Amelia Island Fishing Blog

I had to put my Dad on a plane up to Maryland yesterday, he needed to visit his doctor, so our daily trips to the pier at Fort Clinch are on hold. It was a very nice fall day today, sunny, warm, and gentle wind from the north, so it looked like a nice afternoon for some surf fishing. No shirt weather in the middle of November; you gotta love Florida.

I decided to try the beach for some whiting, and I arrived about an hour after low tide in the afternoon. For a sunny Sunday afternoon, the beach was basically deserted - I couldn't see another fisherman in either direction and only the occasional tourist strolled by. The first fish I caught was a blue on a piece of shrimp; when that happened I starting baiting one of the two hooks with cut mullet, and it quickly became obvious the blues were in the surf. I fished for about two hours and I never did find the whiting, even though I tried casting different distances and tried close to the beach. Total for the day was 10 blues, 1 whiting, and one small sharp nose shark. The blues were all about 13 inches, a little bigger than what we've been catching at the pier the last few weeks.

You also gotta love circle hooks. Today I was fishing with Owner Mutu Light Circle Hooks, size 2/0 on 30lb test mono rigs. I didn't miss a fish that hit a bait all afternoon, and I didn't have any of the dozen fish I caught hooked deeply; never needed the pliers to unhook any of them, and they were all in good shape when released. If you haven't tried circle hooks yet, you should.

I promised the boss I'd catch her some crabs one day this week, so we decided to try the boat ramp because we can fish and crab there. We had the place all to ourselves, except for about 3.8 million mosquitoes, so the trip didn't last very long. We caught 14 blue crabs in the first 30 minutes (but no fish) and then decided to quit because we'd left the bug spray in the Jeep and forgotten to put it back in the fishing bucket we had with us. We came home early and cooked the crabs, with the exception of a few small ones we'll try as bait for red fish tomorrow.

If you fish around Amelia Island, bug spray is a mandatory item in the gear bucket. Cutter Skinsensations works pretty good, and a couple of the local remedies include Avon Skinsosoft and a box of Bounce Fabric Softner; pull out a sheet and wipe it on your uncovered skin. A long sleeve shirt helps too. If you are anywhere around the marsh, creeks, or river and the wind stops blowing, grab the bug spray because the bugs will find you shortly thereafter.

Another nice day to be on the pier. We fished thru afternoon high tide until sunset. Caught about a dozen Bluefish, most were 11.875 inches long, a couple over 12 inches. Also had some fun with a 30 inch sharp nose shark, and about an hour before sunset we caught a 24 inch red (cut mullet head), which we photographed and released. Still no mullet around to catch, even with the water flat and clear, so I'm pretty much convinced the fall mullet run is about over (early) this year.

Slow day at the office today. Really nice weather, but not many cooperating fish. We fished thru the afternoon high tide, and got only a couple of Bluefish. Bob was back, haven't seen him in about a week and he added one spade fish to the pier tally. Good day for fish stories about days gone by, but nobody left with anything in the camera or the cooler.

On the way home from the pier, we decided to stop on the back side of the fort near the jetties to see if we could catch any mullet. Oh boy - lots of small shools near the beach, nothing running them around but easy to see them near the top of the water. Party was over after the first cast; nothing like a cast net full of needle fish to make you pack up and go home...

Today we decided to try some surf fishing, as we haven't been in a while. We opted for the north end of the island, just south of the Fort Clinch pier. If you drive into the parking lot for the pier, there's another beach access via a boardwalk on the south end (right side coming in) of the parking lot.

Nice day for surf fishing, warm weather and water clear and flat. picture We arrived about 45 minutes before high tide. Action wasn't fast and furious, but we caught one trout (16" on cut mullet), about five small blues, one whiting and a couple sharks. One shark was a bonnet head about 2 feet long, and the other was a sharp nose about 3 feet long.

The sharp nose gave us a little excitement; one of the poles was barely moving, tipping us off that another small blue or whiting was fooling around with the bait. The rod stopped, we figured the fish was gone, but in about a minute the rod bent double and line started peeling off the reel. After a good first run, I could feel the fish was pretty heavy, and after it took off for the second and third run, I was pretty sure we had a nice red on the other end. When we finally got him up into the wash, it was obvious he was a shark; and we found he was foul hooked in the back of the head. I think what might have happened is a whiting or a blue was playing with the bait, and the shark took a swip at the smaller fish and hooked himself. Moral to the story; sharp nose sure will fight a bunch harder when they are foul hooked, and might even make you think you've got a red :-)