FLATFISH NEWS

Volume III: Second Edition. June 1, 2009. Page One

Catch What's Biting with Flounder Pounder.

After Ike, Has It All Changed?

 Eight months after Hurricane Ike in Galveston's upper west bay, it seems as though the holes I once fished before the storm are not really there anymore. I am always telling people who want to know where to catch flounder to go fish channel marker poles. Easy to find always consistent. It seems as though the ones I used to fish have either disappeared or have been replaced in another location.

Now the thing about that, is that they are there but they are new. The washouts around them have not recreated themselves as well, they may not be placed as near or on the ledge as before or the sea life has not yet re-grown well to the treated poles or around them to draw and maintain sea life around it. You know the stuff flounder eat like the minnows and shrimp, shad, and piggy perch. But the poles that are there, will with time become as good as they once were just about the time they quit being completely chemical green.

I fished some again last week in west bay with a friend of mine named Justin. I tell him he is bad luck, but this trip was better than the last one we had so that could not be the case. The first pole we fished with Pounders gave up a nice small drum. The second one gave up a big whiting, the third one gave a nice speck, and the fourth one a nice small red. This was on an incoming tide, and  heavy winds and some real dirty water. I like to fish poles on an outgoing for flounder, but hey fish are fish and any fish is good when you hit a new or changed spot. The poles are still very green but this trip held some life. I would like to say we caught more but the winds blew us off early in his small boat.

The bait camps to me are like the poles.  A lot of the bait camps have  all but disappeared, but like the channel markers some are still there but they are different, some have been replaced and still others are in new places having to re-grow the life around them to draw the bait (that is you) as well as it did before and like the poles with time they will, and yet some are still a good cut that is slowly rebuilding itself.

I went fishing with some friends in April, they are avid saltwater beginners and had recently become owners of there very first bay boat. We followed an old fishing journal log book of mine from 1989.  I told them The Gale Warning that called for a small craft advisory that was pumping the 25 mph winds with gusts would not bother the reds if it did not bother them.  It was the same in the log book entry around that day in 1989. I took them out in their new boat to show them around in west bay, down around the new causeway.

Crossing the bridge into Galveston to fish for the first time since the storm, I explained to them that you could always tell the tide height in the bay just by looking at the reefs and how they were exposed. I also explained to them that if you could see pelicans diving on bait that the tide was going out. What I saw showed me that those reefs were laid flat or basically washed down and away and spread out it seemed. It was easy to tell that the bay was changed. The pelicans were still a easy and good sign from atop the bridge.

Heading for the ramp at the crash basin on the south shoreline, we passed neighborhoods that were still in complete disrepair and seemingly desolate of people. The real feeling of the truth of that came when the sun went down and the new darkness of the island set in. I remember being able to run the bay with established landmarks and lights on the shorelines. Those familiar features are not there like they used to be and that made for the first interesting trip on the water at night for me in a very long time. Its not to say that they are all gone or that they have all disappeared but they have all changed. But did the fishing change as well? 

 The reef that I have used to stop at and catch live bait on for the last twenty five years is now virtually underwater.  I am sure that on a good high tide that all of it is. The bait is still there but to catch it you have to walk in the water over most of it even on a outgoing tide. It made me wonder if the trout will still stack up at the end of it on a outgoing tide at night like they did before the storm. We will have to try it later this year.

After instructing them about their new cast net and how their cast net worked, I showed them how to catch some finger mullet for bait as well as how to rip it on the shell.  I explained that this was a small sacrifice to the fish gods. We then set off down the bay a few hundred yards to fish a spot for reds on another reef. That reef always had a major cut thru it that was easily identified and able to be found even in the dark. Now that same cut is filled in with oyster shell and probably silt or sand and almost impossible to spot without looking for it carefully. In fact I would not really call it a cut now but more of a low spot on the reef that lets water pass over it during the rise and fall of the tides. 

My friends John and Dale watched me catch 3 reds on Flounder Pounder Slide Lures while they took turns for about two hours and landed ten or twelve reds, and broke off six or eight more with the live mullet. It was a small free for for all amid white caps. The reds still ate the mullet they fished with. and even drew in the oozing gafftop. They kept enough to brag with,  and to eat at Sunday dinner. They said they had fun bobbing up and down in the middle of the bay doing it, but I heard not all the  reds felt quite the same.

In my opinion it has not changed. The bait fish were on the remnants of the old  bait reef. The redfish were the same ornery fish as always, and they ate the same baits. They ate them in just about the same spot as before,  and they did it in dirty nasty brown water under high winds just like the log said.

The cut we fished was probably created by a storm like Alicia in 1983, and I know was enhanced by a storm in 1989 It was then transformed again by another one in 2008 and gave up reds yet again in 2009. It fished the same twenty years later.

