rxkeith wrote: ↑Tue Oct 22, 2024 8:36 pm i never fished salt water.

i knew flounder were bottom fish, and ambushed their prey,
and i know you like to fly fish. jig and a minnow or something else
is how i know to get bait down to the bottom.


keith

Borski Bonefish Sliders aren’t all that different than a jig. Those dumbbells pictured are tungsten.

https://www.sexyloops.com/index.php/ps/ ... ish-slider

Flounder is like 15 dollars a pound at HEB.
On sale now for 12 something.

Went to the Rockport area with a couple of friends and we hired two different guides for two trips. Had a blast wade fishing over two days and caught a lot of fish. Photo is the day two take.

Spectacular weather today and the fishing was equally spectacular. Biggest flounder I have ever caught at over 6 pounds. Too bad flounder can’t be retained in November.

The reds proved to be very entertaining and were roving around the shallows in schools destroying shrimp. About as easy fishing as it gets, can’t miss type of action.

Made some more ammo today.

Launched at lunchtime. Started seeing redfish feeding five minutes later. Missed a couple fish, then got this 5.55# 25” red. Right about this time, I noticed a lot of water in the kayak, too much for a redfish to have splashed into the open hull. Sprung a leak. Paddled about 150 yards back to the launch, maybe had five gallons of water in the kayak.

Found the crack, repaired the crack, I hope.

Don’t come across too many 9 pound, 27” redfish. Slot for redfish here is 20”-28”, “normal” 27” redfish might be closer to 7-7.5 pounds.

Younger brother and his daughter are at a place called Loch Sport, located on the Gippsland Lakes and have been doing a bit of surf fishing. One unexpected catch he made was a smallish Cobia (est weight 7Kg/15lb), while she picked up a couple of Snapper (largest est 4kg/8.5 lb)
Water there is normally cool at this time of year, but he tells me it is warm, indicating that possibly an eddy has spun in off the East Australian Current, which would bring the Cobia with it as it is several hundred miles outside it normal range.

I thought that was a Cobia. @Whwoz We get those here, many locals call them Ling, mostly just offshore and not very often inshore. Cobia here hang around buoys, moored ships and petroleum production platforms, often right on the surface and will come to a revving boat engine.

I kind of remember Cobia tasting, strange for a fish, but tasting like white meat chicken, but it’s been a long time since I ate or caught a Cobia.

Only once, way back in 1991 have I ever seen one (free jumping in the lower reaches of the Macleay river) @karstopography , at a place called South West Rocks about half way between Sydney and Brisbane, far more their typical location here Down Under. Don't know much about them at all actually, other than they are popular for both sport and eating with some of the fishos in there normal range.

Slung the fly rod off the pontoon tied to the dock for about 45 minutes, mainly to soak up a little sun and get a little exercise. The fish appreciated the warming trend.

Nice size too.

Friend needed to run his boat so we did and we also brought along some rods and reels.

Jeepers, @karstopography; being forced to wear long sleeves...on OPEN water...THIS time of year?

Oy gevalt! Is there no end to yer suffering...?

The Gotch is verily DREAMING of the myriad ways he'd prepare them there fish!

The Gotch

The scales are formidable to say the least.

@Cornelius_Gotchberg the water temperature was 46°. That boat ride was a tad nippy.

how long did ya have to think about bringing some rods and reels?
nice fish. good eating or too big? heck, i don't even know if they are
in season or not.


keith

rxkeith wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 7:12 pm how long did ya have to think about bringing some rods and reels?
nice fish. good eating or too big? heck, i don't even know if they are
in season or not.


keith

Slot for retention is 20”-28” . The ones in the photos may have been a couple that were just over 28”. I had a couple of monsters on that pulled the line out and eventually pulled off. One might have been a black drum, the other a plus sized redfish.

Redfish, Red drum is very nice for the table. These are all juvenile redfish, teenagers. Adult redfish, by and large, move out into the gulf for the rest of their lives. We each kept our three fish limit. We caught about 20 fish today.

karstopography wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 6:28 pm the water temperature was 46°. That boat ride was a tad nippy.

The Gotch ain't cold water's biggest fan. I've been swimming in the Pacific Ocean @Larsen Bay, AK (57°32′12″N 153°59′29″W), but have never, and I mean NEVER been in colder water than Lake Superior (Saxon Harbor/Oronto Bay, WI 46.563° N, 90.437° W) in the middle of June.

While it may well be a tad warmer near the Keweenaw Waterway (AKA the "Hancock Strait" https://exploringthenorth.com/keweenaw/map.html) which separates Keweenaw & Houghton counties in the U.P., I'm sure @rxkeith might regale us with some molar chattering, take-yer-breath-away experiences.

The Gotch

I told two guys that salt didn't stay in water when it froze and they looked at me like I was an idiot and told me I was wrong.
I just shrugged my shoulders and didn't argue.
One even said it was salty because he's licked it before.
That's because the salt was on the outside of the ice.
In reality it doesn't matter whether you're in the north or in the south if it's water and not yet ice it's still the same temperature when you jump in.
These folks that drive all the way up north to do the polar bear thing cans save their trouble and do it at home.
No real bragging rights.

I jumped in right after an ice thaw in Oklahoma once because it had warmed up outside.
Thank god the sun was out.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine_rejection