Old Friends Fish Amelia

Friends Bill Lavery, Joe Harter and their long time buddy Tim fished with me on The Anglers Mark Friday morning.  We left the Atlantic Seafood dock in historic downtown Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island at around 7:30am and headed up Lanceford Creek to fish the dock pilings.  After only a cast or two Bill hooked up with a hard fighting Redfish and brought it expertly to the net - a Slot Red!  The anglers hooked up with 3-4 more Redfish and Tim reeled in a Puppy Drum before we left the area.  Outside of Tiger Island we caught a Seatrout and a number of Blues.  As we left the island we had a dolphin surfing our wake!  Tiger Island logs produced no bites so we headed in, counting it as another great day to be on the water.

First Fish Redfish

Shree Prasad and his son Neal were visiting Amelia Island for a few days and scheduled an Amelia Island back water fishing trip on The Anglers Mark this afternoon. We met at the Atlantic Seafood dock at 1pm and headed up to Lanceford Creek to get out of the westerly wind.  Shree and Neal hadn't fished much but they picked up the casting and fishing and catching rather quickly!  They were both bumping live shrimp on a jig up near the dock pilings and it wasn't long before Neal was fighting his first fish.  He played it perfectly and we soon netted a feisty Redfish.  He caught a few more, with two being in the Slot, and then his dad got in on the action and picked up a couple.  Neal added a few more Redfish to total 9 nice Redfish for this spot.  We later motored around to the Tiger logs and even though the wind was blowing us around, Shree stayed patient and picked up one more Redfish.  We took a short tour of Cumberland Island, saw some wild horses, toured Fort Clinch and Old Town, then headed in, counting it as another great day on Amelia Island waters!

Big Red First Cast

John Brayfield and his friend Paula were in from Illinois and took in an Amelia Island backcountry fishing trip this morning.  We had a wind out of the north west so we headed over to Lanceford Creek in hopes that the land mass would give us some protection, and it did.  I set John up with a jig rig on the last few hours of an incoming tide and after he had made his first cast I turned to get another rod ready and FISH ON!  The drag ripped out and the rod bent over as John played the big fish and after an extended battle we landed a 26 7/8" Slot Redfish, just under the size limit!  This put John in the lead in the Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament - Redfish category.  We snapped some pictures and released the beautiful big fish knowing that he had only an 1/8" to grow before he was oversized and illegal to harvest!  John continued to fish and picked up a few more Redfish with one more in the slot.   He also caught his very first Flounder.  Paula kept track of two bottom rigs I had out the stern of the boat and reeled in two feisty Sharks.  We hit a couple of more spots but the wind was really hampering us so we called it a day, another great one to be out on Amelia Island waters!

Sharks Are Moving In

Bruce Brown, his wife Nancy and their son Jeff fished with me this afternoon.  It was somewhat grey out today and the longer we fished the wind picked up, but these anglers were game and persevered throughout the day to catch a nice variety of fish.  We were also handicapped by not having in live shrimp - all the bait shops were out today. So we went with artificial grubs and flukes on jig heads and made the best of it.  At our first stop in Lanceford Creek we had no real bites so we ran to the logs of Tiger Island and fished the last of an outgoing tide.  We were getting some bites here and when we move in close to the island it wasn't long before Jeff had a strong hookup and a fish fight on his hands!  He played the fish perfectly and we soon landed a nice Redfish!  I did have some dead shrimp on the boat so I rigged up a couple of bottom rigs and the anglers began to pick up some fish, with Bruce bringing in a keeper sized Whiting.  Later Jeff caught a small, but aggressive Black Tip Shark and then picked up two Puppy Drum.  The resident Raccoon was back looking for a handout!  We made a run to Eagans Creek and fished most of the stretch from the mouth to the bridge and eventually ended up back at the mouth where Nancy hooked up with  a hungry Seatrout and Bruce pulled in the final fish of the day, a nice Puppy Drum.  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be out on Amelia Island waters!

Red, White and Blue and a Slam

Boy what a beautiful day!  Daniel Garcelon and his son Josh fished with me today and we met at the Atlantic Seafood dock at 8am this morning to fish the very last of an incoming tide and then the outgoing tide.  We made our way to just south of Rayonier (Temptation Cove) and although we had a few bites on our live shrimp under floats, we had no takers.  We moved around to south of the pipeline and here Josh began to get hot with his "catching"!  He picked up a few hungry Seatrout and some nice WHITE-ing.  We made a run to Lanceford Creek to fish some dock pilings and caught a couple of REDfish and a few more Trout, with one keeper sized.  We moved on down to Millie's Spot, had few bites but no takers, then made a run to the Tiger Island Logs.  Fishing was really good here.  These two anglers stayed busy catching Seatrout  and once in a while reeled in a BLUE.  Josh had made a good cast and was slowly retrieving his jig when his rod bent and...FISH ON!  He played the fish perfectly and after a good battle his dad netted a very nice 17" Flounder, which put's Josh on the board and in first place in my Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament - Flounder category and also nailed down an Amelia Island Back Country Slam!  We couldn't of asked for a better day and even had visits from a Raccoon, an Otter, and a Florida Wildlife Commission officer who checked us out and gave us an A+ in preparedness! We eventually wrapped it up and headed in, counting it as another great day to be out on Amelia Island waters!

