Big Flounder, Today!

Canadian fires lent a bonfire smell and hid the Sun. Dark days are usually good for fishing. We fished the GE Inlet for several hours and caught the entire length of trip, using various rigs, baits and Gulp. Water was low 70s and super clear - another great attribute for catching fish. With low wind and light drift, we hit the deep at 35-40’ and pulled up 16-17” Fluke and medium sized Dogfish, sometimes two at a time. In shallower sections, we hooked Black Sea Bass, Sea Robins (Gulp killers) and a few ugly Spider Crabs. Everybody caught fish, today! An hour or so after talking about wanting to see Dolphins, a pod of five or six came full speed out of the inlet. That was another fun sight to remember the day. These Dolpins seemed to be chasing breakfast, based on their quick travel. Hopefully, Mother Nature sends us a few more days like today! I had a great time with this returning family!

Today, the SW wind was a steady 20 mph. It was 90 degrees with full sun. Thankfully, I have a T-Top to hide from the sun once in awhile. We put on some tunes and sank our Gulp w/3 ounces of lead. My fantastic family got the hang of fishing 15-20’ of water and figuring out hits from the bottom. We caught various species: Fluke, Sea Bass, Sea Robin and Sand-Shark. The Sand-Shark story: Cooper wanted a shark and in 90 minutes, none bit. We had a conversation about it and as we were talking, the theme song for JAWS plays on my Spotify and we laughed. At that moment, Cooper’s fishing rod rips right and he says he’s got a “fish on!” This fish doubled the rod over, took off some line, and after a minute, Cooper’s Sand-Shark comes to the surface. We all got s big kick out of timing and JAWS theme playing loud on the stereo system. That’s a memory right there. Good time, a two-hour trip, and lots of smiles!!! ????

It’s no secret that fishing has been off this year, but a good charter captain looks at EVERYTHING to put tne best trip together. Tide, wind speed, wind direction, water clarity, water temperature, lure color, bait, weight of rig, drift speed, time of day, moon phase, other fishing reports, current speed, boat traffic, fishing pressure…. it’s all factored in to decisions. Today, we started off in an out of the way spot and caught/missed a few, but water was kinda dirty and 72 degrees. We drifted over the right depth (4’), but moved a little quick (1.6 mph). We moved for cleaner water and slower drift. I had two favorite spots in mind. They produced some more fish and some additional hits/misses. Some misses were angler related; some misses were just misses. Overall, we had a great trip with all five anglers catching. Our catch leader was Dakota! On top of catching, we relaxed to calm water, bluebird sky and rock hits from earlier decades. There was interesting conversation, too! Mission was accomplished! From what I heard, we did really good!!!???