# Flounder during the "Dog Days of Summer"



## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

*7/29-7/31*
The last 3 nights have been up and down in terms of gigging action, with 10-15 fish limits being the norm. It has been very windy, with South wind at 15-25mph each night, and a slightly higher tide than the previous week. With the winds ripping and a little more water in the bay, most of the low tide spots that were producing went cold, making us search out new territory to find the fish. The flounder moved more towards shallow shell bottom in the last few nights, leaving the protected channels and sitting in more open water. The fish are also moving up shallow late in the night. On my last 3 trips, we only had 1-2 fish in the boat at 11pm, with the best action between 11pm and 2am each night. This is a sure sign that the fish are holding in deeper water until the water on the flats cools off some. This trend will likely continue for the rest of the summer, as water temps continue to rise. If we get some rain and cloud cover for a few days, the fish should start heading shallow earlier in the night. The "Dog days of summer" make it tough to find flounder with blazing water temps on the flats. Any cooling rains, cloudy days, or tropical systems would really help as we head into August.

Open dates for August: 11, 17, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27

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 night for gigging*

*8/1/2014*
I had longtime customer Mark K. group of 3 tonight. Conditions were perfect, with light South wind going dead calm at 11pm and very low tide with slow incoming current. With the incoming tide, the flounder were eager to head shallow, and most of the fish we gigged tonight were in 4-8" of water. We found all of our fish over hard sand and grass bottom, with a bunch of fish laying in the seagrass. Things started slow, with only 2 black drum in the first hour. We made a move, and started gigging some nice flounder and black drum. We ended with a 15 flounder limit and 6 black drum by midnight (3 hours of gigging). The flounder were big tonight, with an average size of 19", biggest was 22" and the smallest was 16".

August 29 (Friday night on Labor Day weekend) just opened up, if your looking for weekend dates....

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)

*Double trip*

*8/2/2014 - Double Trip*

For the early trip tonight, I had the Todd M. group of 4 on the boat. Conditions were good, with East wind at 15mph turning North at 11pm and going calm by midnight. Tide levels are still way low, making it hard to get to fish sitting behind sandbars and on the shallow flats. We worked several areas with hard sand and grass bottom, finding the fish hiding in areas with deep water nearby and active bait. We gigged our 20 flounder limit by 12:30, with an average size of 19".

For the late trip tonight, I had the John H. group of 4 on the boat. We left the dock at 1:45am, and by now the winds were light out of the North, and the air temp was a cool 68 degrees. The tide had fallen out a few more inches since the first trip, making it impossible to work most of the areas that had been producing earlier in the night. We moved around to 3-4 spots, only finding a few fish in each location. We gigged until sunrise(6:15am), and ended with 16 flounder.

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)

*Big flounder were everywhere tonight*

*8/3/2014 - Big flounder were everywhere tonight*

I had the Darrel G. family of 5 on the boat tonight. Conditions were perfect, with South wind at 5mph, and very low tide that was slowly coming in. The night started slow, with lots of dirty water from gusty afternoon winds. Once the wind settled at about 10pm, we started gigging a bunch of big flounder. We had to make a couple moves to stay on the fish, but the pattern was the same in all the spots we went. The fish were holding very shallow over hard sand and oyster reefs near deeper water. We ended with 23 flounder and 2 black drum by 1:45am. We had 10 flounder over 20" tonight, including the biggest at 24" and 6 pounds.

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)

*Worked hard for them tonight*

*8/5/2014*
I had the Ron J. group of 5 on the boat tonight. Conditions were fair, with 5-15mph SE wind and low incoming tide. The trip started off bad, with lots of dirty water and no flounder in most areas. At midnight we had 2 flounder in the boat. I took a big gamble and made a 30 minute run further away from the dock, and this time it paid off "big". We found a bunch of big flounder holding over shallow mud/grass bottom around windy points and sloughs with moving current. The fish had just moved in with the hard incoming tide, and were easy to spot on the clear water flats. We worked late looking for fish, and ended with 21 flounder and 1 black drum by 3am. We had 6 fish over 20" tonight, and an average size of 18" overall.


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## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

*Slow start in the wind and full moon*

*8/8/2014*
I had longtime customer Matt L. group of 4 on the boat tonight. Conditions were marginal, with South wind at 15-20 and very low tide. The fish were scattered tonight, sitting over shallow mud/grass bottom. As the tide started to come in around midnight, the action picked up. We ended with a 20 flounder limit by 1:30am. Average size was 16" tonight.

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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