Amelia Island, Boys Fishing trip with Bass 2 Billfish host, Peter Miller, Froggy and Madison

On this episode of Bass to Billfish, Peter, Madison, and Froggy travel to Amelia Island for a boys' fishing trip. Got him on. But when their plans change. And I was like, huh? They find themselves facing an unexpected challenge. Madison was working up quite a schvitz. Florida, the fishing capital of the world. With over 2,000 miles of pristine shoreline, join three-time World Sailfish Championship winner and pro angler Peter Miller as he takes these lucky winners on a once-in-a-lifetime fishing adventure. From freshwater to saltwater, ocean to Everglades, come join us for a fishing experience like no other. This is Florida's Bass to Billfish with Peter Miller. Presented by Yellowfin and by Visit Florida. Unleash your Florida side. This episode of Bass to Billfish, we've got Madison. Hi. And we've got John Froggy Cooper. We decided to take kind of a boys' trip. We're going to Amelia Island and we're getting our tackle ready. We're getting things ready and everything in the garage. He immediately pulls out a video camera. Got a little something different. I was calling at the Peter cam. I was filming the guys getting ready. And he's running around, shoot all this stuff. We had conventional reels. We had spinners. We had lures. We had a line winder. We had to get everything ready. If we time this trip right, we may be able to stop off and catch a couple of peacocks on the way to Amelia Island. I got a call from a guy that's been posting these gigantic peacock bass pictures. He said, if you ever want to go, you got to stop by here and come join me for some peacock. It's going to be a new experience. So we loaded up the car. Got the orange tackle box, of course. And we took our six and a half hour drive up to Amelia. Oh my God. We're getting a phone call. On our way out of my buddy Kit's house with all her tackle loaded up, my producer called me. Froggy, hold the camera. Look who it is. Hello, Ray Combs. How are you? I kind of told him our itinerary. I got this guy, this guy, Adam Rizzi. He's been putting up these giant peacock bass photos. And he said, I'd love to show you this one spot where there's some really large peacocks. It'd be kind of cool if we could swing by and maybe knock out a couple of peacocks with him. You know, it was cool. I was capturing all the little moments that people don't normally get to see in the shows. And it was a lot of fun. We met up with him. What's going on, man? I'm Peter. And we started fishing for these peacocks within no time, we were hooked up. Congratulations, man. All right. Who needs to go to the Amazon? That's it right here. Holy cow. It was such a great way to kick off the trip to Amelia. It couldn't have been any better. Thanks for taking us out here. No problem, Peter. Appreciate it, man. Thank you. We appreciate it. All right, I think we need to get a couple of rods for our conventionals to bottom fish. We got to Bass Pro Shop. We needed three or four rods that could handle grouper, snapper. We went in, asked one of the sales guys, and he handed me these rods, and they were absolutely perfect. We're gonna get four of those. You got four matching? We wound up buying bottom rods and a couple of rigs and jigs and things like that. Let's go, we're moving out. And then, of course, Froggy falls asleep in the back, so I had to film that. Next thing I know, I woke up and we were here. It was a lot of fun just to show everybody the behind the scenes and capture it all myself. We finally got up to Amelia and we checked into the Hampton Inn Suites, who put us up, and it was just a fantastic location. We had the marina right across the street. Couldn't have been better. And we were invited to eat dinner at a place called O'Kane's. It's like an Irish pub. They welcomed us with open arms. Fantastic place. So it's the first morning. Madison was already putting the boat in the water, and we ran into our guide for the day, who was TD Lacrosse. TD told us that we're gonna need about 10 dozen shrimp, so we went over to Atlantic Seafood and Tackle. How you doing? Good. And they started netting out these shrimp, their biggest prawns I've ever seen. Wow. Dark spot here is brain. So you hook it right underneath the horn. Shrimp have pretty big brains, I gotta be honest. I'm pretty impressed. You know, Amelia Island has that small town charm because, you know, it is an island. It is a small area. And everyone here is super, super nice. All right, have a great day. And we jumped on the boat and we were off to the races. Coming up next on Bass to Billfish. Got him on. Did we have any kind of bet who would get the first bite? Not after the first bite happens. Fraggy's got one on every cast we were catching redfish. Bass to Billfish with Peter Miller is brought to you by Visit Florida. Your Florida side is calling. Go to visitflorida.com. Pet Boys does everything for less. Bass Pro Shops. Your adventure starts here. Ray Marine, world leaders in marine electronics. Peter and the boys have arrived in Amelia Island for a boys fishing trip. Now they are on the