This past Friday I returned to my flounder hole to see if they were still holding in that area. Yes they were. This time I had a disadvantage. I forgot to put my bucket of Berkley gulp shrimp on the boat that morning so instead I tried a black bucktail jig. The jig has worked for me in the past but on this day it yielded no results. I had some other made imitation scented shrimp on board so I put one on the jig. On my first cast I landed a nice fat 15” flounder. That was the only fish I landed on that bait. I lost a couple of big fish that I attributed to losing because the bait was about an inch longer in length than the 3” Berkley Gulps I’m use to using. It seemed they would just take the tail and hold on to it then release it when you got the fish near the surface. This theory was evident by the bite marks that were left just behind the hook on the much softer, longer bait. You can bet that I won’t leave home again without my Berkley Gulps.
For those of you that would rather fish live bait for flounder you have several options. Free lining a live shrimp with a piece of split shot to get it near the bottom will work as will shrimp fished on a jig head. Live mullet or mud minnows are also great baits and don’t rule out a piece of fresh cut ladyfish.
Speaking of fresh cut ladyfish, it also works great for redfish and trout. Don’t be surprised if a big tarpon eats it and takes off with it too. A friend of mine, I’ll call him Bill, has been tearing up the redfish on fresh cut ladyfish. He’s also landed a few trout over 25 “ on the cut bait. Whenever Bill sees my truck at the boat ramp I can always expect a call asking me to keep any ladyfish I catch to give to him.
For those of you that like to chase tarpon I’ve been getting reports that they are up in Matanzas Inlet and they are big. You can probably expect to find them in that area for the rest of the summer.
I’ve been getting reports of big flounder coming off the offshore wrecks and reefs. There is also some Mahi Mahi in the 20 lb range coming from these locations. Also large red snapper but they must be released.
No matter what your fishing preference is, now is the time to get out and wet a line. Be safe out there this July 4th weekend.

I had the opportunity to fish this past Monday with Glen Pla, host of The Average Angler TV show that airs on the Brighthouse Sports Network on channel 47, channel 1147 on HD. Glen had contacted me to do a show about fishing in the Tamoka Basin and we set a date. We met at the park at 6:30 AM, loaded the boat with camera equipment, and set off for a day of fishing.
We got out into the basin and began to work the shorelines with top water plugs. As luck would have it we could not find a single trout or redfish to cooperate with us. I started to think about where we could go to get some trout and reds so I decide to head north up the ICW to Bulow Creek.
We fished a stretch of the Creek and again no luck. I thought for a few minutes then said to Glen that we would fish an area and probably pick up some flounder. We tied off to the bank and began fishing the in coming tide with jig heads and Berkley Gulp shrimp. It wasn’t but a few minutes and Glen was hooked up with a small flounder. We continued to work the jigs and Glen hooked into another small flounder. We worked the area a while longer and had 2 more flounder and these were both keeper size fish. As the current slowed so did the bite. We then went for a short sight seeing cruise further up the creek.
Once we returned to our original spot the current had picked up on the out going tide and so did the flounder bite. This time the fish we were catching, I mean Glen was catching, were of better size. The flounder were now in the 17” to 18” range and fat. These fish were hungry because they were swallowing the entire rig. By the time we called it quits we boated 8 flounder with 6 of them being keeper size. We also had several that we lost. During the trip I found out that catching flounder was one of Glen’s favorite fish to catch. The flounder saved the day to make for a good fishing show. And believe me, after not landing a trout or a red, the fish gods smiled on us to make for a wonderful trip.
Glen was so pleased with the catch that he said: any time the flounder bite is on give me a call and I’ll be there.
The show will be on some time in the next week or two so stay tuned in to catch it.