Fishing Lure

 I was back launching at Old Town Bait and Tackle this morning where I met Nigel and Erin Morton who had their two sons Ronan and Vance with them. We eased out of Eagans Creek and then made a long run up and around to the Jolley River, then all the way up it to the MOA on a tide that had just hit bottom. I have been fishing with mud minnows the last handful of trips but decided to add a little "spice" to the trip with a handful of live shrimp and it was the shrimp that were getting all the bites early. Unfortunately it was fish we didn't want!  Vance "knocked the skunk off" when he reeled in a feisty Grunt, then Nigel battled a huge Catfish to the boat (in the last month I've been pricked three times by Catfish and I was extra careful with this one!) We fished up and back along the oysters and picked up a couple of Croakers on those shrimp.

After fishing across the way at JC's spot and maybe getting another Croaker or two we eased back down the river to Snook Creek and worked it with the jigs and shrimp and minnows. With added incentive, the challenge was excepted for someone to catch a fish with a mud minnow and in short order Nigel stepped up and, Fish On!  Nigel worked it to the boat, let it run, worked it in, let it run, then brought to the net a nice 20.5" Slot Redfish. Ronan was eyeing the creek and thought it looked good to try so we trolled in, turned into the current and began tossing the jigs with shrimp. There wasn't much action until Ronan bent over with his reel ripping drag, and the battle ensued! We were in for a long fight - the fish ripped north, then south, then back around the engine, then back out into the creek. Ronan was up for the battle, kept his rod up and the pressure on and after a long fight, landed a 4' Bonnethead Shark for photograph and release.

All the way back down the Jolley, we switched to float rigs and worked the flooding oyster beds, to no avail. Back up the Jolly at Tyger cut we stayed with the floats and this a paid off. We picked up a nice keeper sized Whiting then it was Nigel's turn to battle the Sharks - he had a good hookup and after having fought that Slot Red to the net he was ready for this Shark. He played it perfectly and brought it in for a photograph. We finished up over on the outside of Tyger, going back to the jigs and here Erin wrapped things up with a nice Seatrout catch. We had some great weather with just a breeze and a bit of cloud cover there at the end so as we headed back to the ramp we counted it as another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

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