Down To The Wire

 

We've got some wind kicking here at Amelia Island! When I spoke to Andew Perrin last evening I warned him that we'd be bucking the wind today if they wanted to give it a try. But he and his son Sam were willing to brave the wind so we met up at Old Town Bait and Tackle and after easing out of Eagans Creek we already had 15mph winds. We made our way over to Lanceford and to Soap Creek and fished a drainage with the winds at our back, tossing float rigs with live shrimp on a high tide that had reached it's peak. I don't think we had a nibble. 

We moved around the corner, fished a grassy island, then came back and fished between a couple of docks with the floats. We may have had a bobber go under a couple of times - it was hard to tell with the chop! After running thru that chop, back towards Fernandina, we turned down the intercoastal and made our way down the river to fish some structure with jigs down on the bottom. Here we did get some bites here and if we were keeping score, the fish won!  Sam did manage to put two nice keeper sized Mangrove Snapper in the boat.

After fishing back around Piney Island with only a few nibbles to show for it, we made our way back to Fernandina and found a somewhat sheltered spot out of the wind and went back to the float rigs with just short time to fish. Sam had made an excellent cast up near some rocks when his float disappeared - he tightened up and let the circle hook set and Fish On!  Sam played it expertly, battled it when it ran, and in a short while landed a nice 20" Slot Redfish. And only minutes later it was Andrew's turn to battle the big fish. His was ripping drag and digging down river then it would turn and head for the structure. Andrew would work it out, it'd go deep, then head back for the structure. Andrew stayed patient, worked it out and eventually landed an Oversized 27.5" Redfish, boy what a fish!  We photographed and tagged and released this fish, see Grey Fish Tag Research  and enter GFR62498 to follow.

To top things off, we were treated with a sighting of Manatees that came up in front of the boat!  With that, we headed back to the ramp and counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

Under Pressure

With a scheduled oyster roast and fish fry planned for the next day, neighbors, Chris O'connor, Brian Parent and myself ventured out Friday to try to add some fish to the pot. I had saved up a trout or two or three, a couple of Reds, and a a good handful of Mangrove Snapper but we needed just a bit more for the twenty or so people that were to stop by. 

I met Chris and Brian out at Goffinsville Park  on a tide that still had a couple of ours to hit high, so we eased around to the mouth of Pumpkin Hill and began to drift float rigs and live shrimp down the grass line. We all three were getting good drifts, up the by the grass, but we had no luck, not even a nibble. 

After running up the Nassau and dipping into a creek we switched to jigs and the live shrimp and began to slowly work the bank. About 10 casts into it Brian finally "knocked the skunk off" when he hooked up and expertly brought to the boat a feisty Redfish. We continued to work the bank and happened onto a "honey hole" - both Brian and Chris began to catch Redfish.  They each put a Slot Redfish in the boat and then we began to have to cull them. I counted 7 Slot Reds caught with the biggest being about 22".

In addition to one of those bigger Slot Reds caught, Chris also put a hard fighting Black "puppy" Drum in the boat.   One of the Slot's we caught we tagged with a Gray FishTag Researach tag, ID#  GFR62484 When the bite finally slowed, right at the peak of high tide, we made the run back to the Seymore's Pointe area.

Fishing a large drainage on the first of the outgoing tides with the float rigs, we began to catch Seatrout. Brian and I caught the "dinks" but Chris put a nice 17" keeper trout in the boat and then followed that up with a keeper sized puppy Drum.  

I noted that we fished 6 spots that day, but only two of them produced fish, but they were prolific, so as we headed back to the ramp, we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, F.lorida. 

Third Spot Pays Off

 Oh what a beautiful morning! If you've wondered where the reports have been, my two trips from last
week got canceled due to the high winds. But we were back at it today when I met Allen and Lavern Webb up at the Old Town Bait and Tackle boat ramp. The tide had been going out for about an hour so we made our way over to the outside of Tyger and set up to fish float rigs with live shrimp on that first of an outgoing tide.  Both anglers had nibbles here and there but no real takers.

After bumping across the creek we again fished the floats and they had some good bites then when Allen went in to a shallow pocket, BAM! This fish took it right off and began to rip a little bit of drag and, Fish ON!  Allen worked it patiently to the boat and landed a nice Slot sized Redfish. Skunk off the Boat!

We then ran up to the Jolley and fished the "bank" and no sooner had we trolled just a short bit both anglers began to get fish, one after the other - Redfish, Redfish, Redfish. Allen was tossing up current from the bow and getting fish as he float drifted over the exposed oysters while Lavern went long off of the stern and we found that her fish were biting at the end of her drift, and further out. They caught a good handful of the Reds and added one more Slot Redfish to the catch, and a couple of small Seatrout. One of those Reds that Lavern caught we tagged with a Gray Fish Tag, and I have recorded it here. It was the first fish that I have tagged for GrayFishTag and I plan to do more, but probably bigger fish. 

We fished a couple of spots further up the Jolly and found another couple of  Reds, then moved around to fish the MOA where Allen caught another Redfish on a jig and another Seatrout