Fishing Lure

 Yesterday we had a pretty good day of catching Flounder up north. The day before yesterday we fished "south", down around Nassauville, and even though we caught fish, there wasn't much to brag about. I think we had two or three Redfish with the biggest being about 12 inches! And even though we caught Flounder north yesterday, I just thought that going south was the place to be.

I met Mark Richardson and his son Braden down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp and with a high and
incoming tide, we made the long run up the intracoastal waterway, then up the Back River and around to Pumpkin Hill where we eased up to a point and began to drift float rigs and mud minnows down the grass line. They had 4-6 drifts with no takers and I was beginning to wonder if we should move when Mark's float disappeared and when he tightened up he knew it was a big fish - it wasn't coming in  without a fight! Mark worked it slowly to the boat then it made a run back towards the bank and we were speculating what the fish could be, then it "boiled" up and we knew it was a big Red. Mark played it perfectly and after a good battle brought to the net a big 26.625 "tourney" Redfish. Later, he added a small Black Tip Shark and then small Slot Redfish to his catch total. Braden battled a hard fighting Jack Crevalle to the boat. 

We moved up and fished down the other side of the point but had no bites, then we drifted down the bank, tossing the floats, to no avail. When we got to a few grassy islands I hit the "anchor" and let the two anglers work the area thoroughly. Braden had made a long cast out beyond the grass and it had only drifted a bit and BAM! Float gone!  This fish immediately began to rip some drag, running out deep then going deep. But Braden was up to the task and kept that pressure on, worked it up, let it run, then worked it to the net to land another 26"+ Tourney Redfish, boy what a fish. 

Braden was feeling pretty good about matching his dad's fish but then Mark had another strong bite. All of this big fish fought funny today. This one dug deep but didn't seem to make an aggressive run until later in the fight. Mark worked it up, let it run, worked it up, worked it out from a Crab pot rope, let it run, then finally brought a beast of a Redfish to the net, it measured right at 31.25" - big enough to more Mark into 3rd Place in the Anglers Mark 2025 Bragging Rights Tournament-Redfish Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings).

The tide had just hit the top so we ran back to Seymore's Pointe and fished the floats, but with no bites, we moved on. After running thru Horsehead and over to Poteat Pointe we worked a grassy edge with the floats and picked up a couple of Reds, one of which was of Slot size. Back over at Jackstaff "bank" we switched to jigs and the minnows and got one more Redfish. We had caught about 8 Redfish throughout the day;  the oversized Red was photographed and released, the two big Slot "tourney Reds" were released to grow another half inch and reach "escapement", and the two smaller Slot Reds came home with me for dinner! It was another great day to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.

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