Thanksgigging Report - 2012

      This year I continued my tradition of ending Thanksgiving with a flounder gigging trip.  Our hopes were high as we passed hordes of shoppers on our way to Destin.  Just the night before, our efforts had earned us five nice fish.  Being away at Auburn made it hard for me to know where the fish were and how they were behaving.  Normally I start following the flounder in the early fall, but this year I the only information I had was from the previous night.  The flounder run didn't seem to be as good as last year, but there were still fish to find... Or so I thought.
      Unfortunately, this year was a bust.  In 2 hours of wading we saw only a few beds and zero flounder.  The conditions were nearly identical to the night before, so I expected the night to be productive.  It wasn't.  There were some other giggers already out when we arrived and I thought maybe they got most of the fish.  After chatting with a few of them, I learned we weren't alone.  Some guys with a boat said they had been out for three hours and only got one fish.  Oh well, at least I had the fish from the night before.  This years run won't be lasting as long as last year', when I was still catching fish through December 6th.  I'm done for this year.

P.S. - Sorry, no pictures for now.  My camera isn't working.

Foraging and Fishing - Early April

A keeper speck caught just before sunset.  The fishing and the foraging are both good right now.

      I have not posted in a while.  Partly because I have been working a lot, and partly because the little time that I have when I am not working I have been out getting free food from nature!  The foraging* is excellent now, and so is the fishing!  I love spring.  This post is just a summary of what I have been finding and catching over the past week and a half.  Some of the fruit showed up a little early, but winter never really came, and spring was very warm.  Most of these species are pretty common, so you should be able to find them too.

Flounder and Crabs, March 14th -17th

Although forced perspective is at work in this photo, this blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) was indeed a  huge crab.  (Photo by John Dougherty, used with permission.)

      Once again, I am posting something a little late, but this time it is not my fault.  After looking at some of my blog stats I noticed that posts with good pictures get many more hits, so I waited until my friend sent pictures before I started writing.  What follows is just a brief report for each night.  As usual, I hope this information helps but don't ask me where I was.  My friend John is more protective of his spots than I am and my fish are still in his freezer.  If I post something too specific, he might just eat them all.

Flounder Are Back!

John and the first flounder he ever gigged.  You can see that his predatory instincts have taken over.

      It's time to sharpen your gigs and hit the water; The flounder are back!  I went out last night with my friend, John Dougherty, and we found our first fish in about 40 minutes.  He was in about 1.5' of water next to some inundated cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora).  John had been with me on less productive trips and was sick this November, so he had never gigged a fish.  I let him make his first kill and he was hooked.  There is something about gigging a fish that taps into your primordial, predatory instincts, and John liked connecting with his primitive roots.  As the fish thrashed and tried to escape, I scolded John for using his left hand to hold a beer rather than retrieve his fish.  I solved the issue by finishing the beer and stashing the empty bottle in my pack.  With a decent 18" flounder, we checked the rest of the cordgrass and then departed for a new location.  We picked up his friend on the way and prepared for more gigging.  We saw some porcupine fish and even some spawning horseshoe crabs.  I often saw horseshoe crabs around St. Teresa, FL, but I haven't seen many near Pensacola.  It was neat to see them cruising the shallows looking for mates.  Next we spotted squid stealthily darting through the water.  They were tough to see, but we caught one.  Finally, after much more walking, we spotted a very camouflage flounder.  I gigged him in the head.  We never measured him, but he was bigger than the first.  By the end of the night, we had two decent flounder, some crabs and some squid.  There aren't a lot of flounder yet, but more will come
     We didn't get a lot of fish, but the night was a success because I helped John gig his first fish.  He must have really liked it.  In fact, I just spent the last few hours helping John make his own gigging light, and then he tried to convince me to go tonight, despite the gusty conditions.   If you are interested in gigging, check out some of my other posts under the "fishing" label.  This one explains what equipment you need, and I'll soon write posts about where to go, and how to make your own light.

Netting Mullet from a Canoe

Jonathan shows one of the mullet we captured a few days ago.  This fish actually jumped out of the water to dodge my net and landed on the shore.  Note the jacket, it was very cold.

      I went out to catch a few mullet (Mugil cephalus) with my friend Jonathan Bollhoefer.  Although many of the fish have left to spawn, you can always find a few in some of the brackish tidal creeks of the area.  This is especially true when really cold temperatures concentrate the fish in these creeks.  The creeks may only be a couple of degrees warmer than the bay or sound, but the creeks also tend to have less temperature fluctuations.  Anyway, with the mullet in these creeks, they are pretty easy to catch.  Jonathan paddled the canoe upstream, while I casted my net off the bow of my canoe (No...it didn't flip.  Canoes are perfectly stable watercraft that are capable of quite a lot, if you understand them.)  It was night, but we had the boat rigged with lights, so we could see the fish running up ahead of us.  After a short time we had "herded" a bunch of fish into a shallow pool.  They started jumping everywhere, and I tossed the net.  I quickly captured 3, while two other mullet that tried to leap to safety jumped right into the black needlerush.  We just picked them up and put them in our boat.  We ended the night with 6 mullet.  We also saw a lonely flounder (probably about 16 inches) who apparently forgot to swim out to the gulf to spawn.  We tried to gig it, but I couldn't get the fish in the boat.  Anyway, the flounder escaped but at least we have some mullet to smoke.

