Amelia Island End of March

[JimCostello]

I am going to be visiting Amelia Island during the last week of March/first week of April. I'm very interested in finding out what species are inshore at that time of year in that area. I'll be travelling with the family, so my opportunities will be limited to the immediate area (in other words, no sneaking away for a day to better spots!). Any info. will be greatly appreciated.

[JimCostello]

Just on the off chance anyone ever reads this, thought I'd post a mini-report about the weekend and the area around Amelia generally. My wife and I headed out on Friday, March 31 with Capt. Ben Evans (Hot Ticket Charters). Wind was out of the northeast and kicked up to about 20 knots by the time we were done. We stayed in the sound because there was just too much chop on the open water. There had been a couple of inches of rain in some severe thunderstorms the night before, so the water was muddy. Ben did his best to put us onto the trout and reds, but it was not to be. We settled in behind Little Tiger Island and still had a good time filling the cooler with whiting. We also managed a toad fish, a couple of rays (nearly qualifying for the trash fish slam), a small bonnethead shark and a small sea bass.

The next day I tried my luck under the A1A bridge (near the Down Under restaurant). Had a couple of hits on a DOA shrimp and saw a few whiting boated, but no luck for me. Sunday we made a few casts up at the Fort Clinch state park out near the fort itself. Nada. That spot looked like it could have some good fly fishing potential later in the season although the current was nasty and careful wading would be the rule.

The bite isn't really on in that area until late May/early June I learned. Still, I didn't need to wear gloves and my line wasn't icing up, so it was an improvement over New Hampshire!