Flounder Season Reopens
Whether it’s the song or the old proverbial saying, “You don’t know what you got til’ it’s gone,” certainly held true this past six weeks as Northshore anglers saw plenty of opportunity to put flounder in the ice chest. Unfortunately, they were forced to toss them back due to the, first in the history of Louisiana, flounder season closure that spanned from Oct 15 to Nov 30. Only time will tell if the closure has made an impact on flounder numbers but for now, some anglers have discovered a new appreciation for those flatfish that they’ve come to take for granted all their lives.
Lake Pontchartrain
Terry Caplan has been fishing Lake Pontchartrain all his life and said he never dreamed the flounder closure would affect him as much as it has done the past six weeks. “I don’t know if it’s Murphy’s Law or what, but it feels like I caught more flounder during the closed season than I’ve ever caught,” he said. Caplan said in the 5 trips during the closed season he’s caught a total of 12 flounder at the Train Bridge. “It was harder than I thought it would be to throw those fish back, but I knew the season would open back up soon,” he said. That it did, and on December 1st, Caplan made sure he was fishing the bridge to make up for the fish he was forced to throw back in November. He started fishing the Trestles near the south shore with live shrimp on a Carolina rig. The day started out slow but as the fog cleared the fishing picked up and after putting two speckled trout in the boat Caplan set the hook on a fish that he was searching for. “I knew it was a flounder right when I set the hook because it hugged the bottom,” he said. After a 5-minute battle Caplan was able to grab his net and scoop up his first flounder of the day: a 3.4-pound fish. “Man, that felt so good to catch that flounder and be able to keep it,” he said. The Franklinton angler worked his way north and put together a box of eight speckled trout and four flounder all over 14 inches. Caplan said he thinks the closure has helped but admits it was harder to endure than he thought it would be. “It’s probably going to help the flounder numbers but that was a hard task throwing back that many flounder,” Caplan said.
Lake Borgne
Greg Albritton of Lacombe made a trip to Lake Borgne armed with dead shrimp. He fished Chef Pass with the market bait on the bottom and ended up with four speckled trout, four white trout, one bass, one blue cat, and three sheepshead. It was Albritton’s first time keeping the sheepshead. “I’ve never kept sheepshead before but figured I try some as everyone keeps telling me that they’re good eating,” he said. He also was able to enjoy some drag pulling action from four big bull reds in which he released. “I let them go to reproduce,” he said. The variety of fish caught was bonus for Albritton, but the highlight was catching six flounder. “I caught plenty of flounder but only kept a few,” he said. He kept three of the flounder with the smallest measuring 14 inches and the largest being 18 inches.
Tournament Results
The Double Nickel Bass Club fished the East Pearl River as 14 boats showed up to compete. The weather was overcast, and the water was high with late outgoing tide. Half of the boats went south and found clean water with the other half going north finding stained water. In the end it was Ralph Dunn who brought in a 3-fish bag that weighed 7.01 pounds. Dunn also had the big fish of the day: a 2.94-pound bass. In second place was Jerry Bullock with 4.16 pounds. Dwain Crumby took third place with 3.96 pounds.
Upcoming Tournaments
The Double Nickel Bass Club is holding their next tournament at the East Pearl River on Tuesday, Dec 15. For more information, please contact Dwain Crumby at 985-502-6006.
Pearl River Team Trails is holding their next tournament at Crawford’s Landing on Dec. 10. For more information, please contact Charles Dauzat at 985-960-3260.
(Keith Lusher Jr. writes a weekly column. For more info, visit NorthshoreFishingReport.com.Contact Keith at keith@northshorefishingreport.com.)