# Wildest gigging trip for me ......



## Shiznik (Feb 24, 2008)

:hungryWhen I lived on Pensacola Beach back in the day, we'd walk that Gulf at night and realize , oh man!, we've went 6 or 7 miles and now we gotta go back. That was fine, but one time I'll never forget was when my cousin accidently pronged the innnur tube around our #10 washtub, and it sank on us waist deep and 6 to 7 miles from where we put in. Whata night, we had to find the Flounder on the bottom with no light. Most of them were doormats! and we managed to find most of them. Pretty wierd feeling in the dark water with no light and lots of food there for the taking. And that battery sure is lighter, floating for the trip instead of carrying it. We had a school of 3-4 Nurse Sharks ease between our legs that night and we didn't do anything, they were cool, didn't bother us, and of course we had a fan club of orange eyes following us as we walked, then when the lights went out, we didn't have a clue as to where those rays were! I think that night was the night that a couple of us learned to do a back-flip, another of my cousins tried to walk on water, and I had to find the gear! I bet you guys probablly have better ones than this, but just thought I'd share a fishing story


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## FlounderAssassin (Sep 28, 2007)

that would have SUCKED!!! one reason i do not wade for flounder! as far as you walk you still have to walk all the way back! i use the lazy man method!!! LOL


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## RiverGulfFshr (Oct 2, 2007)

This wont be the wildest but......Every year the spring and fall red-horse sucker and mullet run on the Chipola River in Marianna, FL is like nothing you have ever seen. The are litterly thick in ever direction. Well a few years back a buddy and me hit the river at dark on a 14' welded aluminum boat, two head lamps, and 2 4 prong gigs, oh yeah and a handle of Jack:letsparty. So we started floating from an upstream boatramp down to my camp, about 2 hour float. We get into them thick, the gigging and drinking started. We were throwing them in the boat as fast as we were sticken em, one after another. Before long, we realized we could not step down into the bottom of the boat due to all the mullet in sucker thrown about. Long story short. We filled up 2 60 quart ice chest with fish still in the boat. We cleaned fish on the bank till daylight and then half the next afternoon. We had one helluv a fish fry that weekend with about 100 people invited. :clap


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## Shiznik (Feb 24, 2008)

That sounded like a pretty fun trip but reminded me of being so proud of all the scallops we'd always gotten and all the afternoons on the shore with our boat beached cleaning them for 3 hours! You're right, that's what I look forward to, I call all the family and surprise them and tell them just to show up and be hungry and the fish are fresh from just a few hours old!


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## jeff456 (Sep 28, 2007)

I can think of two quick ones. First was when my dad and I went fishing under the mid-bay bridge in his 28 foot pontoon boat. We got skunked there and decided to move to Rocky Bayou where we got skunked also.It was getting dark by nowso we decided to pole the shore line (in a 28 foot pontoon!) to see if any flounder were around. As we were about to give up I spotted a decent one. Since we had not gone gigging there were no gigs on board. However, there was a dockhook and I put it to use. I wrenched the compression fitting down so it wouldnt slip then I lined it up on his head and jammed it down. As I remember I think I knocked him out cause there was little or no fight. I've got a picture I'll try to find. 

The other time was mostly funny. My 10 year old son and I were out in Choctawhatchee Bay looking for flounder. There were none but, the water was full of huge stingrays. Every couple of minutes we would see another 4 footer. This was in the weeks after the Cocodile Hunter died from his encounter with a ray. We even discussed how odd it was that it happened. We are in about four feet of water going out around the docks and my son leans over to get a drink out of the cooler (we are in a 12 FT jon boat) just as I give a good push to correct our course. Well, he launched over the side of the boat. He face was priceless when he stood up (had a life jacket on of course). He said, "Get me outta here!!" I reached over and hauled him in. It was a bit chilly and the wind was blowing a little. I figured he would be ready to head home, I even offered to call mom and get her to pick him up from where we were. Nope, he wanted some fish and he wasn't going home. (I always tell him that we have to communicate our movements in a small vessel and no sudden movements so we used this as an example of why we do that!)

