Recipe of the Month: Cornbread Salad

This is a great "side" for your fish fry...

(2) Premade 15oz pans of cornbread
(1) 8oz pre-chopped bell pepper combo container
(1) 8oz pre-chopped tomatoes container
1/3 of a 80z pre-chopped purple onion container
(1) Large cucumber, peeled and cubed
(8) large scoops of mayonnaise

Crumble the cornbread onto two cookie sheets and bake in oven at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on cornbread and remove from oven and turn crumbles to get a crispy browning. Let cool then add ingredients and stir thoroughly. Taste and add salt and pepper as you like. Cut these ingredients in half to make a smaller batch.

BOOM! FISH ON!

I had the pleasure of again hosting the Kesel family fishing this year - Russ and Denise and their two young anglers Noah and Sam.  We met yesterday morning at the Atlantic Seafood dock and headed up river to fish some dock pilings of Eagans Creek.  As I was getting the jig rods ready I handed one off to Russ who made a good cast up to the pilings and BOOM! FISH ON!  First Cast!  He played the big fish patiently and landed a nice Slot Redfish!  Boy what a way to start a fishing trip!  From then on it was a good 'ole fish catching time.  Noah was catching Slot Reds, Denise joined in on the action and then Sam had a strong hookup and the fight was on!  He and his dad worked the big fish around the stern, to deep water and back, and after a few deep runs, they brought to the net the biggest fish of the day, a 28 1/4" oversized Redfish!   All of the Kesel fish were photographed and released.  They also had a number of fat Snapper, a couple of black Puppy Drum and some Croaker.    We then hit another dock where Noah caught another Slot Redfish and then a very nice keeper sized Trout.  We fished Jolley River and had a few bites, then the outside of Tiger Island to wrap up another great day to be out on Amelia Island waters!

Anglers Persevere In Tough Conditions

The Conroy's  - Neil and his son, Lewis, and grandfather Bob fished with me Thursday afternoon.  The weather was actually pretty nice with some cloud cover but the wind had picked up to 10-15 mph and made it difficult to fish open water areas.  But these anglers were here to fish and persevered through the conditions to catch some fish.   We hit Jackstaff as our first stop, had a Ladyfish hookup and then Neil landed a hungry Seatrout.  The wind was rocking the boat so we made  a run to the sanctuary of Broward Island and fished the downed logs.  Here, Neil floated a lively mud minnow past a submerged log and when the float rig disappeared he had hookup, FISH ON!  He worked the nice Trout in to be photographed and released.   We ventured back out into the wind, fished the Twin Creek area of Nassau River and picked up a Jack Crevalle, two hungry Redfish and a Sea Bass.  The wind was again making fishing difficult so we ran over to the docks of Black Hammock, fished them, then wrapped up the trip back at Sawpit Creek.

4 Generations of Fishing

I got to fish with Kurt Freese and his family again they other day - he, his dad Clyde, his daughter Kara and his grandson Julian.  We met down at the Big Talbot Island boat ramp on Sawpit Creek Thursday morning and headed up the Nassau River to fish Bubblegum Reef with jigs and mud minnows on the first of an incoming tide.  Clyde got things started off, hooking up with an aggressive Croaker.  We ran around to Jackstaff and the fishing picked up with Julian hauling in a Ladyfish then he picked up the biggest Trout of the day. Kurt landed a couple of Trout and Kara landed a Jack Crevalle.  Then she had a really good fight with a large Jack that ripped the drag on her reel.  We fished the Nassau River Twin Creeks area where Clyde wrapped up the fishing action, picking up a nice Trout and another Jack.  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be out on Amelia Island waters!

Lady Anglers Lead All Categories

We had to let a late afternoon thunderstorm pass through yesterday but when it did we had clear skies for a beautiful few hours of fishing. Adam Garner, his son Ryan and Ryan's girlfriend Morgan met me at the Atlantic Seafood dock and after the storm we headed north to fish some dock pilings at Eagans Creek. We had numerous bites and caught Croaker, Snapper, small Trout and a Puppy Drum. Then Ryan hooked up with something big up near the pilings. He played the fish patiently working 'em away from the dock, and we soon landed a nice 20" Slot Reddish! We made a move to another dock, fished for a while then Morgan had a hookup, a head shaking
fight, and landed a nice 20" Seatrout. Minutes later she had another bite and this fish was big! Morgan took her time as the big fush went deep and from stern to bow and back to stern. After a 5 minute battle (and some unneeded coaching from the peanut gallery) she landed an oversized 29 1/2" BIG Red! We photographed and released the fish. Then Adam hooked up and he to landed an over sized Red. Then Morgan battled another to the net, this one measured 32 3/4", putting her in first place in The Anglers Mark 2013 Bragging Rights Tournament - Redfish category! Now, all three categories are led by the ladies! (scroll down right side of this report for standings). We moved on, fished a couple of more spots, landed 2 flounder to round out an Amelia Island back country slam, then headed in as the sun was setting,  counting it as another great day to be out on Amelia Island waters!

Shark Bit

John Massey had his son, John Allen and grandsons Jonathan and Joshua set up to fish with him The Anglers Mark. We headed up to the Jolley River to fish the incoming tide with the water creeping up on the oysters.  The anglers immediately began to get bites and hookups with hungry Croaker. Then, Allen hooked up (kinda!) and had a battle on his hands. The big fish circled the bow then headed to the stern and out to deeper water. We soon saw a nice sized shark....and then it was off!  Allen reeled up his line and found a half eaten Croaker! The shark wasn't hooked but had latched on and it was a tug of war that ended in a tie! Young Jonathan caught a hard fighting Puppy Drum while his Grandad reeled on a feisty Redfish.  Later, John also caught a angry Jack Crevalle.  The tide got up and we hit a few more spots with Jonathan catching a high flying Ladyfish. During the trip we saw dolphin, osprey, Rosette Spoonbills, a raccoon, and numerous bird life today in the backwaters of Amelia Island.

