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The big "girls" are starting their run to the Gulf!
They were all over the flats near the channel this morning. Caught 11 in less than 2 hours. Gave 2 away to some kids, kept 2 for dinner. Left them biting. Wanted to see how the bite was and fished the bank at Pelican Island Bridge. It was crowded by 8 Am when I left.
These were female and their eggs were small but it's still early too.

good for you.
Had a December day at Cedar Bayou years ago, slowly dragging a sinking fly line on the sand - a stinger fly with a rear hook -
and caught 40 on consecutive casts.
A guy across the bayou from us, though, caught one the size of a coffee table and took over 30 min to land. I caught a dozen smalls while i was watching him fight that fish.

That's cool! A guy caught a 27" out there where I was this morning.
This week is gonna be crowded everywhere you go I bet!!!

Went to the same spot this morning and there weren't many flounder like yesterday. Since it rained and warmed a bit I think it scared them back deep until this weekend. Probably just the barometric pressure. The waders in the area were catching but the bank bite was dead.

they always spawn on the rising tide, so the alvelin will head into the bay
The little fish will stage in sloughs close to the mouth of the tide pass.

Years of flounder fishing with people who know their stuff taught me a few things.

One, flounder don't feed well when the tide is not moving. On numerous occasions, I have been anchored up on one of my favorite spots on the GSC, not getting any bites in an area for a couple of hours, fighting the urge to relocate. As soon as the boat swung around on its anchor, the fish started biting. Not only biting, but when one would hit, they'd swim away to keep other flounder from stealing their catch before they gulped it down. Fishing clear shallow water has on a few occasions allowed me to witness one or two other flounder honing in on another flounder after they struck the bait. My buddy would throw right into the mix and get hooked up in seconds. Lesson being, when it goes from dead tide to a steady incoming tide, be ready and in a good spot. ANd if you are able, cast upstream and move the bait with the tide.

Depth - Great subject. Over the years, I've found the better fish on the channel to be out on ledges in at least 5 feet of water. Not to say there won't be some pigs up in the shallows. The scenario described above involved fish that were all in the 22-25 inch range, in 2 feet of water. But overall, that 6-8 foot deep ledge off of a flat seems to hold the better fish. Doesn't do a bank fisherman much good and I would not recommend wading out to those depths on the channel, But certain areas with flats that have guts running through them, the better fish will be in the depth of the trough.

Bait - I've used a lot of different baits over the years. In my experience, the most effective in order are live finger mullet, pennant shaped pieces of belly meat from a croaker (or even a flounder from the trip before), a soft plastic tipped with peeled shrimp, Gulp! on a jig-head and soft plastics.

Great info, Yaklash - Thanks!!

Yaklash -awesome info and thanks for sharing! I struggle trying to find a reputable way to read the tides so I figured you might be able to give some good insight on how and where to read the tide.

In your post, you said incoming tide is good...does that mean that outgoing tide is bad? Also, you stated that finger mullet is your top option. How do you fish with those? Just toss em out and wait? under a popper? with a split shot and drag slowly on the bottom?

I only fish plastics which I saw was at the bottom of your list and so maybe that explains why I never have any success.

Thanks again for taking the time to post. I plan on going Tuesday AM to wade Seawolf (yet again) and my goal is to finally bring my wife home a fatty!

gafftopordie wrote: Yaklash -awesome info and thanks for sharing! I struggle trying to find a reputable way to read the tides so I figured you might be able to give some good insight on how and where to read the tide.

For the Galveston Ship Channel, there is a tide station labeled "Galveston Pier 21, Galveston Cannel." Wind may alter the levels and the speed, but that's a good starting point. There are also stations near most other places I fish the flounder run - Eagle Point, San Luis Pass and Rollover.

gafftopordie wrote: In your post, you said incoming tide is good...does that mean that outgoing tide is bad? Also, you stated that finger mullet is your top option. How do you fish with those? Just toss em out and wait? under a popper? with a split shot and drag slowly on the bottom?

I have not found there to be a huge difference between incoming and outgoing at the passes where they seem to hang around for a while, but back in the bays where they are more transitory, I do find incoming is better.

For live bait, I rig a circle hook on a 2 foot mono leader (20-25 lbs), attaching it via a swivel to the main line with an egg sinker above the swivel. Or, if I'm fishing heavy cover, and may be losing some rigs, I'll just tie the hook directly to the main line, put a split shot or 2 a foot and a half above the hook. I cast out, let it sink to the bottom, take up the slack and slowly drag it with the rod tip (no cranking on the reel), until the rod tip is behind me. Then I crank down slowly on the reel, pulling my rod tip back towards the bait, taking up the slack as I crank down. Then repeat. Slow movement and no slack are the keys.

Great info, thanks for the tips.

I caught a keeper flounder a month ago right up on a shoreline point using a Carolina rig with a float right above the weight to give the lure casting distance while keeping it above the oysters with a gulp shrimp on a #1 kahle hook. Was actually doing a popping retrive hoping for specs.

Great info