Fall Fishing and Football!

I've had a few customer's ask me when the best time to visit Amelia Island. For me, the answer has to be Fall. As the weather and water begin to cool off it seems the fish bite picks up and it' much more pleasant to be out on the water. If your favorite team is playing that afternoon or the next day, that's icing on the cake! I fished yesterday, leaving the dock around 7:30am. The air was cool, but nice and there was only a slight breeze. There was a high tide (6.97') expected at 8:45am so I checked a couple of my usually spots that tend to have some tailing reds show up, but there were none to be found. I eased up to a grass flat that I've never fished and was there only a minute or two and saw a tail pop up. It wasn't within casting distance from the boat so I lowered a river anchor over the side, grabbed my flyrod and a couple of spare flies and stepped off into the grass. I inched closer to the tail and made numerous casts but the fish wouldn't eat and eventually disappeared. Luckily, there was another tail flopping around about 50 feet away so I slowly worked my way in that direction. Again, the fish wouldn't eat my fly (a shrimp pattern) so I switched to a Dupree Spoon Fly. That didn't work either. I eventually got a little too impatient and nailed the fish with a cast - whoosh - he was gone! With no more tails showing I went back to the boat. It was already full high tide, but I motored up the river a ways, finding another nice flat, and saw a huge tail about 50 yards away. After lowing the river anchor I again eased myself into the water and slowly worked my way over to the fish - a fish that was vigorously eating away on the bottom. Before I got there, another tail popped up closer to me so I changed directions and made some casts in his direction. These tails were not redfish tails; they were black and probably attached to a Sheepshead or puppy Drum. All told I probably cast at 4-5 fish on this flat. None would eat the spoon fly; I had one more fly in my pocket and they wouldn't eat it either. I remember thinking how great it felt to be out on a beautiful day stalking fish early in the morning. I eventually ran around to Jolley River and caught a few trout (all small but one), a few reds (all undersized, but fun to catch) a bonnet head shark, a ray (with no tail) and a nice black drum. They were all caught on live shrimp. The keeper trout and drum made great meal; a buddy stopped by so we fried them up with some hushpuppies and added a spinach salad!

Tailing Reds and a Sunset

Carol and I planned to launch the boat after she got off of work on Friday. We left the ramp at 6pm and were heading up to Trolleys in St. Mary's for dinner, but we took a detour at Tiger Island to look for Manatees and possibly some tailing Redfish. We didn't see any Manatees, but Carol quickly spotted a tail, so I put the bow of the boat up into the grass. There turned out to be two HUGE tails flopping around as the Red's gorged themselves on bait in the grass. As Carol kept an eye on them, I scrambled to put a fly rod together. They must have known something was up because by the time I got up on the deck ...they sank out of sight and didn't re-appear. Can you find the tail in this picture? We eventually ran up to Trolleys and had Crab Cake sandwiches and caught a nice sunset on the way.

Saturday morning fishing

I launched at 7am this past Saturday - the parking lot was full - and ran up to Bell River. I had planned to fish some artificials and wanted to try a few spots for trout. The tide was high at 7:34am. I tried a number of different jigs with artificial baits along with some top water lures, but didn't have much luck. I ran around to Jolley River and tried some there too, but I just wasn't getting any bites. I caught some nice finger mullet with a cast net and moved to the "MOA" (mother-of-all) spots, where I picked up a nice Trout, Flounder and Black Drum, all on the outgoing tide. I had a few other bites, lost one at the boat and had one wrap around the anchor line. Turns out the Florida Lure Anglers were having a tournament - when I got back to the ramp, there was a long line but the Anglers let me in so I didn't have too much of a wait. I don't keep a whole lot of fish, but I thought I might want to cook these up, so I kept them.

Recipe of the Month: Stuffed Fish!

So I had a keeper Trout, Flounder and Black Drum and needed something to fix for dinner. I seasoned the fillet's with my favorite seasoning - Koriko and sprayed up a 9x12 cooking dish - and layed a the Black Drum fillets out. Then I took a box of unflavored stuffing, mixed in two cans of crab meat, a cup of chopped celery, a cup of chopped onions, some more Konriko, a few dashes of Franks hot sauce and a little more water. The stuffing mix was spread heavily over the drum filets then the remainder of the fillets were layed over the stuffing. I baked the dish for 30 minutes and served it with some home made Ramoulade sauce and ...butter beans!

