Drum Bay Sunshine

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karstopo
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Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by karstopo »

Twenty inches, at least, of rain this month at my house. BTW, that’s too much. The yard, the garden, it’s all become a Zika infested swamp. Today, I escaped to the bay if only for a while. No mosquitoes there, miracles of miracles, and nothing but brilliant sunshine and endless vistas. Just what I wanted.

Had the place to myself when I launched at noon. Good enough water right at the launch. Go find some fish. Found a redfish, spooked that one, found another, caught it. Spooked a couple of sheepshead.

Moved a little and caught a little redfish. Hit a little grass line with moving water. Something was bothering little shrimp. Cast, take, four pound flounder, yippee.

The water was good in places, 1-1.5 feet of visibility, greenish. In other spots, it was muddy. The wind started out from the west north west, then later swung southwest and freshened. Tide was weakly incoming at first, then strengthened. Tide levels were medium to medium high.

After the flounder, I relocated to a far away shoreline. Good water there, but no good fish, just a few croaker and a little drum. Got a real good workout coming back into the wind, just exactly what I needed. Tried a couple of spots coming in. Got one good take, but the wind and current kept me from getting comfortable.

Made it to the launch at 4:00. Very happy with the day. Sunshine does wonders. ImageImageImage
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crusher
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by crusher »

Nice flounder Karst. Glad to see you give a report of your R&R on the water.
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JW FunGuy
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by JW FunGuy »

Nice job! Glad you got out, Wish I did. :(
What pattern is that in the flounder?
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karstopo
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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JW FunGuy wrote:Nice job! Glad you got out, Wish I did. :(
What pattern is that in the flounder?
Olive Borski Slider. I use Chartreuse grizzly rooster neck feathers for the hackle portion of the fly. Olive Craft fur tail that I bar with a black marker. Olive dyed deer belly hair, small tungsten dumbbell, size 4 Gamakatsu Bonefish hook. I like the black finish on these hooks. They are carbon steel and will eventually corrode and discolor the fly, but most of the time the fly gets used up, lost or otherwise becomes unusable before the corrosion gets going. Carbon steel hooks do way better around oyster shell than stainless. Stainless hook points tend to curl upon striking shell and that's tough to fix with a hook hone.

Flounder don't, in my experience, seem to be real picky about color of the fly pattern. The main thing I try to get right is the speed of the presentation and then keeping an eye out for promising flounder spots, grass lines with moving water, reef margins, pilings jutting out into the current. Floating fly line limits how deep I can go after them. Maybe I'll put on my Teeny line and give it a go again. I have always enjoyed fishing shallow even when I was using conventional tackle and I reach for the fly rods and reels loaded with floating line whenever I can.

Flounder are definitely a fun fish to go after with fly gear. The relatively light weight of flies and the super sharp thin wire hooks seem to set better and stay set better than when I used soft plastics on lead jig head and bait casting gear. I really don't count down or have a big pause on the set after the flounder thumps the fly. I don't know how many flounder I lost when they only had the plastic tail in their mouths releasing their grip on it at the net. Losing them on the fly is much rarer, but it still happens.
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by JW FunGuy »

Thanks! I did notice those hooks in your other thing posts. I’m going to have to try those out. I like the Chartreuse Grizzly too I’m going to tie some up.
I’ve only caught one Flounder and it was a blind cast. So does that make it a Fluke? :lol:
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karstopo
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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Chubs
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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Awesome! The rain kept me away on Friday and Saturday. Was the weather that bad on those days? You seem to indicate so.

Another thing, I notice the red you caught has some odd markings right below it's eyes and nostril that lead to it's mouth. Do all reds have those markings or did this guy get his nose stuck in a plastic wrap for part of his early life? Or is that part of the fly I'm just not making out. hehe
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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Way to do it.
Gotta love flounder on the fly!
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karstopo
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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Chubs wrote:Awesome! The rain kept me away on Friday and Saturday. Was the weather that bad on those days? You seem to indicate so.

