Floundering Around Christmas in SoWal

Boy, some great weather for December but not many folks in the fishing mood. While I have spent most of the past couple weeks getting ready for the holidays, and part time getting new boat parts (more on that later), I have run a few trips.

Week before last I went over to Indian Pass for a few days and ran a couple of afternoon Trout trips. Plenty of fish around, both Specks and White (sweet) Trout. The first afternoon, I had a couple of locals and we started by getting our limit of oysters.

The nice thing about oysters is as long as you go at low tide they are always biting! We then went on to catch 55 Trout, keeping 4 Specks and 16 Whites. One of my anglers, who has fished all over and with me for 25 years, caught what he said was the biggest sweet Trout he had ever seen. The next afternoon the bite was even better. I had one angler and we caught over 60 fish, keeping our 10 fish limit of Specks and 10 Sweet Trout, as well as a couple Whiting.

Back here in South Walton, I ran a trip off Grayton the first part of last week with a couple of anglers who have fished with me several years around this season. They have caught some big AJ's and lot of Jacks and asked to do something different this year. How about that Flounder thing you were talking about? Alright, it's a beautiful calm sunny day, let's go chase flat fish. After a brief learning curve, my guys got the flat fish figured out and went catching 'em on a steady run.

Light Tackle but a Full Board

After spending a couple of days doing chores, I couldn't stand it and went back out myself one morning to catch some myself.

Proof I haven't lost the touch!

Now, while it has nothing to do with fishin', I had to include the next pic just to show all you folks who aren't here how the holidays work in Grayton/Seagrove. While waiting to pick up my anglers the other morning, I snapped this of someone doing a beach check after Christmas shopping. No, that's not snow, it's our wonderful white sand and Christmas season!

Where are the reindeer ?

Back to boat part gathering. My new Twin Vee hull arrived from the factory. They did a great job, the boat looks wonderful and I can't wait to start drilling holes in it and putting it all together. I am booked pretty good the week between Christmas and New Year, so I am going to wait till the first of the year to shut down for a couple weeks. I have to take all the aluminum, engines, electronics, etc. off the old boat so I figure at least 2 weeks of NO Fishing-- oh well, it'll sure be worth it!

Look how shiny and bright !

Merry Christmas!! My New Sleigh!