Headed out this morning with Derek, Bill and Trevor on one of their many yearly visits with flounder on the mind. Three generations of fishermen on one boat always makes for a good time–nothing like father and son. On the way out of the inlet, we ran into huge clouds of birds and giant baitballs being CRUSHED by the snapper blues. The fish were all over the surface–and many times the blues were eating the bait as soon as it touched the water. The hook-ups were automatic and we wore them out for a couple of hours enjoy the pull of the small 1-2lb blue fish.

We would have enjoyed some spanish, but with the muddy water and the morning low tide – there were few to be found. Some anglers reported getting into an early bite along atlantic beach, and my buddy Captain Scott Crocker (www.shacklefordcharters.com) landed a good fish at a nearshore wreck on his light-line. The problem isthat the water is just too cloudy to target these eye-site oriented feeders – live (ie power) chumming only really works when the fish can see the bait!

After we tired of bluefish, we hit some of the ARs in search of flounder. We didn’t have to wait long and in less than 10 mins we had two keepers in the boat. Lots of trash fish and those mysterious “bait-stealers” were working today and we tore through 80 mullet in half the usual time. But these guys were great fishermen and a pleasure to fish with – it’s always great to fish with those who can really work a bait. In around 90 minutes these three boys brought in around 10 nice flatties – keeping the biggest six. Trevor just wore these fish out landing the two biggest fish of the day – 4lbs and 4.5lbs.

The tally was as such:

14 year-old Trevor – 7 keepers
Grandpa – 2 keepers
Dad – 0

One detail worth mentioning is the largest flounder – when we landed him he had another one of my rigs stuck in his jaw (we had broken one off a few minutes before) and three of our baits in his stomach. I don’t know if that makes him really smart or really dumb?

With Trev feeling a bit “woozie,” we headed in – worked the blues for a bit and hit the port on the way in. Managed a few great strikes in one of my honey-holes but couldn’t get a good hook-set – using those 6-8 onch mullet can test the patience of any seasoned angler!

Not the hottest of days, but these boys left with big smiles!