Another thing, I notice the red you caught has some odd markings right below it's eyes and nostril that lead to it's mouth. Do all reds have those markings or did this guy get his nose stuck in a plastic wrap for part of his early life? Or is that part of the fly I'm just not making out. hehe
ImageImageImage

Is the markings on any of these redfish faces? The way the sunlight hits the scales often reveals some interesting patterns. But some redfish I’ve caught have had some obvious trauma in the past. Image

Here’s one with a jaw that looks like it was once broken and then healed.
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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NativeSon wrote:Way to do it.
Gotta love flounder on the fly!
The flounder was 4# on my boga. The scale weighs a gallon of water accurately, but I haven’t checked it with a half gallon of water. The redfish weighed about 5# on the scale which is pretty normal for a fish just shy of 25”.

I was surprised how much the flounder weighed since it wasn’t quite 20”. It was very thick. I caught another a couple of years ago that went 4# and 21”. It was one of the first fish, if not the first fish, I caught on the shrimp fly I tie. It was caught less than a half mile from the one caught on Sunday.

There’s bigger ones out there. I’d love to get one about 6 or 7 pounds on the fly rod. A couple of years ago, my buddy caught a 24” one out there on a paddle tail, but we didn’t weigh it. He lost another that teetered on the edge of the net that was an easy 5#. I lost a monster at the net in Christmas bay once before I fly fished. I’ve seen a 7-8# Flounder taken just yards from the Ernie’s launch at Christmas bay.

But they are all great. My plan is to fish hard in October and November. Maybe this will be the year I get the truly big one.
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by Gage5602 »

i did not know that there were fly fisherman on this forum personal i love to fly fish,but i do not have any experience for redfish the only fish i have caught on fly are tarpon, mahi mahi,bass,Fresh water trout. im going to try to catch red on fly i know a few areas were i see tailing reds but have only caught them on conventional next time i think i will my 8 weight awesome report flounder on fly that cool i have a hard a enough time catching flounder on conventional. Great report and always tightlines
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karstopo
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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Gage5602 wrote:i did not know that there were fly fisherman on this forum personal i love to fly fish,but i do not have any experience for redfish the only fish i have caught on fly are tarpon, mahi mahi,bass,Fresh water trout. im going to try to catch red on fly i know a few areas were i see tailing reds but have only caught them on conventional next time i think i will my 8 weight awesome report flounder on fly that cool i have a hard a enough time catching flounder on conventional. Great report and always tightlines
Take that 8 weight along. Now is the time, October and November are prime redfish months. This time of year, they might even be in a good sized school eating everything in their path. If 40 or 50 solid redfish pushing bait airborne in a foot of water won’t get your heart beating...well, that sight sure gets mine a thumping. :D
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by JW FunGuy »

Those are Awsome photos karstopo! Thanks. It’s no wonder we fish! :D
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NativeSon
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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The largest flounder I have ever seen caught was years ago by a couple of ol' boy bank fisherman on the road leading into Seawolf Park. It was in December long after the run had tapered off. They were fishing with, of all things, huge freshwater golden shiners, and pulled in a monster of a saddle blanket.
I hope you catch a monster this year!
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by JabbaShrimp »

Is Drum Bay deep enough for Hobie Pro Angler?
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karstopo
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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JabbaShrimp wrote:Is Drum Bay deep enough for Hobie Pro Angler?
How much water does it need?

Drum bay is variable in depth. Then you have variable water levels. There’s a ton of reef that is around and some is at or just below the surface.

I’m sure you can get around in spots, but might be limited to paddling in other areas.
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by JabbaShrimp »

Thank you, I normally need a couple of feet of water to get around. However, I am thinking I may need to get a push pole for those times where water is super shallow.

I may head over there and scope it out next week without any real expectations other than scouting the area.
karstopo wrote:
JabbaShrimp wrote:Is Drum Bay deep enough for Hobie Pro Angler?
How much water does it need?

Drum bay is variable in depth. Then you have variable water levels. There’s a ton of reef that is around and some is at or just below the surface.

I’m sure you can get around in spots, but might be limited to paddling in other areas.
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Thanks for this karst. I need to get salty again!!


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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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Went back out there today, two weeks after the previous trip, from about 11 am to 3:30pm. Tidal movement today seemed kind of nonexistent at first, then started coming in with force later. Water was high, well into the grass, and not especially clear, not exactly Yoo-hoo, more a little ice teaish. Wind was moderate or hair above that at times and out of the southeast.

