Last Tuesday morning I walked out on the concrete jetty next to the channel. I saw divots left by  flounder from the night before. The water was perfectly clear.  This is peak founder migrating season and many have been caught. That evening I went out about 11:30 and walked out on the jetty again. I was throwing a Die Dapper lure. I saw several large founder. One came by several yards away and I threw my lure his way. It sped off toward the wall behind 307. In a few minutes I saw a guest from 208 walk up to the wall and dangle a lure just off the wall. I walked back to shore and saw what he was doing. There was the largest flounder I have ever seen. It was in the sand, but not buried, about six feet from the bulkhead. The guy dropped his lure right on the flounder's head, but it paid no mind. I asked if he had any live bait. He said he did and left to go get a perch from his bucket behind the condo.  He came back and bounced the live perch off the flounder's nose and it didn't move. It was interesting that when he put the perch next to the flounder, the perch rolled over as if it were dead. When he pulled it away, it came to life again. After about 10 minutes we decided that this flounder was just not hungry.
He stepped to the right about ten feet and threw the perch out under the light. Within seconds, he had hooked a 21.5 inch flounder. It splashed around in the clear water and it was interesting to watch the fish fight when all the action could be seen. It never did disturb the first flounder.
The guy said that was all he needed and called it a night.
I couldn't just leave this huge flounder right there in plain sight, even if it were midnight. I went back to the condo and got a net, a DOA, and a fish bite. When I went back, the flounder was now about six feet away and on top of grass. I had never seen a flounder on top of grass.
I dangled the fish bite in front of his nose. I had put on a heavy duty hook because of his size. The drag was set just right. Suddenly, I could not see the white fish bite in the grass.  It had to be under him or he just inhaled it. I wasn't sure which. I eased up to see if the hook had just slipped under the flounder in the grass. As I pulled up, his head pulled up, almost to 45 degrees. He was so huge. I thought maybe this oldtimer had just expired of old age right in front of me. However, that was not the case.  He suddenly shot to the right about six feet and melded into the sand. Now I knew I had him, but still did not know if the hook was in the mouth. I pulled hard and now the fight was on, for a few seconds. It headed straight out perpendicular to the wall and never looked back. The drag sang a tune for a few seconds and then the line went slack. The hook had become dislodged. I wasn't really disappointed as this 25inch plus flounder needed to stay in the gene pool. I would have had a difficult time ending its life after living for so long. Maybe I will see its offspring some time in the future.

I'll be taking the next week off from blogging. My next post will not be until next Sunday.