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Billy's First Flounder in 20 Years |
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I had just explained to Billy that we sometimes caught baby Gags around Docks |
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A Keeper Croaker! A Fish of my Youth is now an Oddity |
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I managed to pull out a 4 lb Southern Flounder |
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I also threw the Cast Net once and Bombarded the Jumping Mullets! |
Billy Harris quit fishing at age 12. Now at age -- he has decided to take it up again..... I want Billy to catch fish and I want him to be able to take his 2 little kids out on the
Beach and help them catch fish.... Last night, I wanted Billy to score big. He is my pupil and he has made a large investment in
fishing gear. Each of his kids have a brand new
rod and reel. I do not, repeat
DO NOT want Billy to get frustrated and quit fishing too soon...... Last night was going to be tough. When we tied
the Ferry up, the tide was falling hard... Billy was playing around and had caught a couple of
Pinfish.... I picked up his
rod that had a
lead head tied on it.....
I said "Billy, do you want to catch a Flounder?" Of course, everyone knows Billy's answer.... With no
grubs, no
gulp, and no
live bait we had a dilemma....Billy had caught a
Pinfish though. So I took the dead
Pinfish and
filleted it and
cut me a strip. I carefully threaded it on the
lead head like it was a
grub.
I explained exactly what I was doing, where and why. I explained that last shift I had caught 8-10 little Flounders with this same technique at this exact same spot.... Now with Billy's undivided attention and with dread and doubt caused by the
hard falling tide, I pitched the
leadhead and
strip combination out
over a well lighted, shallow, sandy spot that is between 2 old steel "backing plates". There is about a 10 foot section of water between the 2 vertical walls of old pock-marked rusty steel. A great ambush spot on the incoming tide..... God knows I needed a real live
Flounder to "back me up" so this
little Fishing Lesson would mean something to Billy..... Sure enough, at nearly the end of my retrieve, something grabbed my bait....
"Look Billy, I think I got a Flounder......always give him a few seconds to eat your bait"....... Time stopped as Billy stared at me like
I was a 3 headed monster..... "Here we go man, lets see" and I firmly raised my
rod.....
"Like you are spanking a baby's ass, Billy" is how I described my
hookset.... The
rod bowed and the
tip quaked,
perfect signs for an experienced Flounder Fisherman. "Yessir Billy that's a
Flounder" I said as a little
12" Summer Flounder broke the surface....
"NO WAY" Billy exclaimed, believing but not believing. Seeing but not sure.... Anyway, a minute later I showed Billy the 5 ocelli that makes a
Summer Flounder a
Summer Flounder and explained what a
Southern Flounder and a
Gulf Flounder looks like.... As I gathered my
light and gig and prepared to walk away for an hour, I watched Billy..... He carefully threaded a
fresh strip on that
jighead.... He pitched his
bait 20 feet away to the edge of that steel plate.... He slowly
"hopped" his bait back towards the other steel plate....
Suddenly he stopped. I moved a little closer to get a better view. Billy firmly lifted his rod and I heard him squawk like a Night Heron. Seconds later he swung a Flounder over the rail. The joy on his face was real. The sense of accomplishment, while meaningless in the Grand Scheme of Things, was PRICELESS IN THE MOMENT..... Billy proclaimed that it was the
First Flounder that he'd caught in 20 years.
Amazing. And, don't forget,
Flounder is what's for Supper!
Total Catch for the Night: 4 Summer Flounders from 11" to 13", 3 Southern Flounders up to 3 lbs, 2 baby Gag Grouper, 1 nice Atlantic Croaker, 6 baby Bluefish, 13 Black Sea Bass, 2 Oyster Toadfish, and 1 Atlantic Stingray
4 comments:
Cool story Capt Marty. Fishing is the ticket for sure. I love to still go with my pops and most of the time we don't say much but we don't have to either. I hope things turn out well for your friend.
Too deep the first time, I didn't reach the target audience
Do croakers still croak?
Great write-up.....you'd make a good play-by-play announcer for a boxing match or basketball game. Ever thought about writing outdoors articles for the local paper?
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