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Gilligan Giggin tonight...
Before I start my story, where are my fellow giggers post.
Yan?...I miss you and you're post!
FP10, where you been!?!
Coe, no show all summer!
Conditions where not favorable once again but you gotta love Galveston Bay.
Can you imagine, if just for one night, our home waters where as clear as say, RockPort or Corpus even Port Mansfield...can you picture how many Flounder you'd see.
Our waters are loaded with Flounder. 95% of the waters I work are off-color, can't see dirt but I know where the clear stretches are and brace my self as I make my approach because I know I'm about to pop one.
Sean and I worked hard for just four flounder last night but one was worth the trip. I've learned from "Corn Dog" that to sacrifice you're dignity and electronics is worth a doormat.
I've lost around $400 this summer due to saltwater evasion and being the Bone Head I am, Hey! At least I can admit it-iPhone 3Gs-toast, new model Sony "Cyber shot-toast!
I ruined my camera tonight but I think the Memory card is going to be ok, I hope.
Sean was piloting the fan and I was on the port side as we cruised a shore with a incoming tide and the wind at our backs, the pace was just a little to hot as we cruised past a big one. I made the shot and kept her pinned but the bote would not stop and I knew from experience she was too big and would suck off the gig if I tried to hoist her "up and over" in those conditions so I walked to the back of the bote but it still would not stop so I made the jump into the water all the while keeping the big girl pinned to the bottom.
Even though it was only about one foot deep I stumbled and busted my azz [The lights from the bow left my area of work] and down I went and my Sony camera got dunked! Damn! At least this time I didn't have my iPhone in my pocket like the last time I attempted this stunt.
She was beautiful and just short of 22" Was it worth a $200 camera? Perhaps not but the memory of the event is etched into my minds eye as good as any picture. An iPhone pic was taken with the dim light from a L.E.D. I'll try to post it later if I can
Also, I hope, that the memory card is still good because I filmed a stretch of water that I knew would produce. I fired up the camera as we made the approach. Sean was piloting, holding a gig and searching the skinny water but I was looking a little deeper and sure enough I shouted out over the drone of the prop there she is and he made a perfect head shot. It's going to be a great video if the card is still salvageable.
It's funny how gigging sometimes works. [Due to the conditions of wind, tide, moon phase, mosquitos, bandits in the parking lot and wether or not you have to go to work in the morning] You just don't ever know unless you go and try and if you don't go and try then you wind up wondering, "What if" but then if you go, you know the answer is "I'm glad we went ahead and made the trip" that brings me to another point.
I know this is long winded but stay with me because it's something I think about but have not mentioned.
You know how TP&W has different rules concerning bag and length limits to different body's of water within our state. I think it's a good thing and seems to be working but when it comes to Galveston Bay and our Southern Flounder they should do the same.
We in Galveston are not gigging Flounder in crystal gin clear water like other parts of the state. We have huge amounts of Flounder BUT YOU CANNOT GIG WHAT YOU CANNOT SEE! I believe Galveston's bag limits should be 10 with a 20 posession. [sic]... {I can't spell} This means you've got 10 on you with 10 at home in the freezer for a total of 20 fish. [None of that 10 before and 10 aft mid night stuff]
Our bay is so fertile it could easily support this. Lot's of people think "gigger's slay 'em every night" but it's just not so. I'll argue with anyone, Conditions in GALVESTON have to be ice cream to take a limit by the gig because we simply do not have enough clear waters like other parts of the state. One simply cannot gig what one cannot see.
I think other parts of the state ran amuck with they're clear waters and destroyed thru greed/stupidity their Flounder populations but due to local conditions, it is simply not possible to do this by gig in Galveston's bays. I agree 100% percent about the shrimp nets taking huge breeders and smaller flounders and that it was out of hand but what was worse about the nets are the thousands and thousands of fingerlings that went washed out dead through the scuppers every day! That my friends was the real problem, not the gig.
In short...
Just as different waters has different bags and limits for Trout like the lower Laguna so should Galveston for its Flounder.
And I want to add/stress...Even though a savy "Rec Gigger" takes they're share when conditions are right in our mostly off colored waters, those same gigs don't take nearly as many as the hook and line in a single day due to the fact their aren't many of us and on another comparison. The Hook and line doesn't come close to the damage the shrimp fleet can due in a single day.
So the next time you see a Gigger don't think. "Oh, there goes a murderous bastige rapping the resource" but think instead. There goes someone who must really like Flounder and they, like me, probably care more, a lot more about the resource than the average Joe.
When the time is right for me I will do my part to bring Sea Center Texas my fair share for the future of other gin clear bays in Texas but then again. They may not want my fish because of genetic differences and if they insist to use my donners in a bay that to me does not need them, no problem because thats even more fat hungry flounder for you and me!
Feel free to post you're own arguments here and I'll do my best to counter.
We are all in this together.
Yan?...I miss you and you're post!
FP10, where you been!?!
Coe, no show all summer!
Conditions where not favorable once again but you gotta love Galveston Bay.
