Shore Floundering - MBAS Christmas Competition

With the weather still not playing ball for a decent session out on the kayaks (i want to test my fish finder!!) i went out in search of Flounder in a local estuary. It was my angling clubs Christmas Competition so signed on and went to the mark in the hope of catching a plump winter flounder. The rods were already set up so to pass the time whilst waiting for the tide to push i went and dug a few rag worm in the mud; always fun..... if you like mud! Fresh dug harbour rag worm are lethal for the Flounder and i have learnt over the years that the shop brought farmed stuff is no where near as effective. Anyhow i had brought some rag worm incase i didn't have enough time to dig enough bait for the whole session.....

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The tide started to push and the hooks were loaded with one shop brought worm and tipped with 3 or 4 small wriggly dug worms. One rod went out with a running ledger and the other with a 2 hook flapper. It wasn't long before something was gently pulling at the worms, i give the fish a bit of line and let the bite develop and soon enough i was reeling in a feisty flounder, not a bad one either! It was big enough to take back to the weigh in so filled up a bucket of water to keep flounder in so it could be released after weighing. Within the next hour two more smaller flounder found the baits before an army of crabs worked its way up the creek i was fishing in - game over! The baits were being stripped within minutes so that was that!

Back at the weigh in and my flounder weighed 1lb 11oz 3dr which managed to get me 3rd place. It was beat by a lovely Thornback Ray of around 9lb 8oz and a Golden Grey Mullet of around 1lb 13oz. An enjoyable few hours fishing and 3rd place in the MBAS christmas comp, not bad! I returned the flounder in a local harbour and it swam off full of life! 

Flounders are easy to keep alive in a bucket of water and are well adapted to coping with water with a low oxygen content but even so i use a small aerator to keep them fighting fit. Its always satisfying to see them swim back, hopefully to be caught again when they are bigger!