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Flounder Update from the Lutes Tournament
Saturday's tournament had 48 fisherman show up.
We collected 22 live flounder, including a 21" that will get a FREE replica for giving up a fish of that size.
Here is a note from a Sea Center Biologist
"brief update on the fish and how they will play a role on our 2009-2010 Flounder Stock Enhancement plans. First of all, the fish are doing well. We lost one on Sunday and I just pulled an additional 7 dead fish out of the tank. This is not unusual for summer time collections as many of the fish cannot handle the stresses of being caught and transported in warm water. So we currently have 14 fish that are still alive and well, including the big 4 & ½ pounder. I expect that the October 10th tournament will bring in at least another 25 fish. As far as the date for your last tournament, the fisherman would be able to keep more fish in December, but there will certainly be more fish in the bay on November 14th. Either way, I am sure that it will be a productive tournament. I am certain that you will exceed your 100 fish and $1000 donation goals. Each and every one of the fisherman that have participated to this point should be proud of the work that they have done. We would like for them to know how much we truly appreciate their help. They are welcome to come by the Sea Center during visitation hours and see our operations. They can request to see any of the biologists when they visit and we would be happy to show them the flounder.
Right now we are in the thick of red drum and speckled trout fingerling production and will continue with our Sciaenidae operations thru November. The flounder are on their photo/thermal cycle and are scheduled to naturally spawning in late October. We have approximately 240 fish (including the new donations) for the Galveston Bay and Sabine Lake ecosystems. Depending on the fertility rate of the natural spawns, we will start strip spawning in either November or December. We would like to get some larvae to stock into our ponds before the holidays so that we can begin stocking fingerlings much sooner than we did this last year. Chester Moore has highlighted much of last years work on his Flounder Revolution website.
In the next month we plan on having another tank online that will be used for flounder spawning. CCA has donated $30,000 to the Sea Center for supplies and materials that will allow us to double our broodstock holding capacity. I am hoping that with donations from these tournaments and our own intense collection efforts that we are able to fully utilize all available tank space for flounder broodstock.
I will keep you updated with any new developments in the next couple of months. Also if you know anyone that is an experienced flounder gigger, I’d like to get in touch with them. We are planning on doing some night time collections by netting the fish under lights (as opposed to gigging).
Thank you
Shane
P.S. – You asked me the other day if any red drum have been stocked into Chocolate Bayou. To date we have stocked 1.7 million red drum and 1 million speckled trout fingerlings into the Galveston Bay system. We have not stocked anything into Chocolate bayou, but will likely do so in September. We have stocked 130,000 speckled trout into nearby Karankawa Bay .
We collected 22 live flounder, including a 21" that will get a FREE replica for giving up a fish of that size.
Here is a note from a Sea Center Biologist
"brief update on the fish and how they will play a role on our 2009-2010 Flounder Stock Enhancement plans. First of all, the fish are doing well. We lost one on Sunday and I just pulled an additional 7 dead fish out of the tank. This is not unusual for summer time collections as many of the fish cannot handle the stresses of being caught and transported in warm water. So we currently have 14 fish that are still alive and well, including the big 4 & ½ pounder. I expect that the October 10th tournament will bring in at least another 25 fish. As far as the date for your last tournament, the fisherman would be able to keep more fish in December, but there will certainly be more fish in the bay on November 14th. Either way, I am sure that it will be a productive tournament. I am certain that you will exceed your 100 fish and $1000 donation goals. Each and every one of the fisherman that have participated to this point should be proud of the work that they have done. We would like for them to know how much we truly appreciate their help. They are welcome to come by the Sea Center during visitation hours and see our operations. They can request to see any of the biologists when they visit and we would be happy to show them the flounder.
Right now we are in the thick of red drum and speckled trout fingerling production and will continue with our Sciaenidae operations thru November. The flounder are on their photo/thermal cycle and are scheduled to naturally spawning in late October. We have approximately 240 fish (including the new donations) for the Galveston Bay and Sabine Lake ecosystems. Depending on the fertility rate of the natural spawns, we will start strip spawning in either November or December. We would like to get some larvae to stock into our ponds before the holidays so that we can begin stocking fingerlings much sooner than we did this last year. Chester Moore has highlighted much of last years work on his Flounder Revolution website.
In the next month we plan on having another tank online that will be used for flounder spawning. CCA has donated $30,000 to the Sea Center for supplies and materials that will allow us to double our broodstock holding capacity. I am hoping that with donations from these tournaments and our own intense collection efforts that we are able to fully utilize all available tank space for flounder broodstock.
I will keep you updated with any new developments in the next couple of months. Also if you know anyone that is an experienced flounder gigger, I’d like to get in touch with them. We are planning on doing some night time collections by netting the fish under lights (as opposed to gigging).
Thank you
Shane
P.S. – You asked me the other day if any red drum have been stocked into Chocolate Bayou. To date we have stocked 1.7 million red drum and 1 million speckled trout fingerlings into the Galveston Bay system. We have not stocked anything into Chocolate bayou, but will likely do so in September. We have stocked 130,000 speckled trout into nearby Karankawa Bay .
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