# Flounder bounce back after the cold front



## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

The last 2 nights had "polar-opposite" conditions and results. The last cold front had a little more punch than expected, and the flounder gigging action suffered on Monday night. Jump forward 24 hours, with light East winds and clearing water, and the flounder were on the prowl in the shallows tonight.

*1/29/2018*
I had the Josh M. group of 4 onboard tonight. Conditions were poor, with NNE wind at 15mph, low tide levels, and cold temps in the mid-40's. The trip got off to a slow start tonight, and we never really found any good action. We made about 10 different stops, only gigging fish on 2 stops, with very scattered activity. I knew something was wrong when the shallows were absent of life everywhere we went, "dead water" all over the place. Areas that had produced well the last 4-5 nights had nothing, and we even went looking for drum/sheesphead and couldn't find any. I'm not exactly sure why tonight was slow, but a combination of the following factors most likely had the fish in a funk: drastically lower tide levels, bright full moon, cold temps, and very high barometric pressure. The good news is that the weather is forecast to rebound quickly, with warmer temps and a return to SE wind tomorrow night. We ended with 9 flounder by midnight (no pictures tonight).

*1/30/2018*
I had the Rusty C. group of 3 onboard tonight. Conditions were nice, with East wind at 5-10mph and low tide levels. Water clarity was very good tonight, making for easy spotting and allowing us to cover a bunch of ground quickly. The action was still somewhat slow and fish were very scattered, but it was much better than the night before. The flounder we found were all active, feeding on mud minnows and glass minnows over very shallow mud and sand bottom. We ended with a 15 flounder limit by 10pm (3 hours 15 minutes of gigging). The fish were nice size, all in the 14-19" range, with the 9 largest all 17-19", very good size for January.

I still have tonight (January 31) open. Weather conditions look ideal. Please call me ASAP if you want to go tonight...

*Upcoming open dates:
January: 31
February: 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 22, 25-28
March: 1, 3-8, 18-20, 22, 25-29, 31*

Price: $550 for 3 people, $100 each additional person, up to 6 people

Capt. Rick Hammond
Night Stalker Guide Service - Rockport, TX
 nightstalkerguideservice.com
361-229-6053


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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

I've seen the "dead water" you're talking about recently, where not a single baitfish was to be found. I've gotten the impression that the two freezes have the fish on "high" alert. And that at the first sign of the barometer rising and temperature falling, they are selling out for deeper water. Even in some places where they have nearby access to deep water, the bait fish seem to have abandoned the shallow water very early. Without bait fish, there's not much reason for flounder to be in the skinny water. I've wondered about you out there looking for flounder. From your reports, you've done better than I might have expected, although I'm not exactly surprised by that.

It will only be a few weeks before those little minnows start hatching out, and there are clouds of them in the water. That's always good for floundering, but I have a feeling that they are just going to explode this year.

Thanks for taking the time to make reports, and the honesty to talk about those rare nights when the going is tough. A guide that appears to never, ever struggle is always a sign to me that he is mostly fishing for customers.


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