water looking for their first bite. What are we looking for in this area? Pretty much is looking for the death of water. You have a nice break. It's about 50 feet out here. Where do you think we should be deploying the baits? Within a couple of feet of the bank. Let them drift back that way. So the idea was to put on shrimp with a popping cork. And cast it into the current and have it drift all the way down and follow this tide that was going out. It's good to kind of keep them spread out. Yeah. I think we're going to have to do a rotation. So we started this rotation around the boat. You cast, you move, you cast, you move. All right, slide up to the bow. Nice and middle spot. Center position, we'll call that. Coming through, walking down the pipe. Dead man walking. It was like fishing on a party boat. Rotate. Just like the head boats. There you go. I don't see my cork. Probably got a fish, that's why. Got him on. Anytime you're fishing with your buddies, the guy who catches the first fish or whatever, it starts a little competition. Did we have any kind of bet who would get the first bite or something? No, not after the first bite happens. It's coming in hot. It's a trout. Broke the ice with the first fish of the trip. That was quick. We've been fishing for about three minutes. Man, he got that rotation. He caught the fish up there. I blew it, didn't I? I thought I was onto something. With your cracking cork? No, with the rotation. The rotation, yeah. Thanks for having me come up here. Right when I slid into the shallows, I got the bite. Froggy, you get a nibble? Oh God, Froggy's got one on. Froggy gets a bite, he starts winding on his, and I'm thinking, I hope it's not bigger than mine. Really small. I just want to catch a bigger one than Pete. Is that bigger? No, it's not. I knew at that moment the competition was on. Why is it always a competition? You answer your own question, I don't know. Let's not kid ourselves. There's always a competition going on. I think we've got to move, guys. He said this one area that we're going to fish, when we get there, they should be biting. Brought us over to the spot, and he said this is the spot you want to fish right now. So what do you think? Are we going to fish the same way? Are we going to fish in docks? We're going to fish the same way. We're up here kind of in the backwater where it's not so windy. He said everything is based on time. The redfish have been biting more on the lower tide, which is going to be in the next couple of hours. In 45 minutes, we're going to go to that spot, and he had everything planned out. Once the tide starts dropping down, we'll get around these docks, and there's been some schools of reds. I'm excited. Me too. Let's go. Madison, your cork's gone. Cork's down. Seemed like everyone else saw my cork go underwater, except for me. Trout. That's a keeper, dude. That's a nice one, dude. For some reason, we couldn't see our own cork's going. Hey, you got one. Cork's down. Hello. Madison, oh God darn, he's on fire, everybody. Froggy, were you just getting a bite? You got one on. There you go. Got one. Hey, run, run, run, run. There's nothing on there, man. Your cork's gone. Oh, him. I'm like, what? I'm like, jeez, Froggy, there's a fish jumping behind you. Oh, there's a nice trout. That's a nice trout. TD had told us all about how the fishing is dependent on the tide. What do you think, that outgoing tide got them lit up there? Oh, yeah. That's what we've been waiting on all morning. Sure enough, every cast, we were catching redfish. Cork's down. There he goes. You got one, man. There he goes. Cork's down. Well, we had a great day. We caught about 30-some-odd fish here, some trout. Steady action. Even a little redfish bite pretty soon. Yep, yep. Well, let's pack it in, guys. Good job. Coming up next on Bass to Billfish. We met up with Alan. He said, Peter, you ain't doing anything about it. You gotta either deal with it or work around it. Everything had changed. All right, so we gotta go back up land. Now it's war. This is serious. Bass to Billfish with Peter Miller is brought to you by Yellowfin, choice of champions. Mazda, zoom, zoom. Mercury, number one on the water. Buff, the original multifunctional headwear. Closed captioning for Bass to Billfish has been provided by Bass Pro Shops. Your adventure starts here. After an action-filled day of catching trout and redfish in Amelia Island, the guys take a break from the water for a unique tour of the area. Well, when we pulled up to Fort George Island State Park, we met up with Greg and Maren. They run a company called Ecomotion Tours. Look at those tires. Oh, those are the babies. Those are the big boys. Wow. None of us had ridden the Segways before, so it was really important for them to give us the briefing on how to ride these units. Okay, this is the off-road version of a Segway. They're more powerful than a standard Segway. They were fantastic at explaining everything, and it made us feel really comfortable hopping on and getting ready to do this. Main thing you're looking for is a little green smiley face guy in this display panel. So when