Blue Herons, Flounder, and Bent Rods
October is a great month to inshore fish for lots of species, especially flounder.
While some of my counterparts are out fishing the gulf, I'm enjoying the flats practically all to myself.
I've been tossing a lot of soft plastics and putting some flatties in the ice chest. I've been busy fishing a lot over the past two weeks with chartering and fun fishing.
Even on my days off I go fishing. This way I stay on top of what the fish are doing which keeps my clients happy. And I can't lie, I love fishing; it's in my blood. I don't care if it's a 2 lb flounder or a 30 lb redfish, it's all fun.
Why do I mention blue herons in my report title? Let me get right to it. A couple days back I had a great family from New Orleans with their 7year-old son. It was his birthday present to go fishing on an inshore charter. I took them flounder fishing for the first hour and we did pretty well; we had 8 or so good bites and landed a few keepers. I then headed out into the gulf to troll for Spanish and ladyfish for the little one. It was a perfect day, calm wind, calm seas and lots of fish. The rods were getting slammed on each pass and my little angler was having a blast. He was catching a variety of fish, and then when I was helping him after he caught a bluefish, all of a sudden a blue heron landed on my front deck trolling motor. Everyone was like, hello? We just watched the bird make himself at home. Now, I've had them land on my boat when at the dock or watch me clean fish at the dock, but I've never had one land on my boat while out in the gulf. So I'm taking the fish off the hook to get it on the gripper for a picture and the blue heron is watching every move I make. We take the picture and then I toss the fish on the deck to let him have it, and while he's making a move toward it, another blue heron shows up to stake his claim on the blue fish deck special. So, now I've got two blue herons basically getting ready to start their own MMA match on my front deck over this blue fish. It was remarkable to watch.
What a great birthday present for my little angler from New Orleans. The Sanderson family will have a great memory like no other thanks to my two new MMA featherweight friends for putting on a show for us. I can still hear them squawking and getting ready to do Mr. Miyagi's Karate Kid crane technique, which everyone knows, if done right, " no can defense."
Hope you enjoyed the report. Till the next adventure, tight lines..
John
