Started at dead low tide.
Inshore near Breach Inlet.
Fished outgoing for 2 hours.
Caught 1 pinfish, 2 whiting & 1 flounder.
All caught by dragging gulp minnow on the bottom.
Naturally, because I wanted dinner, the flounder was 13.5".
Had hoped to catch a Bonnethead, as I’ve heard they’re around Breach, but nothing.
Bite stopped and I rode up to Dewee’s and caught 1 sharpnose in deeper water with cut menhaden.
Whiting is good for dinner too.
16’ Bonito 65 Johnson
Next time I may bring whiting home for a little snack.
Yeah, I’ll definitely try blue crabs for bonnetheads next time. I’d forgotten that’s what they love.
As far as flounder, what do you guys find to be the #1 way to catch them? I try to drag or bounce an artificial from upstream to down and work around to cover an area. I look for sand, but I hear near oysters could be good (but wouldn’t you hang up a lot?). Those of you that catch a lot of flounder: is live bait more successful than artificial? Do you just weigh it down and drag/ bounce it across the bottom?
Head up by capers (fish the Mt P side of the ICW) with some larger shrimp (dead is fine) put them under a cork and float them close to the oysters beds at low rising… I usually can get 4 or 5 to take off… Nothing like a nice bonnet on a 7’ medium action with a 3000 reel. I agree crabs are good too. But they love the big shrimp too.
Good luck tight lines.
Breach inlet can be pretty fun – I have a good time bringing a small group out, since you can get out on the sandbar at lower tides. Throw some shrimp off into deeper water with small hooks, and you can pick at the smaller whiting all day. I usually set a size limit for myself if I want to keep them, since the real small ones aren’t worth cleaning. You can usually catch several 8-12" fish while you’re out there hanging out, which is plenty for a nice little family dinner!
For the bonnet heads, I would quarter the blue crabs. You won’t need to buy as much bait, and the bonnet heads don’t care – it might even help out since you’ll get a lot more scent in the water. Also good advice on the shrimp – I’ve never targeted bonnet heads specifically, but I’ve caught them on both shrimp and crabs.
As for flounder, I think a live mud minnow or small finger mullet on a jig head is about the best way you can fish for them. You don’t even really have to drag it along the bottom, as long as you keep the bait low enough to bump it every once in a while. I’ve probably caught most of mine on plastics, but that’s usually because I don’t feel like getting bait. A jerk bait on a weedless hook is a pretty good setup if you don’t have any live bait, and I’ve caught lots of flounder on a simple curly-tailed grub.
1994 Hewes Redfisher 18, 2004 Yamaha 150 VMAX
Malibu X-Factor Kayak