we showed up for the Segway tour, of course, Pete said, okay, you go first. And I knew this had high potential of embarrassment. Okay, you're up to go. Hands on the grips. Whoa. It was a little wobbly at first, but after a couple minutes, you kind of catch on. As soon as you step aboard, it's looking to balance you. It's very aware of the weight and the balance and the moves of your body. Show me you can stop. Close enough. Good. Close enough. There was a little learning curve, but before long, you're upright and you're cool. It was cool. It was really cool. I was a little hesitant getting on, and I made sure I went last so no one was watching and everything like that. It was such a special experience to be out there on these Segways, going through these heavily canopied trails with the oaks and the Spanish moss and all this plant life and bird life. Going full Segway. We broke through this oak hammock into this beautiful estuary, and I know we were all thinking the same thing. Kind of looks like good fishing. It is excellent fishing in here. I've caught some big old sheep's head right out here. Oh boy, we should have brought the rods. It was very informative, and it was so relaxing and enjoyable. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. The next morning, we got up real early. We're very excited to go offshore fishing. We had our new Bass Pro rods. We put our reels on them. We cranked them down, and we met up with our captain, Alan Mills. What's going on, Alan? How are you? Good. Is this your son? Yes, sir. This is our first temp mate, Travis. What's up? Travis, nice to meet you. I'm Peter. When we met up with Alan that morning, he said, Peter. The weather's pretty rough out there. I just talked to the crew boat. I don't think we'll be able to get offshore. When Alan told us that we couldn't go offshore, you know, we explained to him, hey, Alan, you know, we fish hardcore. You know, we're experienced at this stuff. It's okay. And he said, no, no, you don't understand. It's mother nature. Yeah. When you go to a new area, you have to defer to the guide that's gonna take you, because he knows the area and you don't. A couple of alternatives. Back up, jump on a small boat, go sheep head fishing. And I was like, huh? Sheep's head? So maybe we'll get some sheep head, and I'll catch some sheep head. Go sheep head fishing. We'll get us some more sheep head. Sheep's head, sheep's head, sheep's head. So I'm thinking, you know what? He knows what he's talking about. Let's go for it. Let's go for those sheep's head. All right, so we gotta go back up plan. Everything had changed. We were going offshore. Now we put the yellow fin back in the water and we flip-flopped everything. This is when we go for the second option. We're ready to go inshore and do it all. All right, guys, what we're gonna do is get these fiddlers, go right through the bottom, come out the top. Wow, straight shot. We started putting them on these hooks, dropping them into the zone right between pilings, and that's where they live. That was a swing and a miss. That's what we like to call it. Nothing, dude. Another swing and a miss. Now it's war. I'm telling you. This is serious. So we're sitting there and Alan actually starts breaking the barnacles off the dock. We're gonna clean off the piling there. That creates like a chump. A moment later, I got a bite right there. There we go. Addison's got one on. Get the net, get the net. You're in such close, tight areas with the pilings and the bridge structure. You can do it, Madison. Come on, Madison. Nice. All right. Hey, Madison, way to go, man. Madison, you are the whisperer. I'm on the board. We nicknamed him the Sheephead Whisperer. I caught that first one and I was on top of the world. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. That was close. All right. I gotta be honest, he got a little cocky. I just feel so accomplished right now. It's unbelievable. Took a lot of skill to pull them out of that area. Everyone's gotta be good at something, right? I thought I had the Sheephead Division under control for the rest of the day. I'm gonna retire. I think we've caught sailfish with a lot more ease than we've tried to catch these fish. Man, y'all look like a bunch of bird dogs on point there. Now it's personal. Yeah, I was frustrated because worse than not catching one, I couldn't get a bite. You got nibbles? No. All right, you're like the piling whisperer. Coming up next on Bass to Billfish. I look over at Froggy and he's getting bite after bite. Oh, no way. Oh, Froggy. And it was the closest quarters you can ever imagine. Oh, working between the pilings, Froggy. You got it. Oh, Pete. Oh, it's a nice one. Get him. Yes. Bass to Billfish with Peter Miller is brought to you by Visit Florida. Your Florida side is calling. Go to visitflorida.com. Amelia Island, come make memories. FWC, there's only one season in Florida, fishing season. Join the Bass to Billfish team and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. After their offshore plans changed. I don't think we'll be able to get offshore. Peter and the gang went with their guide