Just Clear Enough- 11/4/23 Report

What makes a memorable fishing trip? The obvious answer is a day of catching instead of fishing. Or, when you reel in your personal best. For me, one other thing that makes a memorable trip is when you learn something new. Every trip out there should be a learning experience in some form or fashion. Each experience adds up to what eventually makes up all your fishing knowledge, allowing you to persevere during the tough times, or even adapt when necessary. While the flounder season in Texas was closed for 2023, I managed to make a trip down and had a spectacular day of catching, as well as witnessing some interesting behavior.

Starting the Day

My day started a tad late as my buddy and I got out to our spot after sunrise. Looking at the water, I could tell we were missing some primo fishing time as we were mid-falling tide. Coupled with the paddle to get to where we wanted to go, we would be catching the tail end before we would get to any fishing. In a situation like this, you sometimes have to make the most of it. After quickly unloading, we launched and headed out.

After a 2 mile paddle, we arrived at our spot. We were targeting some rock structures that have the occasional gap between them. Over time, the tides and currents carve a bowl out between the rocks. Sometimes, and especially on higher tides, the fish like to hide really close up to the rocks. On other days, the fish will be off the structure and sitting in the bowl. For this area, sometimes the fish will be in every single bowl. More often than not, I’ve found that the fish like particular bowls depending on the conditions.

The wind was steady at around 12 miles per hour. It wasn’t calm by any means, but not particularly windy. However, the wind did prevent us from staying in one place for too long without staking out. I went to one of my preferred areas and set myself up to make a cast. After a few errant casts, and the wind not going to decrease anytime soon, I opted to stake out the kayak and hop out for a wade. Being stationary gave me a consistent base to cast from. At the same time, it allows me to work the area more methodically as I pick it apart. It turned out to be a great move.

The First Fish

The water was clear and green. At waist-deep water, I could almost see the sand and shell bottom. I tossed my Procure-lathered Knockin’ Tail lure on a 1/4th oz jighead and dragged it across the bottom with short hops. On my first cast, I felt a good old-fashioned flounder thump and felt the weight of the fish as she munched on the lure. I reared back and gave it a good hookset, only to have the lure get pulled out of its mouth. At this point, I slowly jigged the plastic trying to entice another pite if the flounder came looking for where its meal went. With my hook set, my lure was now one and a half rod lengths in front of me, just where the drop-off came up from the green depths. As I slowly brought the lure up, I could see a plume of sand come from behind it. The flounder was still stalking my bait! With a couple of slow and lazy twitches up and down, I could see the flounder inch ever closer to the lure. With a final twitch, the flounder flared its gills and the lure disappeared in a rupture of sand and shell. Did she get it?

I picked up the slack and immediately felt the weight of the fish on the other end. Another quick hook set, except this time the fish stayed pinned. The flounder dug into the depths in front of me. From there, two more plumes of sand and shell erupted as unseen flounder jetted off. I battled a bit more before bringing the flounder in for netting. It ended up being a nice fall flounder at around 17 or 18 inches and fat.

Flounder Behavior

For the next few hours, I moved to different bowls and found flounder in each one. And, with the water clarity, I could see multiple flounder come up and exhibit some interesting behavior. Sometimes, the flounder would come up and follow the bait. Even after making the bait look as enticing as I could, the flounder would turn away and slink back to the depths. I witnessed one flounder grab the bait and settle onto the sandy bottom. However, I could see that the flounder only grabbed the back end of the bait. After some time, the flounder gulped down the rest of the bait before I gave a good hook set. In another instance, a flounder would stalk the bait up and sit there and eye the bait. It seemed like quite some time before the flounder committed.

After a few hours, the tide had finally drained the water out from where we were fishing. On the way back, we could see some nice flounder beds up against the rocks. While I wish I could say that I came back out for another trip and got on another flounder bite, it was not meant to be. Until next time!