Yes everything has changed. Everything but the fishing. Now we have to change how were going to be fishing. Where you choose to launch and how and where your going to run the boat if you still have one to run on the water. Being able to fish from the shore has changed, most spots are gone like the piers or are closed or off limits to the public due to excessive damage or debris. Fishing though has not changed at all. So gather your gear and remember that after Ike everything has changed except the fishing. It is the same even better. The only change is fishing around the change that Ike left behind.

Get Shaken Not Stirred With  Flounder On The Rocks!

BACK

SHOP CATALOG

I always love writing on this subject. It is probably because this was the first place and the first way I caught flounder in Galveston. Texas. Bobby Morrow showed me how to do it, and how to do it well on the rock arms all along the Galveston seawall.

The technique was simple. Use live finger mullet, a 1 oz. egg sinker, a barrel swivel, and a #6 treble hook. It is the most basic live bait rig you can use and it will work anywhere, for just about anything. Now that all fit into a small pocket size box that could fit in your custom island shorts. All you needed after that was a rod and reel, cast net, 5 gallon bucket, live float bait bucket on a rope, a lid for the 5 gallon bucket or a covered live well box for during transport (the cooler), add a air pump and a battery and you would catch all the flounder on the beach that you wanted. Right after you caught the finger mullet. The best days were when you could catch the finger mullett on the beach off the rocks. It meant an earlier start.

I would not pass up a single chance to do it all again each and every time. It has not changed after 28 years since I was first introduced to it.

Ike did the same thing Alicia did in 1983. It rearranged some of the granite boulders. It stacked the sand higher or farther  in/out along them. It changed the washouts and troughs along at the base of the granite arms. But the flounder are still there.

So if you want to catch Flounder on the Galveston Island Beach Front from March thru November this is what you do.. The only draw back is timing. The winds must be from the southeast lightly to clean the water up. Beachfront flounder want clean water to make fishing easy. Or I want clean water to see the rocks to walk along in the water because that is the way it is done properly.

Yes I step into the water and you will step into the water and onto the rocks about knee deep as well. Not all arms let you do this but many will. I start as shallow as I can on the arm and work as far down as I can. Remember this is dangerous, you could actually severely if not fatally hurt yourself. Do it with full respect and absolute caution. Above all else at your own discretion.

Fish each rock individually whether your in the water on the rocks or on top staying dry. Move from one rock to the next. Flip about 5 cast's in front of each rock. Short 30 foot cast's are best. Just let them hit bottom and work thru and along the washout along the rock arm base rip rap. Bump it along in solid pauses with short lifts of the rod. Move continuously one rock at the time and work both sides. You wont fish around the ends much they slope out to much to control your rigs. There are big fish there but your going to give up some tackle doing it.

One thing for sure when you catch the water right you will catch fish. If you fish this way you will catch a lot of fish.  In fact if you fish granite rock walls or jetties anywhere that flounder exist, the technique is the same. Fish the bottom, with control, use live bait slip rigs  or lures and you will catch flounder. Odds are you will catch some of everything in the water. We always do.

Have You Seen This Fish?

Texas Parks and Wildlife cant find this fish. The latest report says that this fish has suddenly taken a sharp decline. I cant say if it is true, but I do believe their are fewer flounder than 28 years ago when I started. Recreational sport fishing is not the culprit alone though.

Gigging done commercially and for recreation and of which I have done both is hard on them. That kind of turkey shoot isn't as bad as shrimp trawls though and with far more than flounder. But that is my own opinion. I am not against any of them at all, we all love shrimp both for food and bait, we love to gig, and we love to fish. To be fair our lures are effecting the population as well. But the fact remains the flounder are getting thinner. Pollution, loss of habitat, global warming, gigging, sport fishing, commercial fishing, shrimp trawls and truly effective flounder lures will all take a toll in force on our third but unrecognized game fish in Texas.

It is time for the State of Texas to recognize the flounder for what it is, a valuable Game Fish. When the State does, even the State will see the flounder again. For now it is my understanding that November will stay open for flounder but with a two fish limit. I hope it does not end up regulated like snapper. We are glad for the open season, and two fish is reasonable if you consider two things, the average size flounder that can be found at that time of year and not getting to fish for flounder at all.

But the smart anglers wont wait for the November limit to fill their freezers or to catch big flounder. They will start in June, July, and August doing that.  I believe these are the best months for flounder in the bays. You will to if you learn to fish the barometer on the fall. Look for low pressure systems moving on the coast from the north or from the gulf (tropical lows)  this is when the flounder are most active in the summer. You will see that you can catch as many flounder in the heat as well as you can in the cold.

So this year do as I do. Fill up early on flounder, but if your to busy nailing reds and trout get started in September, trust me the water does not have to be buttocks cold to catch big fat flounder. You just need some Flounder Pounder Lures and a little saltwater.