Family Tournament

Richard Fritz was visiting Amelia Island with his wife, son and father in law and planned an Amelia Island The Anglers Mark yesterday.  We met down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp back country fishing trip on
and headed up the Amelia River to fish the Horsehead area during the last few hours of a high and incoming tide.  The family had a small "tournament" going amongst themselves for the "first fish", "biggest fish", "most fish" and "last fish".   Although we had a beautiful morning with absolutely no wind we found that it was somewhat detrimental to our comfort and the fishing!  The bait fish were way up in the marsh and so were the fish and with no breeze it got rather warm, quickly!  But these anglers were determined to catch some fish and they did pickup a couple of hard fighting Ladyfish.  We fished the mouth of Jackstaff, Bubblegum Reef and then moved on down to the Spanish Drop area, and sure enough, when the tide started out we began to get a flurry of bites.  Young Amir hooked up with a couple of Ladyfish and helped reel in an angry Jack.  Richard landed a very nice keeper sized Trout and Ed reeled in another high-flying Ladyfish.  We did see a number of Dolphin rolling through the water and took a short tour of the Big Talbot shoreline to make it another great day to be out on Amelia Island waters!

Slot Reds And A Bunch of Trout

I had the pleasure of fishing with John and Andrew Allen again today who were visiting Amelia Island on their first leg of a vacation.  We met down at the Big Talbot Island Park boat ramp this morning at the peak of high tide and headed up to the Horsehead area to fish with some top water lures.  We had a few "spits" at the lures but no takers so we switched to float rigs and mud minnows as soon at the tide started out.  This did the trick and the anglers started picking up some fish.  They landed a number of Seatrout, a few Ladyfish and a Blue then John had a strong hook up and landed a nice Slot Redfish.  We eased along a bank flooded over the oysters and they picked up some more Trout along the way.  We made a run around to Nassau River and fished the Twin Creeks and again picked up Trout, a small Red, and a few Jack Crevalles.  Then Andrew had a slow take, patiently waited, then hooked up.  He played the fish perfectly and we soon netted a nice keeper sized Flounder.  He caught a 2nd Flounder later, too.  We made our last stop at Bubblegum Reef and landed one more Slot Redfish, then called it a day, another great one to be out on
Amelia Island waters!

Sisters Day Out

I fished with sisters Karen, Lynette and Mitzi yesterday evening, launching from the Atlantic Seafood dock during the last few hours of a high and incoming tide.  We made a stop on the outside of Tiger Island and Mitzi was the first to hookup, catching a hard fighting "poor man's Tarpon" - the Ladyfish.  Shortly after that Karen hooked up and had a good bend put in her rod.  She patiently played this big fish and eventually landed a very nice sized Bluefish.  We made a run around to the inside of Tiger, fished the flooded logs, then ran up to Jolley River to fish Snook Creek.  We'd had a number of bites but no takers but then Lynette had a good bite and she quietly reeled in a feisty Bonnethead Shark.  Our last stop was back at the outside of Tiger Island as the tide began to start out and things heated up.  The anglers picked up a couple of hungry Seatrout then Mitzi reeled in another Ladyfish to claim the coveted "Golden Pocket Knife".  With that, we called it a day, another great one to be out on Amelia Island waters.

Change of Strategy Makes the Day

We again had a beautiful morning today, somewhat cloudy, and a slight breeze to make it real comfortable to fish the Amelia Island back waters on The Anglers Mark.  I had met Rich Euler and his daughter's boyfriend Mike down at the City marina at 7am and we headed up to Jolley River to fish the outgoing tide.  The oysters were just showing as we pitched topwaters along the first stretch of marsh.  We had no real bites on the lures so we switched to jigs and shrimp and soon found that the "baitstealers" were gonna keep us busy!  We moved around to the MOA (Mother of All) spots and held off of the oysters, tossing are bait up current and dragging it back into deeper water.  Rich was the first to hookup and it was a good battle.  He played the fish perfectly and we soon netted a nice 18" Seatrout!  We picked up a hard fighting Puppy Drum then Mike had a hookup. This fish pulled hard and was shaking its head furiously but Mike kept the pressure on and he too netted a nice 20" Seatrout.  We picked up a few more Croaker then ran back to the mouth of Jolley to fish the now exposed oysters. We fattened up a number of Croaker but had no real bites. The water was muddy from the SW wind and no game fish were to be found.  So we decided to run around to Bell River and fish the dock pilings and sure enough the water was clear and just "looked" fishy!  BOOM!  FISH ON!  Mike had a hookup, a bent rod, and some drag ripping!  He played the fish patiently and soon brought to the boat a nice Slot 21" Redfish!    Shortly later he had another hookup and while he battled this Slot Red, Rich hooked up and his drag sizzled!  BIG FISH ON!  We landed Mikes fish then went to work on Rich's.  Rich was very patient with this fish as it made a number of deep and long runs but he kept the pressure on with his TFO Tactical Spinning Rod and after a long battle we landed a BIG 30 1/2" Redfish!  This fish put Rich in 2nd place in my Anglers Mark 2013 Bragging Rights Tournament - Redfish category. (Scroll down right side of this report for standings).    The big fish was photographed, revived and released.  We fished a few more docks then headed in, counting it as another great day to be out on Amelia Island waters!