Blowing Thru The Bait

The last couple of days of fishing we have blown thru dozens of mud minnows - and that's a good thing! Yesterday (Saturday) morning I had met the Jones family, Kim, Terry and Luke up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park and we headed north west, over towards Tiger.  We were running parallel with Capt. Brian Soucy, he on the inside, and sure enough, he pulled in to where my first stop was going to be!  Hah!  But it all worked out...we kept going and eased in to the Jolley River, dropped the trolling motor, and began to work the "bank".  It paid off.

In no time flat both Terry and Kim began to hookup with small but feisty Redfish, one after another. Luke was on the bow and was making excellent casts but was having no takers until, BOOM! Bigger fish on. Luke fought it from the bow to the stern, wore it out, and landed a nice 21" Slot Redfish. We continued to work that bank and caught umpteen fish - Redfish, Seatrout, Ladyfish,  and a lone Mangrove Snapper.  A bit down the way Luke had another big bite, and Fish On!  He worked it patiently to the boat and put another 23" Slot Red in the boat.

We fished Snook Creek and caught a few more Reds, saw Dolphin busting fishing, then worked around to the MOA where Terry tangled with a big Catfish.  Kim created some excitement when she hooked up and fought to the surface a nice Jack Crevalle.   We made one more stop at Tiger Island but the sun was up, it was getting hot, so we called it day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

Are They Biting?

That's what Joy Hasting's had asked last night as we finalized the details of us meeting this morning for a fishing trip. And boy were they!  Joy was celebrating her birthday with husband Steve, her brother Bob and his wife Cindy. I met them out at the Goffinsville Park boat ramp and we headed back down the Nassau to find a strip of exposed oysters. When the Ladyfish began to hit I was thinking we may need to move but then these excellent anglers began to hookup with Redfish, Seatrout, Flounder and Jacks. I rarely stay at one spot for more than 30 minutes but the fish were biting so why move? We tallied a couple of keeper sized Flounder and a keeper
sized Seatrout.

Eventually we did ease up the river and fish a runout, caught a few fish, then we headed down to Broward Island to finish the outgoing tide. We had good hookups, with Cindy putting a nice Slot Redfish in the boat.  But it sure was getting hot!  We made a run to cool off and stopped at Seymore's Pointe and tangled with some Mangrove Snapper, a few which were keeper sized.

Our final stop was back down the Nassau at Spanish Drop, now fishing an incoming tide, and the move paid off!  Cindy added another Slot Redfish and the biggest Flounder of he day!  All five of us were melting and with a nice bag of fish in the box, we headed in, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

Action Packed

Whooeee! Another beautiful morning here at Amelia Island, Florida!  I met Trip and Rona Huey down at the south end ramp early and we buzzed up the Nassau River and were fishing within 10 minutes at a nice runout with a whole bunch of birds hanging out!  We had a couple of dozen live shrimp and a few dozen mud minnows so we started with the shrimp on jigs, tossed to the runout and slowly worked back. It didn't take long and both anglers were hooking up with feisty Redfish, Seatrout, Flounder, Ladyfish,  and Jack Crevalle.

We eventually moved down the river and here Trip hooked up and battled a big Bonnethead Shark to the boat for pictures and release.  After the exhausting battle, we ran further up the Nassau and stopped to fish Broward Island. Again, we had some Redfish catches then Rona hooked up and her drag began to sing and she applied some pressure and BAP! Fish Off!  I could tell the leader was abraded so the fish must have gotten around a submerged log. Trip had the same thing happen to him, but then he had a strong hookup that came out from the bank, ripping drag - but Trip was ready and kept the pressure on and soon landed a nice 22" Slot Redfish.

We had a few keeper Flounder caught, a handful of Mangrove Snapper caught but boy did it get hot! So we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

Ladies Bring Home The Bacon

I'm back! After a down week of engine troubles (again), I was back fishing today, meeting the Bernot group - Chris and Marianna, and Mike and Katie.  We launched early at the Dee Dee Bartels Park boat ramp and made a quick trip over to Tiger Island to fish the very first of an incoming tide. I had both live shrimp and mud minnows to put on 1/8 oz jigs to be tossed up near the downed logs.  We had fairly good action early catching small but feisty Redfish and a couple of hard fighting Black "puppy" Drum.