The New Galveston Causeway Creates New Hot Trout Hole. Destroys Worlds Best Flounder Hole.

I watched in complete sadness at the live televised demolition of the Old Galveston Causeway support pads. Those bases however old they were, were full of a complete and established eco system. The layout of the old square bases, depth, their proximity to each other, and design were magnets for flounder. If you fished them trout and reds were common place fish as well. In fact if you wanted to fish, were beginners and did not know the bay, the bridge, that bridge, would be the gateway to a memorable salty experience. You would catch the big three.  Sand trout, croakers and sheep head.  I said beginners. But even they would find the other big three here, the flounder, trout, and redfish.  They all once thrived under the bridge. But now things are different. The new bridge does not have the same bases down its length. Most are thin and round. A few are square but only a few. They are all spaced very far apart and that just left less bottom structure for everyone.

The flounder are not there like before. No numbers, you cant catch multiple fish under the same structure. No sand trout are hitting the jigs, I do not see the sheep head eating along the bases, and I have not caught any big croaker on them either. I say this because we did on the old bridge, and we did it with Pounders.

I heard the silly rumor that the bottom was to be kept free of debris during and after construction. If that were true you would not catch enough construction debris each trip to build your own bridge. A underwater investigation at the new bridge should be launched. Ike versus the State who is really at the bottom!

The State of Texas did create a wonderful trout hole though. The causeway is now lit up like the Fourth of July every night. In fact it may very well be the most beautiful thing you see from the bay at night. It reassures you that Galveston is there  and that Galveston is alive. It is bright and full of energy. The kayak gang should really appreciate it. Just slip in at the Causeway Camp ramp, or drop in under the bridge and your in the lights. Just take your pick and start working. May I suggest Monday thru Thursday, you will be alone and in paradise when you crack the pattern. And there is a pattern.

We have been seeing the boaters as well. Like us they are fishing with the 1000 watt bulbs on board under the bridge. That's what we do and it is still highly effective there. The new bridge is probably better now for trout with all the lights running continuously down the bridge. The lack of structure will hinder them in a heavy current though. There is simply less current deflection than before from the loss of the base structures.

With all that light I got to wondering if the flounder are feeding all night long and sleeping during the day. After all  it must be easier to feed when the lights school and concentrate the bait under them.

It will take time for the flounder holes to reestablish themselves here. Because the block bases are fewer and in deeper water a pattern of season will most likely develop on them. Cooler weather look for them in along the big bases. there are only 5-8 of them now but they do have tremendous drops and holes in front of them. Flounder will love it when they get right again.

The round pole supports will each need to be fished individually for some time to learn their quirks. But  the bottom is going to need a lot of time to bury the old memories and an even longer time to bury the new construction debris in this hot new trout hole.

Word of warning, the debris around the  Galveston Causeway Bridge is bad enough to cost you an anchor anywhere along it's length. I have lost them and hang them each trip. Most give with a fight, but be prepared to lose some. Drop with caution and at your own risk. 

Best tip I can give local west bay flounder anglers right now is to look for and fish as much old wood structure that you can find, check the bridge, but don't base a trip for flounder just here. Head for the grass guts and cuts. Find the holes on the reefs and work old bulkheads. New piers are fishing about the same as the channel markers, green and with chemical. Time, a lot of it, will change this and they will all become new standard holes again.

Confishy once said, The good angler will practice patience the most to become a better fisherman.

Do you have children? Do you want to introduce them to fishing? Do you want to have them catch fish when your fishing the coast? Do you want them to have a good time on the waters edge. Do you want them to ask you to spend more time with them?

These are questions I ask parents all the time. The answers are always the same. Yes to them all. Well here is a way to get them answered and to spend a lot of quality time doing it.

Here on the coast we have a number of fish to catch from shore. This one does not need a boat. You can do it on the rock arms of the Galveston beach. You can catch it on the rocks of the east side of 61st street. you can catch them around any old piling with barnacle growth on it.

This fish can be caught sight fishing, and that really makes it more fun. How many times have you wondered about how a fish hits a bait. This fish will let you see it do it. In fact that may be the best part of this fish, next to size, ready abundance, and the ability to find lots of them by standing and fishing from dry ground.

Everyone knows that children have a short span of attention at any age. Unless you make the activity interesting you lose their interest fast. That is what makes this fish so much fun for the child and the family. By now I am sure you are wondering what is this magical fish. Well it is the saltwater sheeps head.

Yes the scourge of the sea as some call it. Others call them convict fish because of the stripes they wear. Regardless of what someone calls them I call them pure fun.

This wonderful fish gives even the smallest angler a very real chance of catching something that weighs up to 12 or more pounds. Though most of the fish run 1 - 8 pounds each. The person that learns to catch these fish can go fishing anytime of the year, in clean or dirty water, whether or not the wind is blowing and catch fish, every time at the water. Of course the clean water always makes it easier, but the fact is they feed in dirty water to. Where they feed and how they feed makes them easy to catch in dirty water.