Riverside Art Show

We had a great time at the Riverside Art show - the weather was perfect, there were plenty of people and the shade tree's made it very comfortable. Now that the show is over, I've returned a number of pieces to the Salty Feather, located on St. Johns Bluff Road in Jacksonville. The Salty feather is a full service fly shop that carry's fly rod's, reels, kayak's, and fly tying materials. The owner, John Botko, has agreed to show my work on consignment, which is working out good for both of us. I'll be working on some new pieces - probably a number of journals - and I also plan to work in some wood items - with a touch of leather - of course!

Gladson Family

Jessica and Travis Gladson were visiting Amelia Island for the first time with there three kids, Justin, Tanner and Kasey. They came all the way from Wyoming! I caught some finger mullet before picking them up and we were on the water fishing before 8am. This was just a couple of days since tropical storm Faye came through; I had noticed the few times that I went over the bridge during the storm that the water was way up -covering the marsh grass completely. The water in the river seemed to be really clean, but dark - I assume "tannic". It was almost the color of coffee - no cream, of course! There was plenty of bait - mullet everywhere - and shrimp, too. Kasey pulled in a nice black drum and is pictured holding her catch. We also toured Ft. Clinch by boat, the jetties, and Pippi Longstocking's house. We even got an up close look at one of the Coast Guard gun boats!

New Website on line!

If you haven't visited my new website http://www.theanglersmark.com/ lately, check it out! Caroline Blochlinger with CB Advertising Services designed the site and put it all together. There's a link back to this "blog", links to other sites, and photo galleries. Hopefully the site will allow potential clients to find me quicker on the internet. Keep clicking, please!

Inaugral Patriot Day Sporting Clay Shoot

The Nassau County Fire/Rescue Professionals Local 3101 will host their inaugral Patriot Day Sporting Clay Shoot to be held at the Amelia Shotgun Sports, LLC grounds. This years proceeds will benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Nassau County. The shoot will be held on Thursday September 11, 2008. The event consists of five person teams shooting at 10 different stations. The teams with the three highest averages will receive plaques. There will be opportunities for individual competions with a Calcutta Prize structure. Dinner, presentation of awards, and a raffle will follow the competition. The Event begins at 10:00am. There is a limit of 150 for 30 teams, so register NOW! Registrations will be accepted until September 1, 2008 and will be on a first come first serve basis. NO ALCOHOL PERMITTED PRIOR TO COMPETITION. Contact Chris Gamble at 904-753-4644. Sponsorships available. Make checks payable to Nassau County Local 3101 P.O. Box 3666, Yulee, Fl. 32097

Tail'in Reds

We've got some really high tides coming up and that's a great opportunity to stalk some tailing Redfish. The week of August 25th -through Labor Day will produce those hight tides. There's a few ideal days: Wed 8/27 and Thurs 8/28 there is a late afternoon High; we should launch around 4pm. Sat 8/30 and Sun 8/31 there are mid-morning High's; we should launch no later than 7am. The tides are still high enough Mon 9/1, Tues 9/2, and Wed 9/3, although they're later in the morning. There's also some good High tides the 3rd week in September around the Full Moon. Bring some wading shoes and Let's Go Fishing!

Justin Harrell

Justin and I decided to take in some late afternoon/evening fishing so we launched at 4pm from Atlantic Seafood and cruised south to the Horsehead area. We had some live shrimp and the tide had just started in so we began pitching our jigs up near the oyster beds. We probably hadn't made 5 or 6 casts apiece before BOOM I was hooked up with a big fish and BOOM Justin was hooked up with a big fish. Mine ran like a Bonnet Head shark and eventually broke off heading towards the river. Justin kept his drag light on the Shimano Stradic 1000 and played his fish perfectly. Every few minutes the fish would come to the surface and boil so we knew it wasn't a shark. After long battle, Justin had the fish near the boat and we saw that it was a huge Redfish. He played it a while longer and then we got 'em netted and in the boat. The Red turned out to be a nice 32"'er. Check out the neat spot on the fish - the standard dark spot, but with a light colored center. We released the fish to be caught another day.