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Texas flounder in January

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  • Texas flounder in January

    I had meetings in Houston last week and again this week. Rather than deal with more airport time in January and the cold temperatures in Maryland, I stayed the weekend in Texas. I spent Fri evening in Galveston. It is the offseason, so things were not crowded. With 75 deg temperatures and good seafood, I enjoyed myself.

    I woke up Sat morning to heavy fog. I took the free ferry across to the Bolivar peninsula where I planned to meet my friend Mike, who has a beach house at Crystal Beach. I arrived 90 minutes before he did, so I went to a small inlet (Rollover Pass) where I could fish from the shoreline. The fog was quite heavy during the morning.

    I saw one 37" redfish in a cooler that had been caught the previous night, but otherwise, nobody around me was catching anything. I tried soft plastics, a Cicada vibrating blade bait (this lure had caught redfish there in the summer of 2010) but had no bites. I switched over to a Gulp bait. Over the next 30 minutes, I caught two flounder at about 14" (the legal limit in Texas). I threw both of them back. One of them is shown below.

    Mike arrived about 11:30. We ate a quick lunch then drove to a ramp (the launch fee at the privately owned ramp here was only $2 ). We fished in Mike's Boston Whaler for about 2 hours in open water over oyster lumps in 4 ft of water. I caught another flounder and had a trout part way to the boat before it jumped and threw the hook). Mike picked up a sand trout on a Corkie lure -- the rest of the fish came on Gulp baits.

    We moved into sheltered channels through the marsh grass (Mike called them bayous). We each picked up another flounder in the bayou - Mike's was about 19". By late afternoon, the mosquitoes came out in force, so we called it quits. Mike cleaned 3 flounder and the sand trout, which we had for dinner.

    We woke up Sunday morning, planning to take the boat out again. But the fog had reformed so we fished from the shoreline again. Mike caught a small sand trout, but I caught nothing. We called it quits and had a delicious lunch of grilled shrimp overlooking East Bay.

    The fishing was far from fast and furious, but the shirt-sleeve weather was fabulous. I also can now claim my first ever January flounder.
    Attached Files
    John Veil
    Annapolis
    Native Watercraft Manta Ray 11, Falcon 11

    Author - "Fishing in the Comfort Zone" , "Fishing Road Trip - 2019", "My Fishing Life: Two Years to Remember", and "The Way I Like to Fish -- A Kayak Angler's Guide to Shallow Water, Light Tackle Fishing"

  • #2
    Thanks for the great report. The Gulf Coast certainly sounds like a fishing paradise, not the least of which that you can fish in Februarywithout freezing your knuckles off! Is the flounder the same species as our summer flounder here on the Atlantic coast? And sand trout- is that related to the grey and speckled trout that we have here?

    Steve, Greenbelt

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    • #3
      thanks for the report john, too bad no big reds

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      • #4
        Originally posted by toadfinger View Post
        Thanks for the great report. The Gulf Coast certainly sounds like a fishing paradise, not the least of which that you can fish in Februarywithout freezing your knuckles off! Is the flounder the same species as our summer flounder here on the Atlantic coast? And sand trout- is that related to the grey and speckled trout that we have here?

        Steve, Greenbelt
        The flounder looks like our summer flounder -- I think it is the same species. The sand trout is a separate species from weakfish and specks. It did not have any spots -- just silver sides.
        John Veil
        Annapolis
        Native Watercraft Manta Ray 11, Falcon 11

        Author - "Fishing in the Comfort Zone" , "Fishing Road Trip - 2019", "My Fishing Life: Two Years to Remember", and "The Way I Like to Fish -- A Kayak Angler's Guide to Shallow Water, Light Tackle Fishing"

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        • #5
          Nice Work John!!

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          • #6
            Awesome! You sure do travel well! I need to start fishing on business trips...
            Ryan
            Blue 2016 Hobie Outback
            Chesapeake Bay Kayak Anglers, Inc

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            • #7
              Originally posted by shadyfisher85 View Post
              Awesome! You sure do travel well! I need to start fishing on business trips...
              I have a 3-piece, 7-ft St Croix travel rod in a hard case. I pack a reel and some tackle and tools into a soft-sided 6-pack cooler bag that fits into my luggage. I have never had trouble with carrying lures through security (don't bring knives or large pliers), but prefer to check the tackle if I already need to check a bag.

              That is sufficient to catch plenty of fish. Of course, it helps to have friends with boats in faraway places .
              John Veil
              Annapolis
              Native Watercraft Manta Ray 11, Falcon 11

              Author - "Fishing in the Comfort Zone" , "Fishing Road Trip - 2019", "My Fishing Life: Two Years to Remember", and "The Way I Like to Fish -- A Kayak Angler's Guide to Shallow Water, Light Tackle Fishing"

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