I set out to go flounder gigging with Sniper7 around 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning. I’m still fairly new to the saltwater scene, so I was excited to get out there and bring home some flatties. Sniper7 and I put the boat in the Harbor around 3:00 a.m. with a very slight wind. When we reached our destination within the harbor, there was no wind at all and visibility was ideal. Before seeing any flounder, I practiced by gigging a stingray, and then caught a couple of crabs in the net. We saw no red drum all night. Sniper7 was surprised at this as conditions seemed perfect to come across some.
The first flounder we saw was undersized, so we passed it by. I wouldn’t have spotted it if he hadn’t because it was small and buried in the sand. Not long after, while I was steering us along with the gig, conversation was interrupted with Sniper7’s excited voice saying “HUGE fish!” I looked down and sure enough, there was an enormous flounder directly ahead. I didn’t know that they could even get that big. Since I’m not as experienced with a gig as he is, I relinquished the gig to him immediately so as not to risk losing this monster of a fish. In the blink of an eye he had the fish gigged with such speed and accuracy it was stone cold dead by the time it reached the inside of the boat. He told me that out of all his years gigging this is the biggest flounder he’s ever killed. It measured a whopping 23 inches and I learned that the nickname for a fish that big is a “doormat.”
As the night progressed I gigged two more flounder. He gigged one more, plus some more crabs. As a girl from the Upstate, I’ll certainly never forget this wonderful low country experience thanks to Sniper7. I can’t wait to share this story with my friends back home.
lets do it again soon!