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Incredible Flounder Fishing -- 5/26/12 to 5/28/12
Choices, choices, choices... With the weather conditions rapidly improving through the weekend, it was tough for me to choose which flounder honey hole to hit up. So, I ended up trying several locations throughout the weekend. Early morning of Memorial Day was nothing less than phenomenal.
5/26/12 -- Galveston Island State Park
Launched the kayak around 7:00 AM and worked my way to the geotubes near GISP. Upon arrival to my first spot, the winds were still blowing pretty good. Luckily, the wind direction was just right to setup a drift. Did fairly well with Gulp pogys bouncing them along the edges of the geotubes. Ended up with a limit of flounder ranging from 15" to 19.75". Later in the morning, I started catching some nice trout in the 18"-22" range. The trout wanted the bait moved along the bottm very slowly, almost dead sticking it. Most of the fish were biting in water depths of 4-6 feet. Never found the redfish to complete a slam.
5/27/12 -- Galveston Ship Channel
Spent more time than anticipated trying to locate finger mullet for bait. Gulp is good at times, but this time of the year every species of fish like Gulp which can be aggravating when you discover the tail bitten off on almost every cast. Fortunately, the finger mullet started schooling up around 8:00 AM and were just within casting distance. Managed to load up with about 10 dozen finger mullet. Kept 2 dozen alive and packaged the remaining ones on ice for tipping lures on my future trips.
Finally I was all set around 9:00 AM, and paddled out to some barge slips. Tide was ripping in all morning which made it tough to keep the lively mullet on the bottom. I'm not a big fan of using heavy slip weights for flounder fishing but eventually had to due to the currents. Used a carolina rig setup and bounced it along bottom structure in 8 feet water depths. Ended up with a limit of flounder ranging from 17" to 19.5".
5/28/12 -- Baytown
I was hesitant to try upper Galveston Bay because my fishing trip last week resulted in 1 flounder at this spot. Normally, I do not start experiencing "50-100 flounder kind of days" until around July and August. After checking the tides online, I made a last minute decision to try the spot again.
Tide was low when I launched at 5:30 AM. Paddled to some pilings near deep water and worked the areas with Gulp pogys in pearl white. I blind casted in the dark around the pilings until daylight which proved successful. Caught and released 10 flounder ranging from 14" to 16". The tide change occurred around 7:00 AM at which point every cast was a keeper flounder. This went on for about 1 full hour. I retained a limit of flounder between 17"-20.5".
Apparently my Olympus Stylus Tough camera crapped out on me during the feeding frenzy and I only got a dozen or so pictures. I lost count how many fish were landed, which had to be at least 50 fish. Most of the fish were 14"-17" which is great news for the fishery. Only 3 of the flounder were undersized. After the flounder bite shut off around 8:00 AM, I paddled over to a nearby rocky shoreline which typically holds redfish. I worked that 1/4 mile of shoreline thoroughly with the same Gulp lures and managed a nice red that if was a 1/4 of an inch shorter, would have probably won a redfish tournament. It measured 28.25" and weighed 9.3 pounds on my digital scale. So, it was released.
After that, I just caught and released a couple more flounder along the shoreline. Called it a day around 10:00 AM when the pleasure boaters and jet skiers arrived in full force.
Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!
-WW
5/26/12 -- Galveston Island State Park
Launched the kayak around 7:00 AM and worked my way to the geotubes near GISP. Upon arrival to my first spot, the winds were still blowing pretty good. Luckily, the wind direction was just right to setup a drift. Did fairly well with Gulp pogys bouncing them along the edges of the geotubes. Ended up with a limit of flounder ranging from 15" to 19.75". Later in the morning, I started catching some nice trout in the 18"-22" range. The trout wanted the bait moved along the bottm very slowly, almost dead sticking it. Most of the fish were biting in water depths of 4-6 feet. Never found the redfish to complete a slam.
5/27/12 -- Galveston Ship Channel
Spent more time than anticipated trying to locate finger mullet for bait. Gulp is good at times, but this time of the year every species of fish like Gulp which can be aggravating when you discover the tail bitten off on almost every cast. Fortunately, the finger mullet started schooling up around 8:00 AM and were just within casting distance. Managed to load up with about 10 dozen finger mullet. Kept 2 dozen alive and packaged the remaining ones on ice for tipping lures on my future trips.
Finally I was all set around 9:00 AM, and paddled out to some barge slips. Tide was ripping in all morning which made it tough to keep the lively mullet on the bottom. I'm not a big fan of using heavy slip weights for flounder fishing but eventually had to due to the currents. Used a carolina rig setup and bounced it along bottom structure in 8 feet water depths. Ended up with a limit of flounder ranging from 17" to 19.5".
5/28/12 -- Baytown
I was hesitant to try upper Galveston Bay because my fishing trip last week resulted in 1 flounder at this spot. Normally, I do not start experiencing "50-100 flounder kind of days" until around July and August. After checking the tides online, I made a last minute decision to try the spot again.
Tide was low when I launched at 5:30 AM. Paddled to some pilings near deep water and worked the areas with Gulp pogys in pearl white. I blind casted in the dark around the pilings until daylight which proved successful. Caught and released 10 flounder ranging from 14" to 16". The tide change occurred around 7:00 AM at which point every cast was a keeper flounder. This went on for about 1 full hour. I retained a limit of flounder between 17"-20.5".
Apparently my Olympus Stylus Tough camera crapped out on me during the feeding frenzy and I only got a dozen or so pictures. I lost count how many fish were landed, which had to be at least 50 fish. Most of the fish were 14"-17" which is great news for the fishery. Only 3 of the flounder were undersized. After the flounder bite shut off around 8:00 AM, I paddled over to a nearby rocky shoreline which typically holds redfish. I worked that 1/4 mile of shoreline thoroughly with the same Gulp lures and managed a nice red that if was a 1/4 of an inch shorter, would have probably won a redfish tournament. It measured 28.25" and weighed 9.3 pounds on my digital scale. So, it was released.
After that, I just caught and released a couple more flounder along the shoreline. Called it a day around 10:00 AM when the pleasure boaters and jet skiers arrived in full force.
Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!
-WW
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