After working the island we came back out and ran up to the Jolley River and fished the "bank"
and again, found some nice feisty Redfish. Mike landed a keeper sized Flounder then Marianna hooked up, close to the bank and when her drag ripped, I knew she had a nice fish. It flopped out of the water a time or two but she kept the pressure on and worked it patiently to the boat, landing a nice 20"+ Seatrout.  We worked down the bank, catching feisty Reds, Ladyfish, Mangrove Snapper, Grunts, Croaker, and Stringray...then it was Katie's turn to tangle with a big fish. She had just made an excellent cast to the edge of some oysters when BOOM! Big fish on!  Katie let the fish rip the drag, worked it to the boat, and landed a nice 22" Slot Redfish.  Chris finished that spot by landing a keeper sized Seatrout which we released to be caught another day.

The only downside to getting so many bites and fish was that we blew thru the bait! We came back to Eagans Creek to stock back up but it was closed, so we cast net for a few finger mullet then headed out again. Our first stop was up Bells River at a flooding marsh line and all four anglers tangled with high flying Ladyfish. After a brief stop up Lanceford Creek, we headed in, counting it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

Sea Sample

We had an outstandingly (is that a word?) beautiful day this morning when I met David Smith and his sons Wright and Michael down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp. After a brief safety orientation, we headed up Middle River and around to Pumkin Hill to set up outside some small grassy islands with the plan to pitchy float rigs and live shrimp. The three anglers weren't fishing ling before they were tangling with fish!

Between them, they landed some Bonnethead Shark, Jack Crevalle, Ladyfish, Seatrout and a Pin Fish. We eased around the corner and caught
more Ladyfish and Sharks. After trying our hand up in Christopher Creek where we had no real bites tossing jigs and shrimp, we came back out and made a stop at Seymore's Pointe. The Mangrover Snapper are back!  Although we had none of keeper size, it was good to see that they were there in numbers. We left 'em biting to try our hand elsewhere.

Our next stop was down at Spanish Drop where we picked up another Shark or two, David reeled a Flounder to the boat, and we also landed Stingray. It was a fun, action packed fishing trip here at Amelia Island, Florida.

A Biggun and a Bunch of Little Ones

Local resident Cindy Gray treated her two grandsons Alex and Henry to a morning of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. We met down at the south end ramp early and made a short run up the Nassau River to make our first stop at a large, twin run out. All three anglers were making excellent casts and we had a nibble here and there but no real takers until, BOOM! Cindy had a strong hook up and BIG FISH ON!  I was really surprised that Cindy fought the big fish so patiently - someone taught here well!  She played it perfectly on the Florida Fishing Products size 1000 Osprey reel, spooled with a 10lb braid. The big fish took her from one side of the boat to the other but she kept the pressure on and eventually landed a big 30"

Oversized Redfish. After a quick picture it was releases to swim off slowly to the deep.

Both Alex and Henry caught a couple of small but feisty Reds at that spot then we moved up the way and things really got heated here. Alex found the "hot spot" and picked up one Redfish after another.  We had set out a minnow trap and were getting low on bait so we ran up and picked up the trap, and added another 4 dozen minnows to the well, then kept going to fish a dock with some live crab the boys had netted while I was getting the minnow trap.  Although we didn't get any fish at the docks, Alex did have a strong hookup that broke off in the pilings.

The tide had started back in so we came back to the Spanish Drop area and fished an oyster bank and again, the fishing heated up. Alex hooked up and landed a nice 19" Seatrout then he rounded out his Amelia Island Back Country Slam when he hauled in a Flounder.  We left 'em biting and counted it as another great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

A Fun Day of Fishing

I came across these vintage reels the other day and it reminded me what the "Anglers Mark" is all about. These reels are not of any real value, other than the coolness of their design that takes you back to the 60's and 70's - times when we were growing up and getting out on a jon boat and doing some fishing.


This vintage automatic fly reel was manufactured by the Shakespeare Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.A. The Shakespeare NO. 1822, Model ED, OK AUTOMATIC fly rod reel offers silent winding, a chromed line protector, and will hold 80 yards "G" and 34 yards "D" line. According to Lures And Reels.com, This model was made in 1967.  What the heck is "G" and "D" line? Evidently fly lines were given an Alpha rating way back. Here's an article that explains the switch from the Alpha to numerical rating.

