Floundering report from Scott.

Another fun event this past holiday week was the floundering and fishing.  Ray Luna, his son Esai and I went floundering Saturday evening.  It was a little cold but the wind was light and water was clear.  We launched Ray's boat at Conn Brown harbor about 6:30 pm Saturday evening.  We ran down the shrimp boat channel trying several spots only to find them very murky.  Then ran a little around Lydia Channel with the same result.  After discussion we decided it would be best to move away from the jetties so we moved up to the ICW between Conn Brown and Palm Harbor.  We found some shallow, clean water . . . so we started walking.  As it turns our Esai's young eye's were very adept at spotting the flounder.  The three we gigged, he saw before anyone else.  It was a beautiful evening and a fun trip to get out and do something different.  Without going into details I will share three lessons we learned that evening.

1. If you plan to use the transom ladder to board your  boat, back your boat into the shallow water, drop the power pole and the anchor.
2. Do not separate from your fishing partners because it makes things more stressful than necessary when you need to communicate.
3. Know your surroundings and where you are walking at all times so as not to get lost.

 

Ray Luna and I went fishing Saturday afternoon.  We were targeting trout and did not get a single one.  We did however find a nice blackdrum and nine large Sheepshead.  One sheepshead was 19.5".  This is the largest I have every seen myself.  It fought like a big fish.  It was taking drag.  That is always fun.  Since the fish were all fairly large we decided to keep them.  Their meat is very white and firm, so they are good eating but they are loaded with bones which makes them very tough to clean.

 

Here are some pics from the adventures.  One is a pic of a Sheepshead that hit both my bait and Rays.  As we both reeled it in we found both our hooks in its mouth.  That is a first for me.