tossing the net to supplement what we had and I'm glad we did!  I met Gregg Fitgerald and his mom Ginnie early and we ran up the intercoastal, up the Nassau, and pulled up at an exposed shell bed on a tide that still had a couple of more hours of going out. It wasn't long before both anglers were catching fish - feisty Redfish, one after the other. Gregg went out deep with couple of casts and picked up some hungry Seatrout. He also added a hard fighting Jack Crevalle to the catch total. 

We moved up a hundred yards and caught a couple more of the Reds, then Gregg hooked up and landed anice keeper sized Flounder. Then Ginnie followed that with one of her own, bigger, and caught on one of the finger mullet. Gregg had a good bump, set the hook and expertly landed a keeper sized Seatrout. We moved up another couple of hundred yards, caught another couple of Reds, one of which had zero spots!

The tide had slowed to a stop and so did the bite. We ran down to Nassauville and fished between two docks, to no avail, then we ran back down te Nassau, and then on thru Horsehead and over to Jackstaff "bank". Ginnie had the hot hand early and caught another few of those Redfish then she had one final hookup. She played it patiently and worked to the boat another nice keeper Flounder. We had had good action for most of the morning, had a few keepers in the box so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Isalnd, Florida.

Spotted Fish

 

We had another beautiful day today when I fished with "birthday boy"  Garland Clark. We met up at the Old Town Bait and Tackle boat ramp and made our way over to the outside of Tyger and began pitching jigs and minnows and live shrimp to the bank on an outgoing tide. I thought we had a big one on when Garland's drag ripped and the fish ran deeper - and it was kinda - Garland expertly played it and brought to the boat a hard fighting Jack Crevalle.  We had a number of good bites but no more takers so we moved around to fish Jolley "bank" with the jigs and here it got busier.

As we worked along the exposed oysters, pitching the jigs, Garland had multiple hookups and catches of feisty Redfish. They were all a dark copper color and most of them had multiple spots. One of the fish had 20 spots on it, a sure money winner in the AIGA's Inshore Classic spot category. We picked up a couple of  Seatrout, too, one of which was of keeper size. (All fish caught today were released).  

Moving on up to the river we fished JC's spot and  here we added another good handful of those Redfish and another Trout or two. We then bounced over to the MOA, fished it good, caught Redfish and Trout, then we moved on.  Our final stop was back at Tyger Island and as we were running we could see bait (pogeys) getting blown up. We pulled up, baited a float rig and tossed it out. In seconds Garland was hooked up. This was a big fish and was ripping some serious drag then it broke off and kept going..heading to Kings Bay! But we switched rods, baited up, and tossed another one out. And in seconds Garland was hooked up again,  He battled it expertly and soon landed a big Jack Crevalle.

We did make it around to Tyger logs, fished it with jigs, and added a keeper sized Flounder to round out an Amelia Island Back Country Slam, and then we headed back to ramp, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.