Good one. You live in the same city as me. Get out there and get ya some... These fronts have made fishing pretty tough, but you can still find a few hungry ones.

Just an observation, but why is it that the Galveston area (TX City, Kehma, Clearlake, etc.) is so good for flounder, but falls behind the southern coast when it comes to trout and reds. In fact, the flounder fishing up there is alot better than down here.

I lived in Clearlake for 2 years; and coming from Padre and fishing the laguna madre, baffin, Aransas, and other south texas hotspots, wasnt too impressed with the trout and red fishing in the area. Though I did not have a boat at the time, there are dozens of places where I can wade out in the CC area and bag a nice mess of trout and reds. However, I might have limited one or two times while fishing areas like the TX city Dikes, or flats around GTown. Yet, I was always able to catch a mess of flounder!!

Soon, I began to target flounder when I went saltwater fishing around the Galv. area and was always able to take home close to a limit. Down here we catch flounder, but just not like you guys. Maybee its because trout and reds are more sought after and we just forget about them and you guys rely on them with the harder trout and red fishing. This is the only possibility that I can come up with, other than maybee the mid coast environment is more favorable.

Has anyone noticed this too, or have input on why there is such an abundance of doormats in the Gtown area.

All I can think of is the mid coast conditions might be a better habitat for Flounder. Maybe the dark, soft mud around the mid coast has something to do with it. I honestly don’t know. I haven’t fished your neck of the woods but a few times, so I really don’t know what the general area looks like. I do know that the water clarity is much better and there is an abundance of vegetation unlike the Galveston Bay complex.

I honestly never fish specifically for Flounder – they just end up on the end of my line. I focus my effort on Reds and Trout with Trout being my favorite fish to target. I am still looking for that 30”+ fish. I will find her some day. Those Flounder just seem to like what I am throwing. I have never caught a Flounder while trying to target one. I always try for a Flounder as my last resort when fishing a slam tourney. They are pretty hard to catch when you are looking for one.

Justin, if you want to get that big trout, than try targeting them in the colder months and throw nothing but large suspending baits or surface walkers. It is crucial that you fish over areas with a good mud bottom and in depths of about 4 feet. The mud bottom works to store heat and the trout will be laying in it using their dark backs to ambush prey from below. It usually helps when shell is present too.

The large suspending and surface walking baits more closely resemble the horse mullet that are the most abundant, and preferred prey species during this time of year. If you will notice, you dont see the large schools of finger mullet, shad, or glass minnows from Dec. to March like you do from late spring to fall. So these lures are the more natural choice. Plus, trout are trying to conserve energy by only wasting it on large meals that will fill them up fast, instead of chasing around glass minnows and shad like they will when it is warm. My most succesfull lure choices are the Catch2000 and hi-pitch shedog. However, some people swear by the corky, same approach though.

Use the surface walker to locate trout. Sometimes you will not need to switch baits once trout are located, but if they are missing the lure, or boiling just underneath, switch to the suspending lure and you will usually hammer em. I use this technique everytime I fish during this time of year and have had great success. I have only caught one trout over 30 inches but have caught more than I can count in the 28 inch range, and many of them came this time of year.

If you want to come down, let me know and I will take you out in the boat. Right now, I have a 19 foot blue wave (shallow runner) but I am looking to pick up a skeeter bay boat as soon as my Company starts paying for my truck which should be any day. I know some real good winter and spring spots and garuntee that I will put you on something close to 30 inches.

I just might have to take you up on that offer. I threw plenty of suspending plugs over the winter but have not broke the 23" mark this year... I found plenty of solid fish, just coyldn't find that big girl I have been looking for.

Why aren't we posting more pictures of hot girlfriends fishing..


??

Bum, we may disagree on a few things but that is not one of them. Good Call!! In bikinis too. Thongs even!! Or better yet, narked!

