Fishing Report – Florida Flounder Gigging

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

A Cajun friend of mine has invited me to go flounder gigging with him a few times and I have really enjoyed it. We live in south Florida in the Sarasota area and have plenty of water to choose from. His rig is a 16’ Jon boat that has a sheet of plywood bolted to the bow so you can stand shoulder to shoulder with gigs in hand looking for flaties. We usually leave around 10:30 pm and fish till 3 or 4 am.

I wanted to try this type of fishing in my boat so last night I gave it a try. I have a 19’ center console with plenty of room and a large flat area in the bow to stand. I put a new trolling motor on it last January that has the remote control instead of a foot pedal or a hand bar.

I have 2 12 volt light poles and a 10’ gig, that I got from Dick’s sporting goods, hand help spot light, and large deep cycle battery for the lights.

It was a perfect night, weather wise. Not a breath of wind, with a high tide. I knew of a spot that looked good from fishing the flats for the last few weeks. The water was clear and with the high tide I could get in very close to the shore.

I must have seen every saltwater species that we have here on the flats including, Trout, Snook, Redfish, Mullet, Sheep head, and about a million shrimp….but not a single flounder all night.

My light battery died on me about 12:30 and I had to call it a night but I will try again very soon…..I’m hooked!

Thanks for reading!
Fool

Please practice catch and release whenever possible and remember the large fish don’t taste any better than smaller ones. Take a picture and let the big ones go back to catch again later.