- November 23, 2024
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The word I’m getting from fishermen across the area is flounder — lots of them.
The largest ones are being taken by flounder giggers working the shallow waters during the night hours.
Flounder gigging is done at night with a shallow draft boat. Usually, the boat will have its steering console at the very bow of the boat and is equipped with spotlights aimed at the water. The boat will then slowly move along the shallows of the Intracoastal. Once the outline of a flounder that is buried in the sand or muck is spotted, the fisherman will take a pole equipped with a three-prong fork on the end and stab the flounder. This method of gathering flounder has been used for a very long time. As for me, I think I’ll stay with the old rod and reel method.
There has also been a lot of trout around in the 14-inch range. You may have to catch several of the smaller ones before you get a keeper-sized trout. Diving plugs, suspending plugs, soft plastics, flies and live shrimp are all good baits for these fish. They seem to be eating almost anything you throw at them. Trout are more aggressive when the water chills down and they fight a lot harder when hooked.
Snook are still being caught in pretty good numbers, but most of them are also on the small side, usually averaging in the 16- to 18-inch range, with the occasional fish in the mid-20-inch range.
I say small because the slot size for a keeper snook is 28 to 32 inches.
With the water being as high as it has been, it can get a little difficult to find redfish in the backwater. The high water enables them to get into areas they normally can’t access. Those areas are rich in bait such as crabs, shrimp and mullet. Your best bet would be to fish the backwater on the low tide.
The cooler water also makes this a good time to surf fish. There, you’ll find flounder, redfish, whiting, sheepshead and pompano. As long as the surf remains fairly calm and the water temperature is in the low 70s to mid 60s, the pompano should hang around for a while before moving south.
In a nutshell, this is a good time of year to get out and do some fishing.
