The Flounder are Thick …

The big sow trout of the Lower Laguna Madre has pretty much run the course, but Capt. Joel Ramos says there are still some big trout hanging around. Most of the trout have already dropped their eggs and water temperatures are already moving up, around 76 degrees.

Freshwater runoff, what everyone wants to know about … are you being influenced by it on the south Texas coastline? “Yes we are,” answered Ramos, “on the west side of the Lower Laguna Madre the runoffs from the rain water, all that fresh water is on the Westside of the bay. Once you cross to the other side, the ICW intracoastal, it’s all salty. There is still some nice trout around, but most of the big ones are gone now.”

Ramos is targeting redfish early in the morning, and then after that he and his customers try their luck on trout and flounder.

“The flounder are pretty thick now. It’s a little early for flounder, but they are stacked up just along the drop-offs and little inlets.”

Artificial baits only for flounder: a 4 inch New Penny Gulp, just bumping it off the bottom, with a ¼ ounce jig head, “just like a bass fisherman bumping a worm along the bottom, working it real slow.”

Ramos describes the flounder bite: “A flounder bite is three, small bumps. On the third bump is when you want to set the hook. The smaller flounder are more aggressive; they just hit on the first one and take off. The bigger flounder are just small bumps…three bumps and then set the hook.”

The speckled trout are in about three feet of water. “Gulp for the trout also, but with them I switch up to a 3 inch and change colors. One color that is working quite well is the Pearl White/pink tail glow. I switch to a 1/16 oz jig head, and occasionally I will go with with a popping cork setup while fishing from a boat, no waders usually.”

Capt. Joel Ramos, aquaholiccharters.com