# September Flounder Action



## oceankayaker84 (Dec 16, 2007)

Location: Lower Galveston Bay
Weather: Sunny, light winds, pop-up rain showers and thunderstorms
Water conditions: 4 foot visibility
Time Fished: 7:00 AM to 2 PM
Tide: Slack high tide AM; tide change late morning; strong outgoing in PM 
Water depth: 6-8â€™ in AM; 2-4â€™ in PM 
Lure Setup: Gulp pogy (white) on Â¼ oz jighead
Live bait Setup: 4â€ to 6â€ live mullet/croaker/piggies on a Knocker Rig (enough bullet weight to get the bait down to the bottom)

Fished from Sept 4th through Sept 6th and caught some good flounder every trip. Total tally for the 3 trips was 57 flounder and some bycatch trout and slot reds. All fish were released.

During the period of slack tide in the morning, the flounder were holding on top of the deeper 6 to 8 foot ledges directly along the main channel dropoff. Most of the bait they are feeding on in this deeper water was big pinfish and croaker. With a slack tide, the morning bite was very slow but the bites I got on the Knocker Rig were good fish.

The tide change occurred around mid to late morning each day and the flounder moved up shallower against the shorelines following the bait as the outgoing current started picking up. The flounder were stacking up nicely in some the predictable fall spots, and lures were most effective during this time. The fish were pouncing on the lure quickly after a couple twitchs.

Here are the highlights during my trips.


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## oceankayaker84 (Dec 16, 2007)

*Flounder Releases*

Flounder Releases...


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## oceankayaker84 (Dec 16, 2007)

*Sept 12-13*

Location: Lower Galveston Bay
Weather: Sunny, moderate ENE winds
Water conditions: 2 foot visibility
Time Fished: 7:00 AM to 4 PM
Tide: Outgoing AM; incoming PM 
Lure Setup: Gulp mantis shrimp (white and chartreuse) on Â¼ oz jighead









http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/geographic.html

Flounder fishing continues to be great during the minor and majors periods. This weekend I caught my bigger fish during the major around 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM, which coincided with an incoming tide change. The trout, reds and smaller flounder 15â€-18â€ were biting good during the morning outgoing tide.

The most productive areas were on the edge of channel drop off in water depths of 4 to 7 feet, with mostly mud bottom and some scattered bottom structure. The flounder were bedded up tight along the pilings and bottom structure (shell/concrete slabs) and feeding on piggies and small croaker.

All fish were released.


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## oceankayaker84 (Dec 16, 2007)

*Sept. 19th*

Location: Galveston Ship Channel
Weather: Sunny, light winds, hot 
Water conditions: 3+ feet visibility
Time Fished: 9:00 AM to 1 PM
Tide: Outgoing
Water depth: 5-6â€™ 
Lure Setup: Pearl and chartreuse Gulp mantis shrimp on Â¼ oz jighead

It was another great day for flounder fishing in the Galveston Ship Channel. The flounder still remain in their summer pattern, but it will not be long before the fall spots start turning on. Total tally for today was 17 keeper-sized flounder, but only 3 over 20â€ which were caught back to back.









http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/geographic.html

Today there was a strong outgoing tide, in which the tide change occurred around 9:00 AM. Best bite was from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM, and then the action slowed down towards the end of the outgoing tide. Lures were most effective as the fish were absolutely hammering the lure today. It was my favorite type of flounder strike too, the â€œ1 thumpâ€ followed by solid weight. I only saw big mullet swimming around today and not much small bait, and that may been why the flounder were striking so aggressively.

Most of the fish were caught by pitching the bait between/along pilings and along bulkheads. All of my favorite spots have a little a bit of bottom structure (shell, concrete, rocks, etc) along the bulkheads and pilings, which are flounder magnets.

Also, for anyone that enjoys catching big golden croaker, they are showing up in numbers in the channel. I caught 20+ from 12â€ to 15â€ while fishing for flounder along the spoil drop-offs. Water depths from 5â€™ to 7â€™ seem to be holding the best quantity.

All fish were released.


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