Floundering around a wreck with son

[cigar_stub]

Took my son (Nick) and his friend (Calib) a wreck yesterday for a day of flounder fishing. I stayed away from the CCBT to avoid crowds because neither of my crew had fished in the last 15 years so I was apprehensive to begin with and didn't want to have traffic in the mix. I knew I'd have to do just about everything, from tying knots to driving the boat, but in the end it turned out fine. They got the hang of baiting up the rigs quickly so that was one task I could leave to them.

Launched out of Rudi inlet about 6:20am and had to stop at the VB Fishing Center to get ice. I wrongly assumed they would be open at 6am, but had to sit and wait until 7am for them to open. Picked up ice and two dozen minnows, wasn't sure I'd need them but I was glad to have them later on. Seas were good, with a little bump so I kept it slow. There was a charter there already and another charter boat showed up 30 minutes after us so there were three of us working the wreck. Everyone behaved, being respectful to each other's space so that was a pleasure. We started with 6 oz weights on flounder rigs of all colors. Lost our share to the wreck but that's the price for fishing structure.

There was almost no drift so I also tried jigging 2 to 4 oz bucktails, but no love on the jig all day long. My son and his friend were happy catching toadfish to begin with but Nick finally hooked a keeper flounder at 17". Calib then caught another one at 19" almost right on top of the mark for the first fish so I drifted that spot frequently. We were hardly moving at all so I started bumping the motor in and out of gear to get a faster drift going, so low and behold Calib caught 2 more keepers (an 18" and a 21") on each of the next two drifts. We started using flounder belly from last year along with gulp. Also used some squid but we ran out of the belly and squid so those minnows came in handy. Two flounder caught using the minnows. We lost two good fish to knots that came loose on the hook off two rigs built by our club during our annual lead pouring party. Everything came back up but the hook and the tell tail cork screw end of the line. So I started triple testing the rigs before retying one. Had one short flounder on the day that got released.

We then landed about 8 skates in a row, something the boys liked at first for the pullage, but they started hating anything that wasn't a flounder (they might be fisherman after all). We also caught 2 12" black sea bass. One released and the other cut for bait as it was gut hooked and bleeding hard. I caught the last of our five about 1pm (18") to end the catcalls from the crew asking if I knew how to catch fish. I was going to remind them that I was doing all the work while they fished so I only fished for a short time. But I didn't want to spoil their youthful exuberance. Ended the day about 2:30pm driving back in a small thunder storm, but was easy going. Great day on the water with my son.

[capttim]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[hans jensen]

Nice report Stub!
I hope to get on them this weekend!

Hans

[caryman33]

Love a good story with detail. Enjoyed the read and thanks for sharing. Sounds like you guys had a great time.

- C

[DocMartin]

Great job guys. Sounded like a fun time

[FishinMagician_IV]

Great detailed report, thank you! Glad you'all had some meat to bring home on the catchin'/keepin' part. Hope do catch some on a friends boat Friday.

[ccx2]

Thanks for tellin Stub, bet it was nice being away from the bay mayhem and catching some keepers .

[calpn trayt]

good going on the bumping thing. nice trip you guys had!

[ssellard]

Nice!

[Mike Avery]

Jack, great report....good call on fishing away from the crowds.