The Shakespeare Model 1810DK was designed to be used on spinning rods which hade either sliding reel seats, sliding rings, or fixed reel seats which were mounted behind the hand, and under the rod, in a similar position to that of a fly reel. The DK stamp indicates that it was produced in 1970.

Shakespeare's Model 1837 GB Tru-Art Automatic Fly Reel could hold 80 yards of "G" line and 35 yards of "D" line. The
Silent Tru-Art was made from the middle thirties till 1977. This reel was made in 1949.












 

The Shakespeare WonderCast Model 1795 DK

We Gambled On The Bait

With a beautiful  morning expected today, we
gambled that we could find some bait on the water rather than waiting on the bait shop to open so I met Bob and William Blalock out at the Goffinsville Park boat ramp earlier than usual.  As Bob and William were walking up I was able to get a dozen or so nice finger mullet in my cast net so we made a short run down the Nassau River and used a couple of cut up mullet in a minnow trap that we set out - then we went fishing!

The tide was still going out for another two hours but the oysters were well exposed and both anglers were making excellent casts to the bank ( as usual).  Bob "knocked the skunk off" with a feisty Redfish catch, then added another, then added a nice Flounder.  We worked a couple of banks and the duo caught one nice Slot Redfish and some small Seatrout.

We checked our minnow trap and had a couple of dozen mud minnows and also netted some more mullet so we had a stocked live well that would get us thru the day. We fished a small grassy island than ran parallel to the bank and I thought for sure we might get a Flounder  on the shallow side and William proved that true when he caught a small one. But the bigger fish were on the deeper side and when Bob had a strong hookup we were speculating what it was. Before it came to the surface Bob proclaimed it was a Trout and sure enough - he landed a nice 19" Seatrout.

We fished Broward Island and added one more keeper sized Flounder (all fish caught today were released) and one more Slot sized Redfish. Starting early was a treat and helped beat the heat for a great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

One Day to the Next

Yesterday we caught Slot Redfish and today we caught keeper sized Seatrout! After meeting Brett Johnston and  his sons Lyle and Jake down at the south end ramp, we made the run up thru Middle River and around to Pumpkin Hill to fish some flooding marsh on a high and still incoming tide. We did have some live shrimp today, something I haven't fished with in a while, plus some left over mud minnows.

It didn't take long before we were getting bites and we had a good flurry of catching. There were a couple of undersized Seatrout but we had a good handful of keeper sized Trout, the biggest being around 19".  Both Brett and Lyle hooked up with those Trout while Jake tangled with a hard fighting Shark.

We fished a number of spots as the tide hit the top, then fished the outgoing tide and logged in catches of Mangrove Snapper, Ladyfish and Bluefish.  Brett also put a keeper sized Flounder in the boat, fishing a jig and live shrimp. We had pretty good action early in the morning but things fell off as the heat got up. All in all, we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

Nothing But Slots

Now that the temperatures have dropped just a bit we've had some excellent days to be out fishing here at Amelia Island. That said, the fish catching has been a bit slow but if we "endeavor to persevere" we do catch some nice fish. Today, I had met Jeff Parks down at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp. We had clear skies and just a slight breeze as we ran up the Nassau River. We made our first stop at a large outflow near Seymore's Point and began fishing float rigs and live shrimp up near the grass. We had no real bites.  We then tried fishing some docks and rocks at Seymore's and again, no real bites.

We ran down to Pumpkin Hill and fished a grassy island and again, no real bites. Ouch. How could it be such a beautiful day and not have any bites? But Jeff persevered as we eased around a point of grass and began fishing some pockets and points over a shelly bottom and sure enough, BOOM! Nice fish on. Jeff worked it patiently to the boat and landed a nice 22" Slot Redfish. We continued on down that bank, fishing shallow on a high and outgoing tide. I didn't see it but I heard it - Jeff's drag ripping and, Big Fish On!  This one went out deep, ran back shallow then back out deep again. Jeff kept the pressure on and soon landed a bulky 26" Slot Red.

While we were in the area we ran down to Broward Island and fished some outflows with jigs and minnows. Although we did have a small Flounder latch on, we didn't get any to the boat. We made one more stop back at Spanish Drop and noted that the tide had dropped significantly -shell bank was showing- and as I eased along the bank Jeff had a good drift going and down his float went - another Slot Redfish!  Although the bite wasn't on fire, we had three nice fish which made for another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.