Flood Tide With The Kids

Flounder Gigging Report for Fernandina Beach, FL 6/24/17

Gigging Report.  Wade gigging. Friday, June 24th.  North End of Amelia Island.

Time: Feet in water 9pm. Out 11:30 pm.

Tide.  Flood tide - water well above normal levels.  We started just about at the top of tide.  Outgoing tide entire trip.

Water Conditions.  Windy and lots of ripples.  About half of the walk, the water was too murky to see bottom.

Will and Sara getting the flounder gigging done! This was our second flounder, a 13" keeper.

StabbyFish Team.  Myself (Bill) and my children Sara (11) and Will (14.)

Wildlife Sightings.  We spotted deer, a raccoon, and a largish black kitten back in the brush (Sara is convinced it's a bobcat kitten.)  Ghost crabs galore, horseshoe crabs, blue crabs.  We saw a beautiful stone crab we couldn't harvest.  Pinfish and baitfish.  We walked into a pod of about 6 needlefish who jumped a postured for a while.  2 keeper flounder, 2 juvenile scoot flounder, and 4 baby flounder.  We netted 4 keeper blue crab.

Flounder Gigging Report.  

Fear the Spear!

Who says you won't see fish on a flood tide?  Well, I usually do.  The water was high!  As I drove over the bridge to enter Amelia Island, I could see much of the marsh covered with this flood tide.  I was not hopeful for a productive evening, but both kiddos were excited for the flounder gigging outing and we already promised Mom a quiet evening.  Past experience told me not to get my hopes up that we would harvest any flounder.

I didn't mind being wrong.

It was windy, but the cool air felt great after a 90 degree day in a car with no AC.  Sara was in the water with me, Will was our photographer and ghost crab spotter.  We had to skip large sections of water that were murky, but where the water was clear our lights provided good visibility even with the wind ripples.

Sara got our first stab early, a respectable 15" flounder well hidden in the sand.

Sara stabbed our second not too much further down the run, a 13", also well hidden.

We scooped 4 decent blue crab and visited briefly with a nice stone crab.

Otherwise kids had a blast with the wildlife.  Will chased ever elusive ghost crabs, and Sara tried perfecting her "fish grab" technique on a few of the scoots.

Other Flounder Gigging Reports for 6/24/2017

Team StabbyFish member Kyle reported a slower than usual but fruitful night on the south end of Amelia Island from the boat.  Much of the water was murky on the south end water also.  Kyle stayed through the tide until 5am and produced a few nice fish.

Team StabbyFish Kyle's Cooler from the South End of Amelia Island, FL 6/24/17

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