Christmas Bay 12-Oct-2024

[deptrai]

It has been since December that I last fished Christmas Bay and probably 6 months since I caught a flounder. My wife likes flounder (raw), so I decided to say hello to Santa Claus.
I have a hernia, so I have not been fishing for a couple weeks. After visiting the Dr. , he said I can still do it. I suppose the PFD will hold everything together?
Very early launch and I was on the water @ 6:15am.

I fished a grassy shoreline on the way to my flounder hole and had at least ten bites, but no hookups. They were all little woodpecker type nibbles.
Gave up on that and took a little tour into the marshland. The water was as high as I have ever seen here, which enabled a little deeper exploration. Still, no fish to show for my efforts.
Arrived very near my flounder hole and started seeing some fish feeding on shrimp in the thick grass. I stopped short of the destination and starting fishing the grassline. Some of the grass extended up to 10’ from the shoreline and the fish were in it. I stuck myself out right up against the grass.

Whenever I cast into it, my paddletail would get hung up so I mostly cast just adjacent to the edge.

At 8:15 I caught a 15” trout.

I had another 14 incher later.

I saw the tail of a Red coming down the shoreline towards me…again, deep into the grass. Before it reached me, I dropped my paddletail in its path. Of course, it changed direction slightly and avoided it. It swam right on by me. It was so close that I could have tapped it with the tip of my rod. It kept cruising down the shoreline so I turned around in my seat and made a cast behind me. This time the fish saw it and ate it. What an exciting battle! It was in & out of the grass three times. I continue to be impressed with the Daiwa 15# fluorocarbon leader. That stuff is tough.
A 25 incher in the bag at 8:36.

[deptrai]

Ten minutes later I caught the elusive flounder. It was about 10”.

I hooked into another bigger Red while stuck out. It was peeling the line off my shallow spool with no signs of stopping. I took one hand off the reel to pull out the stakeout pole so I could chase the fish. Just as I did, the fish turned, created slack in the line and the hook pulled☹
I caught a couple more short Reds then failed to find my flounder hole. I think the deep hole that used to be there has been changed by storms or some other natural condition.

I then went to Churchill Bayou and caught several more short flounder, one more short red and my 1st Ladyfish. The Ladyfish was snagged in the back on a DOA shrimp lure so it was a fun fight.

Water temp from 77F in the morning to 81F at 1pm.
Final tally: 6-7 Reds (1 keeper), 2 trout (1 keeper), 6-7 flounder (zero keepers), 1 ladyfish (released), 1 crab (released)

Dave

[motoyak]

good report! Yes, the water is crazy high! Oct 10, I launched from Indianola marina parking lot
Fishing was off the whole time I was there(6days).
The hurricane had a steady north wind blowing water into the bay.
Not ideal by any means but I managed catch enough to bring home

[karstopo]

I enjoy reports from Christmas Bay. I can’t remember the last time I fished in Christmas Bay. The fall and especially November and December, especially as the weather cools, are my favorite times to be in that area.

Only about two weeks remaining to target the flounder until mid December. Flounder is likely my wife’s favorite fish to eat, only not raw for her, raw flounder sashimi sounds good to me, though. I picked up a fat 16.5” flatfish unexpectedly yesterday dragging and bouncing a 1/4 ounce DSL paddle tail over some hard sand looking for reds. This wasn’t a spot I had seen any flounder before. A lucky flounder catch is always welcome.

The most concentrated flounder action I ever witnessed was in Christmas Bay. Might have been fifteen or more years ago, but in spite of seeing dozens of flounder breech the surface feeding on tiny baitfish in a short stretch of shoreline, I never even got one single flounder on my line. The experience was beyond frustrating.

Maybe over next couple of weeks there will be more reports with plenty of the flatfish being caught. I hope to get on them myself and have at least one or two come aboard.