Took off work today and went back out to fish the Highland Bayou and Pierce Marsh area. Made a full day trip and just paddled here and there and relaxed. Mid week fishing trips do not happen too often for me, so I took advantage of it. Weather was great, still cool in the morning and didn't get too hot. Today was catch and release.
Got on the water around 7:00 AM and paddled down the bayou to the railroad bridge. Water had very good visibility and there was a strong outgoing tide. Anchored down and began fan casting the red and white H&H curly tail tipped with a Gulp pogy. First couple of casts I noticed the strong current was pulling the jighead into shell which kept fraying my line. So, I retied and put on a 50 lb mono leader to the 1/4 oz jighead. First cast resulted in a nice 21" flounder which was released.
Kept fan casting around the railroad pilings and caught a few more flounder measuring 15"-17".
Seemed like the bite shutoff at the railroad bridge, so I paddled into Pierce Marsh mid morning. Tide was still going out and the water level was getting very low. As I approached the first couple cuts into the marsh, I saw rafts of nervous finger mullet along the spartina grass in about 6 inches of water. Immediately I saw a flounder launch into the air after some finger mullet. I slowly stood up in the kayak and sight casted to the flounder (10 feet away) which was completely visible on the bottom. Dropped the lure right in front of her head and she slammed it. Turned out to be a 19" flounder with great color and spots.
After letting her go, I continued sight casting to smaller flounder which was still a blast. Ended up catching and releasing 5 more flounder.
I also tried a couple cuts in the Jones Bay marsh, near the the railroad tracks. This area turned out to be the most productive, where I caught 10 flounder up to 20". Just kept bouncing the lure in the deepest part of the cut against the current.
As seen in the photo, the 20" flounder regurgitated a 9 inch mullet when I landed her. I couldn't believe she was still hungry enough to nail my lure.
Overall, a productive day and great way to end October. Looking forward to the colder days of November and December and fishing for giant flounder.
Got on the water around 7:00 AM and paddled down the bayou to the railroad bridge. Water had very good visibility and there was a strong outgoing tide. Anchored down and began fan casting the red and white H&H curly tail tipped with a Gulp pogy. First couple of casts I noticed the strong current was pulling the jighead into shell which kept fraying my line. So, I retied and put on a 50 lb mono leader to the 1/4 oz jighead. First cast resulted in a nice 21" flounder which was released.
Kept fan casting around the railroad pilings and caught a few more flounder measuring 15"-17".
Seemed like the bite shutoff at the railroad bridge, so I paddled into Pierce Marsh mid morning. Tide was still going out and the water level was getting very low. As I approached the first couple cuts into the marsh, I saw rafts of nervous finger mullet along the spartina grass in about 6 inches of water. Immediately I saw a flounder launch into the air after some finger mullet. I slowly stood up in the kayak and sight casted to the flounder (10 feet away) which was completely visible on the bottom. Dropped the lure right in front of her head and she slammed it. Turned out to be a 19" flounder with great color and spots.
After letting her go, I continued sight casting to smaller flounder which was still a blast. Ended up catching and releasing 5 more flounder.
I also tried a couple cuts in the Jones Bay marsh, near the the railroad tracks. This area turned out to be the most productive, where I caught 10 flounder up to 20". Just kept bouncing the lure in the deepest part of the cut against the current.
As seen in the photo, the 20" flounder regurgitated a 9 inch mullet when I landed her. I couldn't believe she was still hungry enough to nail my lure.
Overall, a productive day and great way to end October. Looking forward to the colder days of November and December and fishing for giant flounder.
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