Can you imagine, if just for one night, our home waters where as clear as say, RockPort or Corpus even Port Mansfield...can you picture how many Flounder you'd see.
Our waters are loaded with Flounder. 95% of the waters I work are off-color, can't see dirt but I know where the clear stretches are and brace my self as I make my approach because I know I'm about to pop one.
Sean and I worked hard for just four flounder last night but one was worth the trip. I've learned from "Corn Dog" that to sacrifice you're dignity and electronics is worth a doormat.
I've lost around $400 this summer due to saltwater evasion and being the Bone Head I am, Hey! At least I can admit it-iPhone 3Gs-toast, new model Sony "Cyber shot-toast!
I ruined my camera tonight but I think the Memory card is going to be ok, I hope.
Sean was piloting the fan and I was on the port side as we cruised a shore with a incoming tide and the wind at our backs, the pace was just a little to hot as we cruised past a big one. I made the shot and kept her pinned but the bote would not stop and I knew from experience she was too big and would suck off the gig if I tried to hoist her "up and over" in those conditions so I walked to the back of the bote but it still would not stop so I made the jump into the water all the while keeping the big girl pinned to the bottom.
Even though it was only about one foot deep I stumbled and busted my azz [The lights from the bow left my area of work] and down I went and my Sony camera got dunked! Damn! At least this time I didn't have my iPhone in my pocket like the last time I attempted this stunt.
She was beautiful and just short of 22" Was it worth a $200 camera? Perhaps not but the memory of the event is etched into my minds eye as good as any picture. An iPhone pic was taken with the dim light from a L.E.D. I'll try to post it later if I can
Also, I hope, that the memory card is still good because I filmed a stretch of water that I knew would produce. I fired up the camera as we made the approach. Sean was piloting, holding a gig and searching the skinny water but I was looking a little deeper and sure enough I shouted out over the drone of the prop there she is and he made a perfect head shot. It's going to be a great video if the card is still salvageable.
It's funny how gigging sometimes works. [Due to the conditions of wind, tide, moon phase, mosquitos, bandits in the parking lot and wether or not you have to go to work in the morning] You just don't ever know unless you go and try and if you don't go and try then you wind up wondering, "What if" but then if you go, you know the answer is "I'm glad we went ahead and made the trip" that brings me to another point.
I know this is long winded but stay with me because it's something I think about but have not mentioned.
You know how TP&W has different rules concerning bag and length limits to different body's of water within our state. I think it's a good thing and seems to be working but when it comes to Galveston Bay and our Southern Flounder they should do the same.
We in Galveston are not gigging Flounder in crystal gin clear water like other parts of the state. We have huge amounts of Flounder BUT YOU CANNOT GIG WHAT YOU CANNOT SEE! I believe Galveston's bag limits should be 10 with a 20 posession. [sic]... {I can't spell} This means you've got 10 on you with 10 at home in the freezer for a total of 20 fish. [None of that 10 before and 10 aft mid night stuff]
Our bay is so fertile it could easily support this. Lot's of people think "gigger's slay 'em every night" but it's just not so. I'll argue with anyone, Conditions in GALVESTON have to be ice cream to take a limit by the gig because we simply do not have enough clear waters like other parts of the state. One simply cannot gig what one cannot see.
I think other parts of the state ran amuck with they're clear waters and destroyed thru greed/stupidity their Flounder populations but due to local conditions, it is simply not possible to do this by gig in Galveston's bays. I agree 100% percent about the shrimp nets taking huge breeders and smaller flounders and that it was out of hand but what was worse about the nets are the thousands and thousands of fingerlings that went washed out dead through the scuppers every day! That my friends was the real problem, not the gig.
In short...
Just as different waters has different bags and limits for Trout like the lower Laguna so should Galveston for its Flounder.
And I want to add/stress...Even though a savy "Rec Gigger" takes they're share when conditions are right in our mostly off colored waters, those same gigs don't take nearly as many as the hook and line in a single day due to the fact their aren't many of us and on another comparison. The Hook and line doesn't come close to the damage the shrimp fleet can due in a single day.
So the next time you see a Gigger don't think. "Oh, there goes a murderous bastige rapping the resource" but think instead. There goes someone who must really like Flounder and they, like me, probably care more, a lot more about the resource than the average Joe.
When the time is right for me I will do my part to bring Sea Center Texas my fair share for the future of other gin clear bays in Texas but then again. They may not want my fish because of genetic differences and if they insist to use my donners in a bay that to me does not need them, no problem because thats even more fat hungry flounder for you and me!
Feel free to post you're own arguments here and I'll do my best to counter.
We are all in this together.
Compare this to the amount of fish that are caught (especially during the run) by hook and liners that have no problem fishing any depth all day long.
Cooked a fair amount up last night. Fried in beer batter with potatoes. Classic euro "fish & chips", good stuff. September and October were very good to me last year gigging-wise.
COMMUNITY WITH A LARGE
PROBLEM AND A 
PROBLEM.
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