Great day on the reef!
June 24, 2023
Stone Harbor
1 photo


Cobia

Flounder

Seabass (Black)
Trip Summary
Trip Summary
I got an invite from Chris last night to tag along out front for some flounder and anything else we could find. I wasn't really sure what to expect given the crappy weather we've had over the last few days. But, you can't catch them if you don't go.
We left the marina shortly after 7am and cruised out a good distance. We checked out so.e secret squirrel stuff we did and it looks like it will be doing well in the very near future. We tried a wreck while out there, but it was covered in sea bass. Unfortunately seabass season is now closed.
So, we worked the wreck over and decided we had wasted enough gulp and other baits on the bass, we needed flounder. As we headed toward one of the reefs we had a good sized tuna explode in fro t of Chris's boat. Never expected to see that. The water was quite blue, but only 68-69 degrees. Chris had three big marks streak across the sounder down to 40 feet then shoot off. There were loads of storm petrels and Jaeger birds out there too. Jaegers are fun to mess with. We poked around d for the tuna, but no luck.
As we raced off for the reef we came across two large sea turtles, one had a tern sitting on its shell. That was cool. Then we passed a big stick floating and decided we should check it out. As we approached we discovered there was a cobia floating along beneath it. We rigged up eels to throw at it, but the cobia vanished.
We arrived at the reef and set up a drift iver so.e rubble. I got the first keeper, just slightly over 17". We had a steady pick at short and keeper flounder each drift. We moved around finding new rubble to try and it always paid off. We each had our over and one slot as the clock was ticking down. We each pulled up over fish that we of course released. That is painful, not gonna lie. Finally, on the final two drifts of the day, we each landed our final slot fish to get our limits. It felt good. We tossed a lot of shorts back, a few overs, and some that were just too damn close to call. Not to mention some nice sea bass. But, regs are regs.
It was an epic day out of the water. The sky was gorgeous, with big puffy clouds, and blue as could be. We ran home triumphant knowing we'd be eating well. I'm gonna have Lisa make her killer flounder milanese. If you haven't tried it, you are depriving yourself. Put it on your hit list!
Tight Lines!