My plan was to try and find a couple of flounder. Find them I did not. Found some other fish, mostly little fish. On the redfish, they ranged from about 8” to one at 21”, with a couple of near slots. The near slots and slot fish seemed especially strong today or maybe I was just especially weak from the late summerish heat and sun beating down on me. Trout went from 7” to 16”, croaker 9-12”, and one 6” gafftop that I almost cast out again not realizing it was even on the line. Even the 16” trout seemed bigger on the line, I guess my fish catching muscles have atrophied due to lack of use.

I just poked around shorelines and reefs. Some of the redfish tipped me off with their harassing of bait. See bait getting bothered, make a few casts, Fish on. The chop and water conditions made spotting fish and bait activity tough. So did sweat dripping across my sunglasses and into my eyes. Some areas I fished inspite of nothing showing and I got nothing in those places. Occasionally, I’d see bait get messed with but couldn’t connect with anything.

Last stop was a big reef with the high water flowing over it. I had some sort of line upset, but my fly was out about 20’-30’ drifting in the current. I fixed the line mess and went to pull in my fly and the 16” trout was attached to it. This kind of thing happens enough that I’m going to start to do it on purpose. I pulled a few more diminutive trout from there and the last near slot redfish nearby, then got my Fly caught up in the edge of the cord grass, but was too hot and lazy to paddle over and get it so I broke it off and went in.

I did for the first time in the bay Fish a fly line with a intermediate, slow sinking head. I did think it helped conquer the wind, current and the little extra water depth out there today. Used one pattern for the outing, a tan size four borski slider and left two of them attached to the cord grass. I did see shrimp hopping here and there about the size of the fly.

I got to say I’m a little out of shape or Father Time is catching up to me. Bring on some cooler weather because this 56 year old ain’t quite up to mid day summer type weather fishing like he used to be. Cooler weather is coming and then I’ll be ready to go 15 rounds toe to toe with the fish. No photos this trip, that required additional effort.
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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Went out to Drum once again this afternoon. The water was way up in the grass. Tide was falling at 1:30 when I launched. Wind was Southeast and a shade under moderate. Water felt surprisingly cool and tasted salty.

I keep trying to find flounder. I keep on not finding any. At first, I couldn’t even find a mullet. I paddled around until in the distance I see a mullet, then another. Fish here said the bait so I did. Dink, dink, and when I say dink, there’s nothing quite like the dinks I get using fly patterns like the borski slider. Six, seven inch type of fish.

Anyway, I’m still seeing bait moving around and I don’t think the dinks are doing the pushing. I adjust my position and get a better trout at about 16”. I move a little more and get a better one that’s close to 21”. I mess around with some gear and move a little. Seems like the tidal movement started to really fade. The bait now isn’t doing much.

I move along to another shoreline. It’s deadsville. Water is way into the surrounding grasslands. I keep on moving. Here and there as I move along, I get dink trout. No sign of redfish, didn’t even see one. Tide starts coming in pretty well as I’m thinking about heading in. I get another take or two, but miss on the fish. They felt dinky.

Image

Nice to get out. I keep thinking I’ll get on some fish, but have been doing more searching than finding. I do enjoy the searches.
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by Ron Mc »

can't beat that - beauty trout.
Storm tides can bring in some really big fish - we caught jacks and baby tarpon on our fly rods one day on a 3' storm tide way back in the lakes.
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

Post by Drifting Yak »

Very nice read Karst! Sometimes just being on the water and searching is all you need. But there’s nothing like it when ya finally find ‘em.
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karstopo
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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Everyone else is getting out and having fun in the sun, well so can I.

I like reports with teeth so Image

It’s really black and white, sunshine is fun, rain is not. Image
ImageImage

Rain is for the birdsImage
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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Ooh, you got them! I think I know where you went (was it near oyster?), I was going to go probably to the same area if I had taken the kayak out on Friday, I might have bumped into you had I went :) Excellent you found them teefus theifus. I hope I can get out there soon but it's probably not going to be till December now since I used up my fishing passes this month LOL.

I ended up wading around Moses for flounder and went to sea wolf park after. Will post report later.

Did you spot any flounder while you were out there? Spoiler alert, my Moses wade was a bust.
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Re: Drum Bay Sunshine

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No flounder at Drum on Friday, none I found anyway.
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