just wondering how the fishings been at san luis pass, seawolf, etc. i'm in search of flounder filets. thanks. GOFISH

The pass has been slow. Refuse to fish Seawolf.

Deacon, why not Seawolf? Is it too crowded? I never been out there, but I heard it is crowded.

hey Deacon, slow huh. like chickenbone, i've never been to seawolf either. has the fishing been slow cuz of the weather or the tides? i'm planning on heading down this weekend. what's your 2 cents on how i can be successful. bye the way, that monday we were at the pass, you were pretty far out there. is that where a drop-off was? thanks. GOFISH

I've heard a good place to look for flounder is where the intercostal opens up to the bays and fishing the edges between the two. Anybody have any input.

Gofish, I am going to Seawolf this Saturday, possibly Sunday, so I'll let you know how I do. I personally believe it's the weather, water is not cool enough yet. I have had some limited success, wade fishing the last few weekends out in Trinity bay, next to old pilings from a ripped up pier. I am curious to know what this cold front will bring the next few days. My dad went to Seawolf yesterday during the middle of the day and caught two flounder and is going again tomorrow(friday). Again, I will be out there Saturday with him, so we'll see. If I talk to him, I will make a post tomorrow night.

Seawolf is a Zoo on the weekends. If you don't mind people just walking right through your cast or walking right up to you and casting into the spot you just hooked a fish go for it. It is a potlicker fest. Gofish, yeah I was fishing a drop off. I'm not so much of a believer in the water temp as I an in the tides and moon phase. Last year I had my best flounder fishing the last two weeks of Oct. and the first week of Nov.. All days were sunny warm short sleeve shirt days. Once the colder air got here closer to Thanksgiving the bite faded. The tides have been off this year Oct. they were too high, and lately they havn't been on time with the charts. I'll get after them early next week, might even try Sun afternoon. Depends on the wind. I've got that topwater itch, its hard to tie on a worm when the water gets this temp.. Caught a 29" & 25" speck two weeks ago. Love those blow ups!

Chickenbone,

Were you wading Smith Point at Vingt et Un? That's one of my favorite spots. Three weeks ago we caught a few flounder there and my buddy from Canada caught a 38" redfish on soft plastic his first time salt water fishing. I hear that the locals gig a lot of flounder there in the flats.

Walleye,

Not sure, isn't that terrible! I do know that land mark that everyone uses is Dow's Mansion. Is that also considered Smith's point or close to it? Anyways, I am always interested learning more about the bay and being able to communicate where I go fishing. I feel like an idiot a lot of times because people ask me, "where did you go"? And all can tell them is landmarks or nearby's. Anyway, I guess it just takes time and some more fishing to know the terrain.

Deacon, thanks for the info! Man, that's some big trout. I have been practicing with the top water stuff, so looking forward trying that out soon.

Chickenbone, by practicing do you mean you tie one on when it gets slow and throw it for a little while. When it doesn't produce you go back to what you were using before? Thats what I used to do. Hated the things couldn't catch a thing. I watched a friend one morning getting mauled on top, so I put one on and got 6-7 great blowups in about 30 min. and didn't hook one fish. I loved it, but put plastics back on and caught fish. I was not letting them take it I would set the hook right at the blowup, not at the pressure on the line(key tip, only set the hook when you feel the fish, it will be hard and you will miss alot, but the blow up is worth it!). I challenged myself to go out the next trip only with topwaters, and I landed 6 trout, 2 24-25", and two reds, not to mention the other blowups I missed. I was hooked, no pun intended. I challenge you to go out next time and really give them a fair try. If its the morn.,tell yourself to fish the first two hours with it no matter what. You will be surprised how much you will like it. This time of year they will readily hit topwaters all day. Aug and early Sept. are the only months I've found that they slow after about 9 am. Post back and tell us how your first big blowup was. It's all about the blowups!

Deacon,

What kind of top waters are you throwing? Ghosts? Mirro-lure? Soft Plastics?

Just curious...I'm also one of the guys who only tries them for about 30min when nothing else is working...and I haven't had much luck, only a few.

Let me know
Thanks!
Shawn

I throw top dogs, she dogs, spooks, and skitterwalks. The skitterwalks and the top dogs have the most durable finish. I like the top dog and the top pup when it is real calm(less noise) and in the heat of the summer(top pup) smaller bait seems to work better. The she dog the spook and the skitterwalk I like on rougher days. Get a few standard colors; bone, chart., holloween, and a natural color for those clear water days. Don't be afraid to change them out when you are trying to locate fish. I was throwing she dogs one morn this past summer and nothing would touch it, switched to a top dog and boom a stringer of fish. They wanted the quieter bait. What ever you throw do it with confidence, I can't stress this enough. Know that you are going to catch fish and you will. Sounds new agey, but I truely believe in it, and put the theory to the test too many times this past year to not believe. Buddy next to me, same bait, bad attitude, no fish, I had great days. This lasted almost two months, he hasn't fished since early Aug.. I put a whooping on him. Just have confidence.
P.S. Don't work the bait too fast, let it come to a rest after each twitch before you twitch again. The fast twitch, twich, twitch looks great, if they are actively feeding, but a slower twitch always works better.

Seeing all the topwater posts here, I thought I would jump in and say that it is the best way to fish. If you can make yourself stay with it for a few trips and a get the hang of it, you will never want to fish plastics again, much less bait. Chrome/Blue Spook is my favorite. Work it slow, but keep it moving. Try and make yourself count to 2 or 3 before you set the hook. It's getting colder now, I'm afraid the topwater bite will be going downhill.

------------------
Tight lines

GoFish, I don't know if you tried Seawolf park this weekend, but me and baitstealer did. Deacon was right, that place was a zoo. The good thing was that we were in a boat, so we didn't have to worry about dealing with the chaos. The funny thing is that, my dad, who goes down there all the time said the crowd was light. It was very hard to believe that because people were literally fishing on top of each other. Then you had boats cruising up to park right on some wade fisherman that were getting action. To give you another indication of how crowded it was, we were going to anchor the boat and get out to wade fish, but couldn't find a spot to get in without messing up any fisherman. The action was very slow for everybody, so if you didn't make it out you didn't miss anything. That was my first time down there and it was interesting experience to say the least.

Deacon, yeah I usually try a top water for a few minutes then go back to bait or plastic. I have tried top dog and top dog, jr. I got one blow up a couple of weeks when I tried it, but like you said I didn't let it sit long enough. Tried for a few more minutes then went back to what I was using to catch some fish. I am going to give it a serious try next time I am out. I like the info about which top waters to use as well as in conditions. When I have used top water, I did a fast twitch. So I am going to be patient and take my time the next go. Thanks again and I will let you know how I do.