Captain Jason Colby
My first flounder trips of 2016 are in the books. This report will document my late April and early May trips.
When launching the boat on the afternoon of April 27th I had surface temps of 50.7 degrees but the very next day it had dropped to 47.
On April 27th the water temperature at our first stop was 46.6 degrees, and on that first drift we did not get a bite.
On our second drift Armindo (one of the crew) caught a sculpin and I caught the first flounder of the year at 15 inches.
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I decided to release the fish because it had obviously survived a net encounter. The flounder had "net rash" which is a reddish rash caused by a dragger's net.
After what that fish has been through, it deserved to live.
We’ve Only Just Begun
We fished for another hour in the same area but could not put another fish in the boat. Next we went to Deer Island where the water was 47.8 degrees and on the first drift Armindo caught a healthy 15 inch specimen.
We fished Deer Island for another two hours and scraped together another 4 flounder for the box. Next stop was Quincy Bay (48.8 degrees) and in front of the Quincy yacht club (47.6 degrees), all without another bite.
They say that every dog has his day but today was surely not the day for a famous fishing writer who's name rhymes with Pon Rowers. While Armindo and I had 3 flounder each, "Pon" can only say he had some bites.
However I must admit that I was in such a rush to get out of the house that morning that I forgot to bring clams and chum from my freezer. To Pon's credit, all we did during this trip was drift with worms.
Next trip I will be sure to bring the chum and we will likely start in Portuguese Cove on anchor.
If you are on any of my trips over the next week or so, please be sure to wear boots because the Police Dock is not yet in place. As a result I have to pick up and drop you off by putting the bow of the boat on the beach.
Without boots, you will have wet feet all day.
April 30th
On April 30th we headed out for a short stab at the local flounder population and we did a little better. You could even say we saw improvement! At the first location we got four keepers and then went at spot #2 we got three more keepers on the very first drift.
Rob with his 16.5 incher.
The wind started to fade when we were up to about 10 keepers in the box. With no wind for a good drift we really had to work to put three more keepers in the box, and five shorts all released.