Amelia Island Bachelor Party

Mau-En Lee had me set up 3 Amelia Island backwater boats to take he and his eight friends fishing today.   They are all visiting to help send off one of their friends who will be getting married soon.  We each had 3 in a boat an left the marina at 7:30 this morning.  I had Mau-En, Daniel, and "V" with me as we headed up into Lanceford Creek.  At our first spot I had the anglers tossing float rigs to a flooded grass patch but we had no takers.  We moved on to some dock pilings and this did the trick when V started it off by hooking up with a nice Redfish.  Then they all began to get hookups and we were able to stay at this spot for almost two hours.  Most were smaller but feisty and fun to catch while a few of them reached into the Slot and put up some really good battles.  Daniel added a nice18" Puppy Drum to the box.  We made a move around to the logs of Tiger Island where Mauen picked up another Red then all the anglers were catching Seatrout off of the bottom with jigs and shrimp.  This rounded out an Amelia Island Back Country Slam, but then Mau-En topped it off by reeling in a Flounder!  We also caught our first Bonnethead Shark of the year, a hungry 12" one!  It was a beautiful day, all sunshine, and a great one to be out on Amelia Island waters!

First Fish Big Fish

Chris Haines was in town with his friend Linda and took in an Amelia Island back country fishing trip on The Anglers Mark today.  We had postponed the trip from Wednesday when the wind was blowing to 25mph and boy am I glad we did!  We met at the Atlantic Seafood dock in downtown historic Fernandina Beach at 7:30am this morning and headed up to the Tiger inlet to fish a high but outgoing tide with live shrimp under floats.  We had no bites.  We moved to another grass line and had no bites. Ouch.  Our next stop was up in Jolley River with the oysters just beginning to peak.  Chris had tossed his float up near the grass and after it had been there for just a short while we both saw that the float began to move slowly along the grass.  Chris tightened his line and when the float went under, FISH ON!  He played the fish perfectly as the drag on his reel sang, letting the TFO Signature Series Rod do all the work.  After a nice battle Chris brought the fish to the net and we landed a nice Slot 25 1/2" Redfish!  This puts him in first place in the Anglers Mark Bragging Rights Tournament, Redfish category.  We hit a couple of spots in Jolley with no more real bites then made a run to the logs of Tiger Island.  Linda was the first to hookup with a hungry, keeper sized Seatrout.  We dropped an anchor and fished the area as the sun warmed us up and both anglers put a number fo Trout in the boat.  Our next stop was the docks of Lanceford Creek and we weren't disappointed.  Both Chris and Linda caught feisty Redfish and more Seatrout and once had a "double" hookup with Redfish.  Chris also landed a very fat 18" Seatrout (2nd place in the Braggin Rights Tourney)  We fished a few more areas during the day and landed more Trout at each stop then called it a day, another great one to be out on Amelia Island waters!

Trout Mania

I fished today with Charlie Mclaine who is visiting Amelia Island again with his wife, down from the Atlanta area.  We met at the Atlantic Seafood dock at 8am and headed up to Lanceford Creek to fish the very first of an incoming tide.  I had thought we'd pick up some Redfish around the docks but they were having none of our live shrimp on a jig.  I noted that the water was real muddy, probably churned up by the south east wind.  We did pick up four nice Trout out deep on the bottom.  We fished a few minutes near Oyster Bay then headed around to the logs of Tiger where we picked up two feisty Redfish then got into a mess of hungry Seatrout.  We commented that it was like "fishing for bream in a pond" because we found that we could literally lower our jig to the bottom and wait for the bite!  Charlie guestimated that we caught well over 30 Trout as we enjoyed the sunshine while fishing Amelia Island!

Not Ice Fishing, But Close!

Denn Evans and Marilyn Curran were visiting their daughter in Jax Beach and planned to take in an Amelia Island Back Country fishing trip on The Anglers Mark this past weekend.  Denn and Marilyn were visiting from Minnesota and mentioned that their local anglers were beginning to bring in their ice huts off the lakes back home.  We didn't need an ice hut Saturday but the cool temperatures and 15+mph winds made us seek shelter from the westerly winds.  At our first stop we had some bites early on the last of an incoming tide and it wasn't long before we had a strong hookup.  Denn played the fish perfectly and patiently and we soon netted a 24.5" Slot Redfish that puts him in first place of my 2013 Bragging Rights Tournament - Redfish category! (Scroll down right side of the Report for standings)  He continued to fish the spot with 1/4 oz jigs baited with live shrimp and picked up a few more feisty Redfish.  We had a couple of really nice fish take the bait and hook and keep going so they had to have had some size to them!  We made a move to a grass patch at the high tide and picked up another feisty Redfish, hit another spot with no luck, then came back to the shelter of an island to get out of the wind where we again confirmed it was a great day to be out on Amelia Island waters!

CCA Florida Boil and Brew

Carol and I had a great time at the Coastal Conservation Association Boil at the Brewery and Auction this past Friday night which was held at Intuition Ale on King Street in Jacksonville.  In addition to getting to sample some of the brewery's fine beer we had our fill of Low Country Boil!