Amelia Island - First "Keepers"

Yesterday, was really my first day of fishing the waters off Amelia Island Park (the southern tip of the island) even though my exploratory trip on Saturday resulted in me fishing for a couple hours (and only catching one Spot and a Horseshoe crab).  I picked up a 5 gallon bucket, made a few pole supports from a 10 ft. piece of pvc pipe ($6 versus $16 for one at Walmart), bought some steel leaders, more hooks and sinkers, and a bag of ice from a store on the island (in case I should catch anything worth keeping).

After paying my $2 to get into the park, I took my Jeep onto the beach and headed toward the ocean -- arrived around 2:00 p.m. and backed the Jeep toward the river short of the next sand bar that was closest to the ocean and its pounding waves (probably caused by the recent storms here).  When I fished some on Saturday, I had used only the "Fish Bites" (artificial bait) which I had bought somewhere on my way back east from Colorado.  Yesterday, I had my casting net ready (had to add more rope on Sunday) and I got lots of practice developing a technique for catching some of the abundant mullet running in the shallows (the little kids on Saturday made it look so easy).

After throwing quite a few "banana shaped" tosses and not getting anything, I switched the rope to my left hand where I held the net and then bit down on the weight line, held the lead line in my right and twisted and tossed over and over again until I finally had some decently shaped ovals and circles which resulted in catching a few dozen of the little mullet (they were actually bigger than I would have liked).  The sand/mud mixture on the beach had me stumbling at times and falling in the water but, that's why I had my bathing suit on (and my cellphone in the car).  Once, I even forgot to put the rope around my wrist and, of course it was my best throw and I had to go scurrying and slogging through the muddy sand to get my hands on the rope again and retrieve the catch of bait fish.

With all the comforts I needed being close at hand in the Jeep and no other anglers within a couple hundred yards, I finally got all my pole supports, chair, buckets, and coolers positioned for a few hours of fishing.  Since I had the mullet for bait, I decided not to use any of the "Fish Bites" and skipped using any of the "Gotchas" on my spin casting rig (did that Saturday with no strikes).  I had one of my small "Micro Mini Spincasters" with a Panther Martin lure still on it from fishing in Colorado so, I couldn't resist trying a dozen or more casts in the shallows as I watched the two large poles for action -- no luck on the Micro Mini with the Panther Martin.

First Keepers

After about an hour, I decided to check my bait on the smaller rod and found that something had bitten off the head of the mullet so, I rearranged the tail section on the hook and cast it back out just beyond the ripples of the mullet.  I decided to hold onto the pole and see if I could feel anything this time instead of sticking it into one of the pole supports --  and in just a few minutes, I had a nice strike and my first "fish on" that turned out to be a Crevalle Jack (not a Pompano as I originally thought).  A little bit later, I had a nice hit on the big surf casting rig and a good fight with a 17" Ladyfish jumping all around the water in front of me as soon as I set the hook -- she even broke the hook as I got her onto the beach (that had me using my hands and feet to push her farther onto the beach).

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Then, I caught two spotted sea trout of 13 inches and 15 inches -- both of them seemed to just nibble lightly at the bait -- not strong strikers like the other two fish.  As the tide started to roll back in causing me to move my gear back up the beach, I slowly started to put things back in the Jeep around 5:15 p.m. feeling satisfied that I had enough fish to keep me and the twins happy.  Abundant sunshine is forecast for today and temps in the 70s so, guess who will be 4-wheeling on the beach again?