suggestion. Let's go for it. Let's go for the sheep's head. And faced an unexpected challenge. Will a change of location make the difference? I got to be honest, I was kind of nervous going over to this next sheep's head spot and I was thinking, I'm not going to catch one of these things. They're really tough. This mouth of this little river right here goes all the way around. So the water comes rushing out and they'll come hanging around these docks there. And it was the closest quarters you can ever imagine. And I'm thinking, maybe I'll get a bite, but there's no way I'm going to sneak them out of there. Crazy. I look over, Froggy's got them on. Oh, nice one, Froggy. And they fought. You've got to kind of lead them away from the pilings. And just when you think you're out of the woods, he goes to the other set of pilings and you have to change your angle, but there's just not a lot of room in there. Oh, Froggy. Oh, God, Froggy. He's working around the pilings. I'm watching it. Even my competitive nature went away because I was excited to get another fish in the boat. Oh, Froggy. Oh, God, Froggy. Hey! Regardless of the size of the fish or the size of the tackle you're using, fishing's fishing. Now we have dinner for two. You got him by an inch. I got it? Yeah, yeah. We'll touch that one. Madison's caught one, so he's conquered the elusive sheep's head. Now Froggy's caught one, and here I am. These are definitely sheep's head eatenies, right? Oh, yeah. No question about it. No doubt about it. I can't seem to get these bites. Okay. Well, it's official. I suck at sheep's head fishing. It's not working out. I think he's picking me off. Might be the jig head. You have a jig head? No. I look over at Froggy, and he's got his jig on, and he's getting bite after bite. I got this. Oh! No way! Oh, Froggy. Oh, working between the pilings, Froggy. You got it. Oh, Pete. Oh, God. Oh, it's a nice one. Get him! Yes! Froggy, come on. I think it's the jig, man. That jig is on fire. Put a jig on, cast it down, and I was on. Oh, Pete! Ooh, got him good, and I'm diving in, dude. I'm diving. I'm swinging him in. I'm not gonna wait till the net. There's no way I was waiting for that broken net. Hey, you guys were gonna lose it in that net. I couldn't do it. Jig head, yeah. I finally became a man today. I was amazed at the power of these little fish. They're like little pit bulls. This stuff's easy. Fishing for these sheep's head, I thought was gonna be, eh. It turned out to be extremely exciting, very challenging, all around awesome. I got that, dude. Oh! No way! Oh, Froggy. Just call me the whisperer. Madison's got one. Madison's got them all. That was something else. Oh, look. Is that Pete's hook? That's nice. Madison's got them on, everybody. It's a serious battle. Oh! Oh, you got him now, don't you? Hey, that's a nice one, Frog. Oh, got it, boy. All right. Good golly. Froggy's got the sheep head whisperer. We're not even gonna talk about the score right now, are we? Now that you've finally caught a couple of sheep head on live tackle, what do you think about the fight? I'm kind of impressed with the amount of effort you've got to put in to catch them. That's nice. Give it. Oh! I think I might have bent my hook. You know, I came up here thinking we gotta catch this, this, this, and this. And when the plans got switched on me, for a moment I was like, I wanted to do this. But you know what? You gotta be able to roll with the punches. You gotta be able to adapt. And now I get it. We caught them. We had a blast. It was one of the most fun fishing experiences I've had. Thanks for pushing. Appreciate it, guys. Thanks. I learned a lot, man. I learned a lot. We went back to the hotel room, cleaned up, and we were invited to go over to a local hotspot called the Crab Trap. Beth Belcher over at the CVB in Amelia Island set that up for us. We went over there with our bag of fish and they brought over these great sides and we had a fantastic dinner. Nice. Okay. The fish was absolutely awesome. It was excellent. It kind of tasted like snapper. That was very good. We got the redfish, we caught trout, and then the sheep's head. I mean, come on. That was a couple of great days out there for sure. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I had no idea what to expect when we came up to Amelia Island. It was just gorgeous. People were friendly. The fishing was really good. Just a really good energy. We had a fantastic time. And it was nice to be able to share it with Froggy and Madison. Normally when I shoot these shows with Peter, I'm behind the scenes and I'm kind of helping out everyone else. I don't get the time to myself to fish, much less with a group of guys that's just fun to be around. What I think I learned, regardless of the size of the fish or the size of the tackle you're using, fishing's fishing. I would recommend for anyone to come up here to Amelia Island and take a fishing vacation or just a vacation. It's just gorgeous. Go to BassToBillfish.com and find out how you can audition to become the next guest on Bass to Billfish. 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