The Freezer Fill-up

Well, it wasn't as "Abundantly Sunny" yesterday as forecast but, after the fun of the day before, it was too hard to resist -- though it turned out to be much windier than I had expected (guess we're somewhat protected way back here in Yulee).  Had to 4-wheel around another vehicle that got mired down at the entrance to the beach -- didn't have 4-wheel drive and they were using their mats from the floor to stick under the wheels to inch toward the firm sand beyond.

I decided to go a little farther along the beach toward the breakers coming in from the ocean and settled on the second point from where I had been the day before.  Bait fish (mullet) were not quite as abundant there so, I had to cast more than a few times before finally netting some dozen or more -- I felt that should be more than  enough to get me started after getting everything pulled from the Jeep and setup on the sand (just beyond the still receding tide).  The wind played havoc with the rope of the net as I let it dangle on the beach near my feet as I twirled and cast away from the wind.  The wind even tried to blow my chair and beach towel into the water but, a small cooler of ice and Gatorades managed to keep it in place.

Besides having to deal with the wind and lack of bait-fish, a couple anglers came encroaching on the space I already had cast into from the point.  They first started throwing their casting net out on the point and into a small tidal pool between both of the two points -- finally the older guy took note of my presence and asked where I had cast (which I pointed out to him).  Still they fished the point for a little while as they waded the shallow waters.  Both of them finally moved around me and toward the ocean but, the older guy still managed to get tangled in one of my lines and it took about five minutes just to clear the mess.

After the old man and the younger guy finally cleared the area near me, I began to get some bites and over the next couple of hours, I managed to catch three nice blues (one was probably the biggest blue I have ever caught).  During the time of catching the blues, I thought for sure the speckled sea trout would have moved away from the area for fear of being attacked or eaten by the more voracious fish -- proved not to be true and I also caught three nice sea trout (missed a number of other strikes too).  I also noticed with the low tide that there seemed to be a large bed of seaweed near where I had been making my longest casts -- just where the sea trout love to hide out and where I hooked all three.

The last trout was only about twelve inches so, I released him as I had also been cleaning the other fish when I hooked him and was preparing to leave around sunset (so I could still see the beach while maneuvering back to the access point).  I left as the beach was pretty much cleared and the only ones left fishing were the Blue Heron and another white heron or Egret (which disappeared when I approached in my Jeep).

Didn't take any pictures of the catch as I decided to clean them at the beach and leave the scraps for the sea gulls and other birds (no fish cleaning station here at the campground either).  If I go back today, I will probably stay just a little later since the low tide will be at 5:31 and an hour after seems to be some of the better times to fish -- as the tide is turning back in.  I also  hope too, to avoid the direct sun glare in my windshield like last night (hard to see heading directly west into it).