BTW, Justin just keep pluggin away with those suspending lures. Not trying to talk down on your area, but a 23 inch fish is pretty good for up there and I would take a day full of em down here any time. However, I do know that some big ones are up there ready to be caught. I would suggest throwing a surface walker then. The big trout love to hit surface walkers this time of year, under the right conditions. I would throw it and nothing else, except for maybee a corky or catch2000 every once in a while.

My biggest trout in the Galveston area came in the early spring off of a hipitch sheDog (surface walker). It was a 28 incher. As a mattre of fact the two biggest trout I have seen caught down there came off of a SheDog.

I am actually looking for 21" fish for the next month...

http://www.slingshotrods.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=351

I've been trying some suspending baits myself, no luck yet, but I haven't used them much...

As for the discussion at hand, it's an interesting thing...

one reason may be that there's almost 5k sq miles of freshwater in the state (second only to Alaska)?

Maybe just a cultural difference? I mean look at the difference in boats, clothes etc... maybe the serious saltwater angler doesn't like the internet as much?

Also it's harder to successfully fish our coast consistantly... different tides, moons, winds (and I understand freshwater fishermen face these as well, it's just a different monster here, and a larger monster)... the winds made fishing a big "NO" twice that I saw this week, and that happens every week... and I'm talking all day... We've journeyed to our backlakes across the bay at 6:30am on a sheet of glass just to pop out at 8:00am in a scene of "The Perfect Storm" that would continue all day... the fish don't like the mud being kicked up too much in the shallow areas of our bays, so there are a lot of wasted trips...

also look at your different saltwater fishing scenereos... some use the saltwater for flounder-gigging... that's what they want to talk about... some like to chunk out some bait for reds... some like the artificially catch reds... some like their trout... some prefer wading from their boat, some prefer kayaking the bays for reds and trouts, some like kayaking beyond the breakers for shark, some want to fish from the jetties or piers and some from the land... everyone wants to do something different, so there's not gunna be too much discussion...

in freshwater it's pretty much one thing: Largemouth Bass (my fav is stripers at Canyon Lake, but I'll do some LM Bass)... whether you kayak or boat, you're mostly targetting lm bass with artis... so there's going to be more discussion because almost everyone relates...

I wish there was more talk myself, but for some reason there's not... but anyway...

the date on this picture is wronnnng... this was last saturday morning's catch... we didn't fish too much because we were trying to get the hang of my friend's new boat... mine's the big one (33/34 inches.. couldn't get an exact, but big)... I was gunna let him go but my friend wanted to keep him so I tagged him after we strung him... my biggest red to date:



we went out the next morning as well, same spot in the backlakes and we brought in about 10 more keepers... the two biggest that day were the two 28s my friends girlfriend hauled in.... on her little zebco I wouldn't trust a perch on... all catch and release that day...

another thing... this morning I turned on the TV and saw bassmasters was on (like every other sat. morning)... every major fishing show seems to be freshwater based... just a bigger deal I guess...

nice reds zimmy

Like you said, the main reason is that most people do not have access to the coast, therefore they fish freshwater. However, the other freshwater fishes boards do get way more hits that the salt boards.

Even though there are just more freshwater guys out there, the difference in number of posts between fresh and salt is way too enormous. Take a look sometime on how quickly a new post will move off the first page. It takes less than half a day, if there are not rapid, freaquent replies, while posts on the saltwater side will stay on page one for days.

Also, Zim; like I stated earlier, use a surface walker such as a hipitch sheDog to locate trout, then it may be better to switch to the suspending baits once you know they are there. However, cold whether fishing with a suspending lure is just a pound it out patient kind of thing. You usually wont see fast action but will catch some monsters. If you want numbers than dont throw it and go with a plastic, but if you want to take advantage of the time of year, and the big trout that are yielded during these months, then keep chunking that suspending lure.

I don't post a lot because I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing!

Maybe some day I'll post stringers full of fish, but 'til then I'll just sit back and learn from the pros.