Jeff


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## Shiznik (Feb 24, 2008)

That's pretty Crazy! Was the pic you listed from Choctawhatchee Bay? I think you are the first person in my area that I have been able to talk with and for a while, I thought, okay, I've found the "Perfect" Forum that I ever wanted out of life to chat with fellow fishermen, but!, I also respect guy's secret spots and I know the etiquete about not harping on them telling me where to go and to give up their spot. Do you still live and Flounder over here in Choctawhatchee bay? Man, I'd love to meet some guys in our area like the guys do in Pace, Fl. and Pensacola and have fish cookouts or even go in different directions when we launch, but have someone else out there I met that if they need help, or vice-versa. I'm First Responder Certified and have been working 9-1-1 for 6 years. I can help if one of us or our buddies get in a tough situation that might need emergency care until we can get them on shore to an ambulance, or just even if a motor fails and we happen to need to help each other. I won't keep on this much longer, but I wanted to let you know that my 18 year old son got killed in a car wreck and I had to take his 9-1-1 call too! I dispatched all the units and they let me leave work. I was first on scene, and my life changed forever since then. Now, my wife and I try our dammnedest to enjoy life and get us a hobby. She loves the idea of going floundering and I am not pulling your leg, it really is just the two of us and we only need to gig a few, we just want to socialize with some other Flattie fishermen in our area. :hungry


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## Midnight Rider (Sep 30, 2007)

Cool pic Jeff. You sure got him pinned down to the bottom. I guess you had to get out of the boat to retreve him.


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## jeff456 (Sep 28, 2007)

I scooped him up with a net from behind. Its been a while since that was taken butI remember being glad that it stunned him cause one that big with some fight left could have scooted away. I hit him ten times harder than I would have with a gig because I wasn't sure what the results would be. You gotta assumeI felt pretty comfortable he wasn't going anywhere because I took time to snap off a picture. After I got him I told my dad we better get a pic or else everyone would call BS.

Jeff


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## SeminoleSpearer (Oct 29, 2007)

As for the Chipola run, it sounds awesome. Last time I canoed the river there was a huge school of sucker just chilling by the entrance to the spring. The mullet were mixed in too. I think it was on veteran's day weekend. Is this the fall run?


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## ishmel407 (May 7, 2008)

The story I have was from about 10 years ago and me and a friend were walking for flounder. As soon as we got into the water we noticed that there were blue crabs everywhere. We had not walked 20 feet and we got our first flounder. We get him on the string and continued walking. Well as we are walking shrimp start to congragate right on the edge of our lanterns. 15 to 20 large U 12 count shrimp. We would wait for them to start pileing up in our lights shadow and we would try and gig them. We prolly ended up with 25 shrimp. But everytime we would gig a flounder and we would stop and put him on the string there would be 4 or 5 crabs chowing down on our previously caught flounder. Thats how many crabs there were. Had one flounder swim down the beach and stop directly between my feet. It was a weird weird night. Seen hundreds of these little sand eels or something like that. Almost seemed like it was a jubilee but we dont get them on the south side of Dauphin Island.Any crazy night. Prolly walked a mile and ended up with 30 or 40 flounder.


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## FlounderAssassin (Sep 28, 2007)

> *ishmel407 (5/7/2008)*The story I have was from about 10 years ago and me and a friend were walking for flounder. As soon as we got into the water we noticed that there were blue crabs everywhere. We had not walked 20 feet and we got our first flounder. We get him on the string and continued walking. Well as we are walking shrimp start to congragate right on the edge of our lanterns. 15 to 20 large U 12 count shrimp. We would wait for them to start pileing up in our lights shadow and we would try and gig them. We prolly ended up with 25 shrimp. But everytime we would gig a flounder and we would stop and put him on the string there would be 4 or 5 crabs chowing down on our previously caught flounder. Thats how many crabs there were. Had one flounder swim down the beach and stop directly between my feet. It was a weird weird night. Seen hundreds of these little sand eels or something like that. Almost seemed like it was a jubilee but we dont get them on the south side of Dauphin Island.Any crazy night. Prolly walked a mile and ended up with 30 or 40 flounder.


damn...that sounds like one hell of a night!


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