Giggin' Shell Point July 7-8
Posted: July 8th, 2005, 10:45 am
Went flounder gigging last night at Shell Point. Met Iamhybris and his roommate Brian at the ramp and launched about 10:30 or so. $10 fee. No other cars or trailers there.
Crystal clear night, nice breeze and perfect air temp. Loads of stars, milky way, a few meteors sighted. [Can you tell yet, no fish?
Wrong! ]
We motored into the canal, shut down, and poled along the shore of the canals in real skinny water. Then we started having light problems: it had been a while for both of us. First, Iam smelled something burning, and thank goodness he pulled the hot, melting plug out of his console! Then the main back up light, battery powered, faded fast.
Thankfully, we had a couple back-up back-ups. The best of these, while it lasted, was a dive light. But to work best, it had to be held under water, and so Your Humble Narrator became the long-armed light man. This was a cool role, relaxing to sweep the bottom with the light as Iam and his buddy peered down.
Iam got the first one: whack! Celebration all around, as we were getting pessimistic up until then. I took a quick documentary photo, but in the dark I screwed that up and somehow it didn't take. [Maybe it was not set on photo or the chip was full.]
We polled on, all up and down the canal edges. The water was very, very low, and well receded from the shore.
With my arm hanging overboard, I was looking for bull sharks too.
Then Brian, working by himself at the stern, surveying water we thought we had alreadly looked at, saw something in an LED light. [Note to self: LED lights are great for this, they seem to highten the contrast, Iam said.]
We heard an odd grunting noise come from him, just as he saw something ; and then he lurched quickly with his gig. This was the first flounder in the water he had ever seen, and so he had just figured out what they look like under the sand. Whack! Then it was up in the air and it was Iam and I yelling over and over, "Get it in the boat! Get it in the boat!" [Brian hadn't yet lost one.]
So, he had his first flatty! And that one picture of the evening "took."
Later, as we were poling along, Iam felt his gig, which he was poling with, "wiggle" [he said later]; and he pulled it up to take a look, and he had a little flounder ont it, stuck a bit through the nose. It was released in good condition and we began accusing Iam of making that up. Maybe he did.
All in all, a nice night out under the stars, with great company, on the hunt.
Now I am motivated to resume the manufacture of my custom giggin' light, though now I am thinking LED.
Crystal clear night, nice breeze and perfect air temp. Loads of stars, milky way, a few meteors sighted. [Can you tell yet, no fish?
Wrong! ]We motored into the canal, shut down, and poled along the shore of the canals in real skinny water. Then we started having light problems: it had been a while for both of us. First, Iam smelled something burning, and thank goodness he pulled the hot, melting plug out of his console! Then the main back up light, battery powered, faded fast.
Thankfully, we had a couple back-up back-ups. The best of these, while it lasted, was a dive light. But to work best, it had to be held under water, and so Your Humble Narrator became the long-armed light man. This was a cool role, relaxing to sweep the bottom with the light as Iam and his buddy peered down.
Iam got the first one: whack! Celebration all around, as we were getting pessimistic up until then. I took a quick documentary photo, but in the dark I screwed that up and somehow it didn't take. [Maybe it was not set on photo or the chip was full.]
We polled on, all up and down the canal edges. The water was very, very low, and well receded from the shore.
With my arm hanging overboard, I was looking for bull sharks too.
Then Brian, working by himself at the stern, surveying water we thought we had alreadly looked at, saw something in an LED light. [Note to self: LED lights are great for this, they seem to highten the contrast, Iam said.]
We heard an odd grunting noise come from him, just as he saw something ; and then he lurched quickly with his gig. This was the first flounder in the water he had ever seen, and so he had just figured out what they look like under the sand. Whack! Then it was up in the air and it was Iam and I yelling over and over, "Get it in the boat! Get it in the boat!" [Brian hadn't yet lost one.]
So, he had his first flatty! And that one picture of the evening "took."
Later, as we were poling along, Iam felt his gig, which he was poling with, "wiggle" [he said later]; and he pulled it up to take a look, and he had a little flounder ont it, stuck a bit through the nose. It was released in good condition and we began accusing Iam of making that up. Maybe he did.
All in all, a nice night out under the stars, with great company, on the hunt.
Now I am motivated to resume the manufacture of my custom giggin' light, though now I am thinking LED.
it took to get those flounders???
It had a gazzillion watts of lighting, 
literally five or six banks of lights, attached to the bow; and they were poling. We called out and asked if they had any "luck." They said they had eight of 'em.