The sheeps head design was made for  a specific purpose. To eat or chew the barnacle growth on underwater structures. That explains all of the teeth in their mouth. These teeth can and will nip the finger or take one that falls into them. They say its name comes from the teeth, in that they look like a full set of sheep's teeth. I know  they are some mean tough teeth. You can actually here the teeth of the fish chewing at the barnacles in calm areas. Yes the same barnacles that grow on rock, granite, poles, pilings, boat hulls, tires, oysters and old salty anglers. Barnacles are the first secret to finding them and catching them. If you find barnacles you will find a sheep head.

My favorite type of place to catch them is around granite or hard structure. Jetties, rock arms, break walls. This type of structure is like a grocery store. It is almost always available on the coast anywhere along the gulf. Plus you can usually walk on a lot of it for free. Take the Seawall for instance in Galveston. The rock arms there are full of sheep head all year. Late winter and early spring months are even better during the spawn. Big giant females can be caught on the ends.

  There are many broad flat areas that create eddies on them somewhere (depending on direction of tide flow and placement in the water) that the fish will get in and simply float up and down facing the structure. The fish will be chewing all along the structure eating the barnacle growth. Many old time salts that have passed on used to tell me that they would carry a shovel and scrape the barnacles on their structures and it would chum them to them. I tried it a few times but was never impressed with the extra equipment and effort to make it a worthwhile event.

I still believe that to catch these fish the best, that it is wiser to move from rock to rock or pole to pole and so on. What I have found is that there are feeding rocks that hold and draw fish on a regular basis. Something about location, tide deflection, and barnacle concentration. Whatever the reason when you find this rock you can sit and catch them all day long. You will find that some are there on high tide and some are there on low tide.

Remember to look for barnacles. If you see barnacles look up and down the structure for sheep head. Polarized glasses make all the difference in the world. Many times the sheep head will give himself away by simply working so close to the surface of the water his fins and body are out of the water.

If your on a pier the fish will be right on the pilings, look over the side and down the pilings for them. In dirty water lay your bait right against the structure and the sheep head will graze right into it. This is how you do it on the rocks the best. I use long bamboo cane poles or calcutta poles. They are hard to find but they are available. A14 ft. surf rod works well for all rock fishing for sheep head. Think length and strength for a pole. You want to reach out, over, and sometimes under the spot your fishing for them. Since they are strong, have hard mouths, and are heavy, you need stout. Your going to lift some big fish from some distant drops.

The bait is where the family fun starts first. You will all get involved in catching bait. There are two types of bait that are at the top of the sheep heads list. They are the sand fiddler crab, and the blue stone crab. You can catch them well with live shrimp or dead shrimp. But you will always catch them with these two crabs.

How to do it is simple, go to the beach or along a bay shoreline and get into salt marsh grasses. Look for the little holes that the sand fiddlers run into. Chase these critters down. If you want to see something funny just watch the kids catch them, or watch the crabs catch the kids. The trick is to stick your finger into the sand about 4-6 inches behind the hole and block the crab from getting down into his burrow. You will see them there at the mouth of the entrance. Catch about 40-50 because the sheep head will suck them off your hook and you wont even know it.

The stone crab is caught at low tide. Takes a bit more work. It is the easiest bait of the two to catch after a cold front. That is when the tides are pushed out the best. What you will do is use a claw hammer to flip over rocks and debris that is exposed along the shoreline at dead or extreme low tide. Always wear gloves, and be careful reaching for them so as not to grab a oyster or other sharp object wrong. Use the ones that are about the size of a nickel to around the fifty cent piece. Always gather more than you think you will need. If you have any leftovers save them and freeze them in a plastic bag for your next trip.

. Of course your pole is going to need to be long and stout. Those mentioned above all work well. I recommend 40 lb. test. Use a standard live bait egg sinker slip rig with a heavy gold saltwater single bait holder hook They are standard in any tackle shop or bait camp.

When you hook your crab onto the hook, simply slip  only the barb into the crab. Stick it into a leg socket into the cavity. I will post pictures for you later showing all of this for you.

I think that anyone who has this fish available to them can entertain themselves and others all day long on just about any given day of the year if they will just learn to fish for this bruiser.

Now that you know about this super fish of the shore bound salty angler let me tell you also that it is absolutely a white flack delicious meat. It is excellent in seafood salad. But the way to cook it best is to cook it whole. Baked in the oven or over the pit. That is not a bad thing in itself but your going to have to scale the fish and dress it. That is a serious task for a beginner. You will waste the fish if you filet it. It is big boned, large scale, and tough on the outside skin. That is for all that barnacle rubbing. But do eat what you catch. They are almost as good as flounder.