# Flounder on the move



## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

On my last few trips, the flounder have been really hard to pattern. A few days ago, the fish were all bunched up in back lake drains in ultra clear water on the outgoing tide. Shift forward to tonight with a slow incoming extra-high tide, and the fish wanted nothing to do with drains or shallow water, and were hanging on deeper stucture near the outside beach. Areas that have been holding clear water for weeks are now gutted with dirty water, and finding clear water has been a definite challenge on the incoming tide. The fish have been making big moves every night with the changing water conditions, and tracking them is a bit of a challenge right now. When you do hit a "hotspot", it has been resulting in 4-6 fish in a matter of minutes. One good thing to note is that recent rains and river runoff has not affected most of the areas I fish, so its "game-on" for flounder right now. Hopefully this prolonged high tide spell will break soon, and open up some areas that I haven't been able to fish for 3-4 weeks. As usual this time of year, the wind forecast for the next week is staying in the 15-20mph range in the evenings, so I expect the boat rides to be rough, but the gigging to remain good.

*5/26/2015*
I had the Tommy C. group of 4 onboard tonight. Conditions were poor, with SE wind at 15-25 and extreme high tide that was still coming in. We had a bunch of dirty water to contend with tonight, and the incoming tide only made things worse. Things started slow tonight, searching for areas where we could see the bottom, and we finally found our first fish about an hour into gigging. After that, things got hot and heavy, gigging another 16 fish in the next 2 hours. With 17 fish onboard, we made a move hoping to find better action. After moving, we found 2 more fish really quick, and then things went south. We battled dirty water and strong winds, and it took us an hour to find our last fish to complete the limit. We ended with a 20 flounder limit by 1am. The fish tonight were all in the 14-18" range.

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)

*Bigger fish on a very windy night*

*5/28/2015*
I had the Vance B. group of 4 onboard tonight. Conditions were nasty, with SE wind at 20-25mph and very high tide. Luckily, we found much clearer water tonight than on previous trips. Again, the fish were mainly bunched up in very small areas with active shrimp and baitfish moving around. We did hit a few spots where the water was dirty and rough, quickly moving on to more protected areas. We ended with a 20 flounder limit by 1am. The fish were bigger tonight, with most in the 16-20" range.


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## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

*Bow-fishing trip tonight*

*5/29/2015 - Bow-fishing trip*

I had the Gary M. group of 3 onboard tonight for a bow-fishing trip. Conditions were fair, with SE wind at 10-15mph and very high tide. Again tonight, we had a lot of dirty water to contend with, with only scattered clear pockets of water. We got off to a nice start, shooting 4 flounder in the first few minutes. After that things got a little slow, only finding scattered fish the rest of the way. We were also looking out for some sheepshead and drum to shoot, but they just weren't up shallow on the flats tonight. The highlight of the night was shooting a nice sized alligator gar near the end of the trip. We ended with a 15 flounder limit, 1 sheepshead, and 1 alligator gar.

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)

*Perfect calm weather tonight*

*5/31/2015*
I had the Scott W. group of 3 onboard tonight. Conditions were perfect, with SE wind under 5mph and normal tide levels. With the receding water levels from recent high tides, the water was dirty, but holding clear pockets here and there. We got on the fish fast tonight, gigging our 15 fish limit by 10:30pm. The size was nice too, with most of the flounder in the 16-18" range.


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## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

*Another perfect night*

*6/1/2015*
I had the Lee D. group of 3 onboard tonight. Conditions were perfect again, with SE winds at 5mph and normal tide level that was falling fast. We got off to a slow start, searching in muddy water and finding only 3 fish in the first hour. From there, we made a long run further from the dock and found much better water conditions. The fish were sitting away from the shore on deeper sandbars, and were moving around a lot with the fast falling tide. We gigged the remaining 12 flounder plus 2 sheephead here in 1 1/2 hours. We ended with a 15 flounder limit plus 2 sheepshead by 11:30pm. We had 3 fish tonight in the 18-20" range, a good sign that bigger fish are on the horizon for this summer.

I still have this coming Tuesday (6/2), Wednesday(6/3), and Sunday(6/7) nights available, if you want to get on the fish while the winds are down.

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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