Have they speculated on why the drop in flounder in the sampling? I really like fishing the saltwater species but never seem to get past New Orleans.
Bill
Evidently, flounder need the water to be colder in the gulf to have success with the overall spawning/recruitment of the young flounder. The Gulf of Mexico has had a string of years with warmer water temperatures in the winter when flounder go out miles offshore for the annual spawn. Last year wasn’t as bad as the previous few, but the bad years have added up.
It’s looking better this year temperature wise so maybe they’ll do better. Texas has now for several years a 2 per day (used to be 5 per day year around) per person limit on flounder for November through December 15th. People go nuts here trying to get their two daily fish during the fall run to the gulf. The walk in hot spots like Sea wolf park at Galveston are filled shoulder to shoulder with folks soaking various baits hoping for the fish. One local forum has people bemoaning the lack of a good run and the possible reasons why. No one seems to know for sure the exact timing of the fall run but it’s related to the shorter days of fall and water temperatures. Some think the run is all but over and some think it’s in the early stages.
Still, some of the seasoned flounder guys are catching some good ones. I saw a photo of a 10 pound flounder caught earlier this week near Galveston. Other folks are catching their two keeper fish pretty quickly. They are still there, but all the rain we’ve had might have shifted where they are. The bigger ones, the females, tend to leave later. Males are said to not get bigger than about 2 pounds.
Some folks are absolute flounder gurus and know just how and where to get them. They catch hundreds per year and they are still getting them. I’ve gone from stumbling on to one or two every so often to having a handful of spots that might be a little more reliable than that. A lot of the best flounder areas are in spots that are a little deeper than I like to normally fish or in high boat traffic zones that I tend to avoid when in my kayak. I’ve caught only a couple of good ones this year, 4-5 pounds, and several little fish. I haven’t made it to my two best areas yet. I might go tomorrow or just blow off the flounder pursuit and head somewhere different.
