CBBT 8/25 flounder, small spades, small weakies

[JohnE]

Got out to CBBT Friday again with Jman. Timing of tide was not great for us, with low tide right around sunrise. No rain was in the forecast, but we encountered some ominous looking cloud formations and even witnessed a water spout. Caught some small bsb and croaker early.


We tried for spades, but they were small and finicky. They were tougher than usual to hook. I foul hooked a couple and got a couple by the mouth. I then found some flounder and small weakies. Nearly pulled a limit of nice flounder in a span of 20-30 minutes. Pulled 3 flatties at 18, 19, and 21". The keeper flounder I got last week were on the same piling cluster, one right after the other and then some just under legal not on pilings close by. I again found some clustered up this week, but they were out pretty far from the pilings this time. Bite was very short lived both times and no hits anywhere else. Interestingly, it was right around the same time of day but different tide. Could not get any interest from sheepshead on frozen sand fleas this day.
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[Jman]

As JohnE said, the conditions were not ideal for our sheep pursuits. I hooked into another larger Toad, some bsb, and croaker, but no sheep. I knew I wanted to have a real try at catching a Spade and loaded up on extra clam in case it worked out. Per JohnE's advice, I ended up catching my first and smallest in a nice spot. They don't seem to like the feet on the frozen salted clams, but devoured every other part of the clam. I moved a little further out and started catching some slightly larger ones and they were swallowing the bait. I had a few larger ones break me off on the pilings, but even the small ones were a lot of fun to catch.

Tried for flounder to finish the day off after seeing JohnE's bounty of flounder without any luck.

[JohnE]

I've never noticed much difference from one part of the clam to another. The salted clams do stay on the hook longer, so I generally prefer them for that reason. Plus carrying a little container is much easier than hauling a heavy bunch of chowder clams/quahogs in the shell. Cracking clams open and dropping shells does seem to attract more spades, much like a chum bag. Chum bag and cracking shells will give you an edge when they are finicky.

After filleting this batch of flounder, I have noticed that the flounder I have kept lately have all had absolutely empty stomachs.