Smoking Fish...the Old Way

It all starts with a good hardwood fire!  Once this burns down to coals, the smoking process can begin! (photo by Matt Matechik, used with permission.)

      With all the flounder I gigged this fall, I have had plenty of fish to experiment with.  Today, I smoked some flounder.  In this post, I'll explain how to smoke fish, not in a commercially constructed monstrosity, but in a built up earthen pit.  This is an old way of preparing fish that I find really enjoyable.  When done, the fish are flavored with the perfect balance of salty, sweet, spicy and smoky flavors and, the texture is amazing.  It is pretty simple, even if you don't have any experience smoking or grilling foods.  Typically I smoke mullet, which taste great but, this time I smoked some flounder.  Why?  Because I had flounder and I didn't have mullet.  It still turned out great however, I did find that the extra oily flesh of the mullet reacts better with the smoke and salt than the flounder does. 

(Sea)Trout in the Rivers

I haven't found the big trout yet but, they should show up soon.  This white trout is a little small but, if you can find decent white trout, they are just as good as speckled trout.

      This time of year, fishing can get a little tricky, especially for fishermen without a boat.  For most of the winter, I just occupy myself with other tasks (usually a building project or brewing).  However, when a day like today comes by, I just have to hit the water.  The air was calm, it was sunny, and probably in the 70's.  With the cooler temperatures, speckled and white (a.k.a. sand) trout move into the lower portions of rivers making them accessible to anybody fishing from a bridge, or drifting in a boat.  I like to keep things simple, so I just get some shrimp and drift down the local river in my canoe.  I don 't have to buy gas, it's stable, and I get a little exercise on the way back.  If you don't like to paddle much, don't worry, you can probably find a bridge to fish off of.  If you are in brackish water, you can find trout.  Just keep in mind, even with the warm air temperatures, the water is still pretty cool.  This means the fish are a little sluggish.  You will want to fish really slow.  I just drift one shrimp on the bottom and one on a popping cork.  If you start hooking fish, you may want to anchor up but, I usually just make multiple passes through an area if it is productive.  That way, I don't have to deal with an anchor.  You may find that there are a lot of white trout mixed in with the specks.  Some people prefer the specks, but I'll take either.  They taste the same to me but, white trout tend to be a little smaller.

Catch the Tail End of the Flounder Run

      I know I have been writing about gigging a lot lately, but only because it has been so productive.  Once the run ends, I'll post about some other topics.  Anyway, I went out last night and there are still fish out there.  I saw one in the first few minutes, but I didn't notice it until it was swimming away.  Needless to say, it escaped.  It was pretty windy so the surf was a little rough.  My usual walk to the jetty only produced two fish, but one was my neighbors first fish.  It was a 20" fish too!  On the way back, the Destin Christmas Boat Parade started.  A bunch of decrated boats went by and then the fireworks started!  I love fireworks, but I don't think fish do.  We were right next to the barge that launched the projectiles, and it was pretty noisy.  The next two fish we saw looked to be about 18 inches, but they spooked way too easily.  Oh well, at least there was some nice scenery.  Right before we left we did a second pass through a typically productive stretch of the beach and got an 18" flounder.  It was worth the extra 5 minutes.
      Anyway, the flounder are still out there.  They are not as thick as they used to be, but you can still find a few.  I suspect they will hang around until the end of this week, but this cold front coming through will probably drive out the rest of the fish.  So, if you want to get out this year, go in the next three nights.  I know I'll be putting up my gear after Friday.

Gear for Gigging

Do you want to have a great time and catch some fish?  I'll explain how to gig flounder like these in a series of three posts, starting today.

      Hopefully, all my writing about gigging has encouraged some people to go out and give it a try.  It is getting a little late in the year for gigging, but that means I'll be out on the water less and have more time to write.  When I started the blog, we were already in the middle of the flounder run, so I just posted reports.  Now that the run is over, I'll post three more entries about gigging (1) Gear for Gigging, (2) When and Where to go Gigging, and (3) How to make some equipment.  You will have all winter to get your gear assembled because the flounder won't start coming back until spring.  Also, I'll be writing about wadding.  Methods for gigging off a boat might be a little different, but this information may still be useful.

Thanksgigging Report

Two of my fish from this year's annual Thanksgigging trip.

      Happy belated Thanksgiving everybody!  I hope everyone was able to enjoy the day with family and friends.  Like most people, I enjoyed the traditional Thanksgiving meal with my family.  Unlike a lot of people, I did not enjoy the tradition of sitting on the couch in an overstuffed stupor watching football.  Instead, I continued one of my personal traditions, Thanksgigging!  For the past five years, some of my siblings, my friends, and I have been going out after Thanksgiving dinner to hunt for flounder.  Last year, we got skunked, but with the run being so good for the past two weeks, I was hopeful that this year it would be a success.

The flounder run is hot this year! Literally.

A 21.5 inch flounder gigged at East Pass.  It's great to be back in Florida.

       I have been working in Wyoming since June and I just recently returned to Florida.  Wyoming was so beautiful, in an almost dangerous way, with its remote mountains and windswept deserts.  At times, however, I did really miss being in the southeast, especially the panhandle of Florida.  When late August arrived I could almost taste the sweet purple muscadines that I used to pick around Tallahassee.  To relieve my homesickness I just drank some homemade muscadine wine, which helped a little, and reminded myself that although I missed the muscadine harvest, I would make it home in time for the fall flounder run.