# Fall flounder - conditions looking better



## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

The last week has brought some brutal high tides, making gigging nearly impossible over the last 3 nights. With all the high water, you just cant see the bottom anywhere for very long. Because of the high tides and dirty water, I canceled and re-scheduled my trips for the last 3 nights, making sure my customers would get a better experience on a later date. To keep business honest and fair over the years, I always tell my customers, "I won't put my boat in the water if I don't think we will get a limit of flounder". Try that statement with any other fishing guide!!

If the gigging is slow, or conditions are bad, I'm always honest with my customers and we usually reschedule for a better night. Today, the tide started to fall, making conditions worthwhile to run a trip. We were rewarded with better water clarity and plenty of flounder heading shallow before the moon rose at 10:20pm.

*9/30/2015*
I had the Eric H. group of 5 onboard tonight. Conditions were perfect, with dead calm winds and very high tide levels. Tide levels are still really high, but down substantially from the last 2 nights. With the continued high water, we faced lots of dirty/deep water along the shorelines.. We found most of our fish tonight around hard oyster bottom and buried in thick deep grass beds. With the tide levels falling daily, the water clarity is improving, and we are starting to see the beginning of some good fall gigging areas. We ended with a 25 flounder limit plus 2 sheepshead by 11pm. Most of the fish tonight were in the 15-17" range, with the largest at 24" and 6 pounds. The 24" fish had a fat 8" long croaker in its belly, see picture below.

Visit my Facebook page for daily reports and pictures.

Capt. Rick Hammond
Night Stalker Guide Service - Rockport, Texas
Flounder Gigging - Bay Fishing - Duck Hunting 
361-727-0045
www.nightstalkerguideservice.com


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## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

*Fall gigging info*

October dates are filling fast.... 
My remaining open October nights are: 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 26.

November is closed season for gigging. 
Gigging re-opens on December 1st

From December 1-14, the limit is 2 fish per person. During this period, my rates are $100 less than normal posted rates on my website. This is the time of year we always get our biggest fish, and limits of 5-9 pound flounder are the norm.

Starting December 15, the limit goes back to 5 fish a person, and normal posted rates apply.

I can take up to 6 adults on the boat, but I can make accommodations for more if you are bringing kids along.

Visit my Facebook page for daily reports and pictures.

Capt. Rick Hammond
Night Stalker Guide Service - Rockport, Texas
Flounder Gigging - Bay Fishing - Duck Hunting 
361-727-0045
www.nightstalkerguideservice.com


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## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

*Good gigging over the weekend*

The weather over the weekend was awesome for gigging, with cooler temps and light winds. We still have nagging high water levels, but with low tide now occurring in the evening, we are finding good water clarity in many areas. I'm still open this Monday-Wednesday nights (10/5-10/7), if you want to get in on some of the best action and weather conditions of the year.

While gigging flounder, I am also seeing some other very uncommon species for the back bays and flats on the middle coast:

Another very rare occurrence tonight (10/4/2015). We saw two 17-20" tripletail, a 25" snook, and a 20" barracuda hanging out in 10" of water right on the shoreline. I tried to get a picture of them, but they swam off before I could get the shot. I have seen tripletail before on the flats, but have never seen a large snook or barracuda up shallow while gigging. We were in Northern Aransas Bay.

We gigged another very rare "backwards" flounder yesterday (10/3/2105). I guess lightning does strike twice. This is the second one of these fish I have gigged in 2 weeks, but only my third in 13 years of guiding flounder trips. The flounder had its eyes and brown side on the right instead of the left (normal). Take a close look at the pictures, and you can see the difference. The "backwards" fish is on the left in the first 2 pictures, and in the middle on the third picture.

*Reports:
**
10/1/2015*
I had the Karen W. group of 3 onboard tonight. I rescheduled this group for tonight after a very slow trip with poor conditions this past Sunday night. Conditions tonight were perfect, with light East wind and high tide levels. The water continues to clear up, and we are now gigging some of our fish in 3-4' of water in some of the better areas. We got on the fish fast tonight over hard shell and thick grass bottom. We ended with a 15 flounder limit plus 1 sheepshead in 1 hour of gigging. The bigger flounder are starting to mix in with the smaller fish on the flats, and we had 4 flounder over 20" tonight.

*10/2/2015*
I had the Greg G. group of 4 onboard tonight. Conditions were fair, with calm winds increasing to North at 10mph, and very high tide levels. The temps cooled of quickly tonight, reaching 62 degrees by the end of the trip. Higher water tonight made for tough gigging in dirty water, with only a few areas holding good clarity. We found most of our fish tonight over hard shell bottom, and we had to move around a lot to find them, hitting 6 spots in the process. We ended with a 20 flounder limit after 4 hours of gigging. The flounder were nice size tonight, with most around 17", and the two largest at 22".

*10/3/2015*
I had the Tim P. group of 4 onboard tonight. Conditions were nice, with East wind at 10mph and slightly high tide levels. The water clarity was much better tonight, letting us see fish over hard sand and mud bottom in deeper water. We had our best action in the far reaches of the back lakes on shallow sandbars. We ended with a 20 flounder limit plus 1 sheepshead by 10:15pm.
*
10/4/2015*
I had the Dennis A. group of 4 onboard tonight. Conditions were perfect, with dead calm winds and slightly high tide levels. The fish were very scattered out tonight, and we worked 4 different spots to get them. Our best action occurred around shallow sandbars near hard oyster bottom. Water clarity was bad early, but things quickly cleared up by 9:30pm. We ended with a 20 flounder limit by 11pm. I didn't get a picture with the guys in it, as they were headed to get the truck.

Visit my Facebook page for daily reports and pictures.

Capt. Rick Hammond
Night Stalker Guide Service - Rockport, Texas
Flounder Gigging - Bay Fishing - Duck Hunting 
361-727-0045
www.nightstalkerguideservice.com


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