Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Oct 22-28 Flounder Week 2013




I am back at Cape Hatteras and back to work..... Once again, I will keep this Post as a "running tally" of my fishing successes and failures.....

Oct 22- Damn I just had a 7 Flounder Rally in 10 minutes at Hatteras Village. Topped off by a 5 lb 2oz  NC Citation Flounder. All caught on a "trout rod" with 8#  mono and a white 4" Gulp Shrimp. I'm pitching it in 2 feet of water to lighted areas. Is this "my slump buster"? It feels good. Alot of fishing left in this night! It's GAME ON..... So, it rained and stayed windy later in the night.... I caught a couple more Flounders though. Interestingly, as I looked closely at my large Flounder, it turned out to be a Summer Flounder. This one is definitely my career largest and first career NC Citation Summer Flounder! Obviously, I have caught many many Southern Flounders over 5 lbs...... So, the total for the night finished up at 7 Summer Flounder up to 5 lb 2oz and 3 Southern Flounder up to 16". Great start to my week!

Oct 23- Today I had a great 30 minutes on the Beach up at Buxton. Fishing at the original Cape Hatteras Lighthouse location where 3 old, broken up Steel Groins are still in place. Up here they call them "the Jettys". Regardless of their name, they make a great fishing area. I haven't fished up there in a long time. I'm not sure why? Lazy.... So today I was tossing a white gulp 50 feet out in the Ocean. In 30 minutes, I had 4 bites. I missed two and hooked two. The two I hooked made it to the Beach and were absolutely beautifully colored Summer Flounders. Nice ones too. One was 21" the other was 20". Time to go to work now. I expect more Flounders!  Well, expectations were NOT met.... Fishing sucked. All I managed to catch was a Flat Needlefish. That is my second "weirdo" Needlefish of 2013.... Earlier I caught an Agujon. My career Needles include: Houndfish, Atlantic Needlefish, Agujon, and Flat Needlefish. It's a very cool family of fishes....

Oct 24- Another bad night of fishing. No bites around Hatteras. Over at Ocracoke, it was bad also. No Flounder action. I even went gigging. Nothing. Finally, out of boredom I dropped a bottom rig baited with shrimp among the Rocks.... Caught a gaggle of Pinfish and Sea Bass. Out of  nowhere I got a monster bite. It pulled drag as it bored downward. Then.... POP went the 10# mono! I think it was a big Oyster Toadfish, but..... I have a few doubts. Dammit, I wish I would've seen it. Finally, a couple weeks ago I bought a new "Roe Mullet Net"... Large Mesh, Heavy Weight 10 foot Cast Net. I've thrown it a few times. So last night I threw it and Be-Jesus.... What a Load.... at 3am I struggled to pull a load of adult Jumping Mullets over the side. Thud. A net loaded with Mullets. 22 Jumping Mullets up to 5 lbs. I threw alot back because I just don't need them.

Oct 25- Continuing with the Flounder theme.... So far this week, I've caught a few Flounder. I got a Flounder Citation. Today I baked a Jumbo Flounder with potatoes and onions. Finally late this afternoon, I just walked over to the Beach nearest to the State House and started casting a white gulp shrimp... My first cast bogged down on the retrieve, then my rod tip started bouncing as a Summer Flounder began to shake his head in an effort to dislodge my hook. Yessir, another Flounder! Another rally. All of these Flounders were borderline, 14" to 15" to 16", and I didn't keep any of them anyway. I was going to keep a 3+ pounder if I caught one. This was a very enjoyable fishing session. No one else was catching anything. I shook them up bad by walking up and catching 6 quick Flounders and a Spot. Also, the False Albacore were tearing it up just beyond the outer bar. If I could've hooked one of them..... INSTANT LEGEND

Oct 26- Really not alot of fishing....  Dropped a bottom rig over the Rocks and caught an Oyster Toadfish. Dropped it again and hooked a monster. Presumed a huge Toad. Regardless, I never saw it. It snapped my 10# mono in heavy structure. It hurt though. I hate losing fish.... Tried to play with the Flounders and coudn't find any...

Oct 27- Big difference from yesterday. When I first got to work, I dropped a gulp down in a foot of water and a little Flounder attacked. The bait was too big. But, he attacked anyway. Again and again and again. Over and over. Probably 30 times this Flounder attacked that gulp. I told anyone that would listen "Fish are going to bite tonight".....  And bite they did. Flounder after Flounder, They bit all night. I had a couple of licensed guys on the boat so no one get excited... When it was over I had 8 Southern Flounder, including 3 that were in the 4 lb class. I also had 2 Summer Flounder. My smallest Flounder was 15". He was bleeding pretty badly or I would've released him. I released 4 Flounder that were borderline. I didn't catch anything other than Flounder. No garbage. Great Night!

Oct 28- Another good night of Flounder fishing. Another NC Citation. This one was a 22" 5 lb Southern Flounder that attacked a 7" Mullet. I also caught 2 19" Flounders, a Summer and a Southern. I also got a pair of 15" Summer Flounders. I released 3 Flounders that were too small. Also released a some garbage fish and some Bluefish that were too small. Walked over to the Inlet at 3am and saw an astounding number of Red Drum right in the suds... Ran back to my truck (as much as my back would allow) Ran back to the Inlet and wouldn't you know, they were gone.....

Total Catch for the Week: 21 Summer Flounder up to 5 lbs 2oz, 16 Southern Flounder up to 5 lbs, 1 Spot, 6 Bluefish, 7 Pinfish, 3 Oyster Toadfish at 2 lbs, 1 Flat Needlefish, and 12 Black Sea Bass

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where's our update Capt? A few of us live vicariously through you!

John Jr

Capt. Marty said...

Theres a 10 flounder update for you and that ain't chopped liver there bud-ro

Capt. Marty said...

Theres a 10 flounder update for you and that ain't chopped liver there bud-ro