One of the greatest feelings for me is that transition between summer and fall when the first of many cool fronts start to arrive. It may not be extremely cold but it is at least a nice relief from those dog days of summer that just lag on and on. With these beautiful days upon us this also marks the start of some of my favorite upcoming hunting and fishing seasons of the year. Now by the time this article hits the stands we will have most likely seen our second or third temperature drop. This also should mean that the flounder that are deep up in the bays and marshes will slowly start to stage for their migration.
As the run starts to thicken you will find plenty of flounder throughout the deep channels getting ready to start having some babies when that water hits that magic number. I for one am ok with no gig November since it has been helping the population to make a comeback. My only flaw in the system for that would be if the cold fronts do not come until later and we are passed November then the flounder will get slaughtered if we are off by a month. Even if I needed to be out there helping pass information on to parks and wildlife to assist in determining when the best date would be for not gigging. It would definitely be worth it since flounder fishing is how I make my money and is my livelihood.
When my buddy and I got a chance to get to the fishing grounds there weren’t a bunch of flounder, as a matter of fact there were only a couple spots where there were any fish at all. We saw a hundred or so cow nose stingrays plus a bunch of southern stingrays but no flatties. I think we probably hit at least seven or eight places before we finally got some into the boat. The size was definitely there, none of these fish were small. All of the flounder were 18-24 inches each with an average of about 3 pounds. With it being before the run those are some good numbers to be putting in the boat this early.
The hurricane water is slowly fading with only pieces of docks, houses and cars remaining in the waterways. Since all of these changes are happening it might be best to try new things and try places you haven’t tried before. When I was rod and reel fishing the other day I got some pretty nice hits, I was using those hot pink chickenboy bubba clickers and spritzer in homerecker lures. My weight has adjusted due to all of the debris everywhere, as long as it stays close to the bottom there should not be any problems finding the fish. Just slow it down and cover lots of ground to ensure that you do not miss any fish.
If your are going to try live bait right now I would Carolina rig a mullet or mud minnow and do the same thing working the bottom. BY the next issue I will have some more updated info on the run. Subscribe to my You Tube at Flounder Professor Outdoors for all of the new videos on making catching flounder easier. Thank you to all of my sponsors: Chickenboy lures, Redtail Republic, Legend Popping Corks, Nacho Daddy Spoons, Hookspit, Kelley wigglers, Hellrazor Jig heads, Ardent RTeels, Salt Thugz apparel, Stinky Pants fishing, Outcast, Homerecker Lures and fin addict angler.
Thanks for all of your support and if you have any questions just email me. Tight lines and sharp gigs.
Brian Joseph Spencer | Flounder Fanatics @ Facebook
flounderfanatics@gmail.com | www.saltthugz.com
