# Tricky flounder gigging - Rockport



## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

The last 3 nights have seen a wild swing in wind and tide levels, making for constant adjustments to stay on fish. Flounder gigging remains very slow, and customers who are willing to put in long hours and grind for the fish have been rewarded nicely. Nothing is coming easy, and this pattern will likely continue through October. Dirty fresh water from last week's 20" of rain and a new fresh surge from inland rivers continues to be a problem, limiting where we can gig. We should enjoy some faster action nights with every passing cold front, but that will only last for 1-2 nights on each event.

*9/22/2018*
My customers for tonight decided to cancel due to the 80% chance of rain forecast. The weather ended up being beautiful, probably the best conditions in 3 months. Winds were NW at 10mph, normal tide levels, and cool temps in the low 70's. I decided to take my wife gigging tonight, and we enjoyed the refreshing cool weather of the first cold front of the season. We gigged for 45 minutes, getting 7 nice flounder. That was plenty of meat for us, and we headed in at 9:30pm.

*9/23/2018*
I had the Ron R. group of 2 onboard tonight. Conditions were perfect, with dead calm winds and normal tide levels. The bright full moon overhead really hurt the fishing tonight, with the flounder wanting nothing to do with any clear water areas. Instead, we had to go looking for dirty water to locate our fish. We ended with a 10 flounder limit by 11:45pm.

*9/24/2018*
I had the Jin C. group of 4 onboard tonight. Conditions were fair, with SSE wind at 10-15mph and very high tide levels. We got a decent start, gigging 4 flounder in the first hour. After that, things went downhill, with many stops and no fish. Water clarity was poor in most areas, and the bright full moon wasn't making things any easier. Most of the flounder were holding in deeper water, and doing a good job of hiding in the murky areas. We eventually found some better fishing, but it was still a grind. We ended with 13 flounder plus 1 sheepshead by 2am. The flounder were big, with the largest at 22" and 5 others over 20".

*Upcoming open dates:
September: completely booked
October: completely booked
November = Closed Season
December: 13, 19, 20, 28-30
January: 1-31*

Price: $450 for 2 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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