First Cast Catch

Gotta love it when you make a catch on the first cast. We caught this flounder on the first cast with a mud minnow on a cork. Nice. We weren't yet dressed for the day. This is my mom :-).

Finally! Monster Flounder!

I only have a minute to post this picture (I'll give the details later). But here's a nice 5 lb flounder I just caught. So glad I got the net under him as the lure came right out when I got him on the dock. Sooooo happy!!!

OK, I'm back home and can give the details. I caught this fella at about 1:00 pm this afternoon. I was, of course, using our favorite lure a Tsunami Swim Shad 3 inch (we like olive or black back colors). He put up quite a fight and I saw him a few times before I netted him. I had the fishing rod in one hand and the dip net in the other. After seeing how loosely the hook was in its mouth, I realize how easily it could have gotten away. So glad I landed this fish! It ended a streak of no fish for me that's lasted way too long. Official size is 5 lbs and 20 inches. Permit me to brag a little with a few more photos.

My biggest flounder ever.

Nice Flounder! 5 lbs and 20 inches. St. Augustine, Florida canal catch.

See the cat's tail in the bottom photo? That is our cat Meowzers and she had to lick the Flounder a couple of times, then hang around a while.

I think this is the biggest flounder since my mom visited

A Nice Morning Catch

Here's a better pic. You can see it is passed the 15" mark at both ends. I'm going to say it was 17".

Thomas and an AM Catch

Thomas meets our daily flounder quota with this 13 incher.

An Early Flounder on a Beautiful Florida Morning

Nice way to start the day. A nice 15 inch flounder for me (Paige) this AM. Second cast on Tsunami Swim Shad. As usual, it was like reeling in an old boot 'til the flounder was near the surface then a little fighting. It's a beautfiul cool sunny morning with a good bit of wind.

Ha! I can see Thomas out the window as I'm typing. He walked back to the bulkhead to cast a few times. He was "in a hurry" a minute ago :-). Maybe he'll catch one too before leaving for work.

15 inch Flounder • St. Augustine, Florida • Catch and release

The flounder is on top of our bait tank. We use it for live bait like mud minnows and shrimp. Thomas bought the 40 gallon tank part and then added the plumbing to make it work for us. Here's a 10 gallon similar one at Amazon already set up.

Nice Flounder!

Flounder daily? Yes! I just love the name Thomas and Savannah came up with for the blog. Here's one from this AM. Even though it was a tad over 15", I threw it back. I know what Thomas will say. He'll say, "You shoulda kept him and added him to the cooler with the one Guyton gigged." But I'll let Thomas do that when he fishes tonight.

As usual, it hit the tsunami lure and reeling it in was like moving a log off the bottom. They don't put up a fight until they are close to the surface (at least that's our experience) so sometimes it's hard to tell if we're reeling in a clump of oysters or a flounder. Then they fight a little near the surface gliding through the water with a flat body.

15 1/2 inches St. Augustine Flounder - Catch and release

 - Paige

Looks like the Flounder are Biting Again

Thomas had to head to work early so I was fishing alone. The only problem with that is dipping fish with one hand and holding the rod with the other, but we've all gotten pretty good at that. That's exactly what I had to do when dipping this flounder. He wasn't up to our new "personal standard" size of at least 15 inches (Florida law is 12 inches), so I threw him back. I actually enjoy throwing them back and watching them swim off.

Flounder caught in St. Augustine canal at our home.

Fishing Report for Today

Thomas and Guyton took the boat out and fished late this afternoon. They caught 3 flounder in the mouth of our canal. Nothing caught from the dock. What did the flounder hit? Our favorite Tsunami of course!

Fishing Report - 1 Flounder Today

This morning around 8:00, I (Paige) caught one flounder 15 inches long. It hit a Tsunami Swim Shad (our favorite lure). Something we've noticed the last couple of months is that when we release a flounder, some of them settle back to the bottom of the canal exactly where we throw them back. They do not swim off right away. I took this photo immediately after releasing today's flounder - you can see it lying on the bottom.

We've also noticed that sometimes when we get a strike, but miss the fish, we can catch the same fish at the same spot a couple of casts later. So they settle back down to the bottom after striking too.

The coloring on the flounder, seen here, matches exactly the bottom of the canal.

I also got a short video of the flounder as it swam off about 3 minutes after I released it.




- Paige