Amelia Island Fishing Blog

We don't usually fish much on the weekends, because our favorite spots tend to get crowded. But after a few days at home on sick leave, we were anxious to get a line wet again. Probably 20 cars in the pier lot vs. the usual 2 or 3 on weekdays, but we unloaded the junk anyway and hit the pier.

Really nice day, but the fish must have taken the weekend off too. My Dad caught the usually 11.9 inch Bluefish, three or four, and I caught nothing. But it was a nice day to be fishing anyway. Again, no mullet in sight (or cast net range) anywhere.

We did get to see some interesting sights; we saw the bird man of Fort Clinch fly by on what looked like a lawn chair hooked to what sounded like a weed eater motor, held up by what looked like a big kite. picture Brave guy. Obviously not a fisherman or he'd have been trolling for something.

The other thing we noticed is that a few people had walked out on the jetty and were fishing in the ocean on the opposite side of the jetty from the pier. They seemed to be hauling in a lot of nice sized whiting, which were not being caught by anybody on the pier. So if you're whiting hunting, and have some non-skid shoes, this may be a spot to try. picture

Nice day, flat water (slightly muddy) but the fish all skipped school today. We fished for about four hours, and caught only two small Bluefish. Also bumped into a few people we knew who had been on the pier for a few hours before we got there - same results; no fish. Again today the mullet were nonexistent, didn't see one anywhere.

Another windy day on the north end of the island. Not many tourists today, and not many fish either. Mullet were MIA again on the way out, saw one very small school.

We fished for a few hours, and caught only small blues, most undersized; a few over 12" but we threw them back. One of the guys fishing near us caught a nice 30" red (incoming tide, about 3 hours before high tide, on cut mullet). On the way back in, we found one school of very small mullet and caught about a dozen, so we loaded them into the live bucket and headed for the river.

We fished for about an hour in the Amelia River, but no fish; my Dad had one good hit on a live mullet but missed the fish. The river side of the park had zero wind; like being in another country compared to the beach side of the park.

The Fort Clinch pier is a great place to fish, but in relation to commercial or private piers, it's primitive; no shelters to get out of the sun or rain, very few benches to sit on, and no tables at all. Very few creature comforts; just the basic pier to get out over the water.

Fishing is something I usually like to do just for the sake of doing it; it's certainly more fun to catch fish, but it's also fun just to be there fishing. After a month of NE wind, some days so strong you can't cast into it, I'm beginning to think that the wind kills the fun of being there. It seems to wear on you after a while; it doesn't hurt, and some days it isn't cold, but you just wish it would go away. I'm wondering if we need to add a couple 4x8 sheets of plywood to our fishing tackle, so we could nail them to the pier and make a windbreak....

Weather today was about the same as yesterday. We couldn't find any mullet on the way out the pier, so no live bait today. As soon as we started fishing, my Dad was catching small blues, on cut mullet. Between the blues, and the tourists here for the Florida/Georgia football game asking questions, it was a pretty busy day.

We caught one small red, about 14" on cut mullet, and another 22" red, also on cut mullet. The big one was caught about 2 hours after low tide. Now I know for sure there is one slot size red left in Florida; we released the 22" one we caught. I guess my Dad caught about a dozen blues today, mostly 11", about 3 were keeper sized (over 12"). Just like yesterday, we caught the lone large Whiting; on cut mullet again. This one wasn't as big as yesterday, maybe 12".

On the way back in we found the mullet; one large school on the back side of the pier near the rocks, maybe 200' from the beach, and we got a bag full for tomorrow's fresh bait.

The small red we caught today was deeply hooked, and bleeding when we got him onto the pier. Sometimes when you catch a fish that you have to release, you realize he's not going to make it, he's going to wind up as crab food. A lady who was watching asked why I didn't just keep the fish (and eat it) as opposed to tossing it back (and wasting it) since I knew that it was going to die. I explained that because the fish was undersized, I wasn't allowed to keep it; against the rules.

I hate to kill fish that aren't going to the table, any fish, but I really hate to see a small red wasted. Maybe we need a law that says if an undersized fish is obviously not going to survive, you can keep it? But then again if we did that, we'd probably have a group of "fisherman" who'd be carrying a box of hooks and a pair of pliers so they could jam one down the throat of every undersized fish they caught so they could keep it.

It never ceases to amaze me that just about every time I see somebody break the rules regarding fishing, they are fully aware of the rules they are breaking. So I doubt the honor system would work...

No dead flat water like yesterday; wind out of the NE and water very choppy. We caught about six finger mullet at the surf end of the pier on the way out, and were lucky to get those. Mullet are still MIA.

As soon as we started fishing, my Dad was catching small blues on cut mullet. The first live mullet we tried produced a nice 18" trout (about 3 hours before high tide). We decided to invite the trout home for dinner, and hoped we could round up a few of his friends, which we did; two more about 16" long, both caught on live mullet. Our other three live mullet produced three good hits, but we missed the fish. I assume from the condition of the baits those were also trout.

I also caught the biggest Whiting I've seen in a long time, about 15" (on cut mullet). Dad rounded off the day by catching a couple more small blues, and two little reds, both about 15", all caught on cut mullet. A friend of ours was fishing for Sheepshead and had five that filled his small cooler, so he donated a couple of nice Sheepshead to our fish dinner. The Sheepshead were all caught on Fiddler crabs.

We haven't seen many trout in the last few weeks off the pier, but so far all we've caught have been on live mullet, so tomorrow we'll spend a little more time near the beach looking for bait.