Flounder Flat / End Game

With the 80 degree heat that came in yesterday there was no way that we were staying inside.  The dogs needed to get out and the best place to take them is the beach.  With our previous fly trips at the estuary the flounder defeat has just killed that idea for us.  Flounder win.  We get it.  Since we can't take the dogs in the Heat (canoe), we went on foot with the two light tackle spinning rods, the shrimp gun, and a jug o' sunscreen.
In our recent trips to the estuary (which I haven't blogged about because of the shame spiral they've inflicted) we've spotted the flounder and realized that they tend to group in a certain area and may actually be resident.  We have deemed this area Flounder Flat.  We had the hardest time because we would spot them, chase them down, and they would vanish.  Counter to everything that I have read online, Flounder are spooky as hell.  They spook at the thought of a shadow.  So yesterday we gave up on flounder on the fly, but we never really give up.
We hit the middle of the incoming tide and really had no agenda for the day.  We ran the hell out of the dogs, combed through the water next to the eel grass for cockles, and eventually pumped enough shrimp for a day of crab stripping.  We hiked to the outer edge of the area where we absolutely knew that the flounder were and experienced exactly what we knew would happen.  Crabs.  From what we've learned about this back area of the estuary, there are really no crab of any size, but a multitude of undersized assholes that will strip your bait right off and let go before you can reel them up to see them.  The only thing we haven't done here with the crab is actually drop a pot in the water which would be a bit sketchy to pull up in a canoe.  Maybe next time we'll brave it.  Anyway, we enjoyed the day, played a few crab, and then hiked back to Flounder Flat.  We barefooted up the beach and it kind of felt like we were in a different part of the world.  The sky had no clouds, the water was completely clear and aquamarine, and it was 80 degrees on the central Oregon coast.  I kind of felt like a teenager really.  Back when you could just enjoy a day with no reservation and dig your toes into the sand.  Apparently I am one of those weepy fly fishers that I always bitch about.  When we finally got to Flounder Flat, we set the rods with a weight about two and half feet above the hook baited with the sand shrimp that we had pumped earlier.   The tide was coming in so we cast "upstream" and set the rods on a stick.  The thing that I think was the kicker here was that with the incoming tide, it tumbled the weight ( 3/4 oz.) as it was trying to set.  Apparently Flounder are not only scent oriented.  They are also ambush predators that respond to a jigging action.  So, the motion of the bait combined with the scent as it tumbled was the golden ticket.

So, once we got to Flounder Flat we made three casts, set, and caught three fish.  With the appeal of catching the fish gone because we had figured it out with bait, we got to have a little science time with the fish.  Very cool.  Flounder are fairly timid and we got a chance to check out their behavior.  I always knew that they could bury themselves, but didn't know the extent.  So this is what they look like when they disappear.

This is the same fish.  T pushed it around a little with his hand until it went into survival mode, or just got tired.  Now, there wasn't much sand here so I think that the fish had a little trouble completely burying itself.  The other two fish were able to completely bury themselves to the point that you couldn't even see an outline.  The coolest thing is that they do a kind of submarine down bubble as they bury themselves.  With that thought I present my first video upload.  There is no sound because we kept saying stupid things and the sun glare is awful, but you get the idea.

In the video you can see the down bubble effect and also, that the fish apparently cannot swim backward.  It kind of looks like a trainer at Sea World.  T would just put his hand on the nose of the fish and it would have to redirect.  The coolest part was that when the fish gets under the sand it still needs to breathe, so there is a little bit of a breathing bubble.  If I had known then what I know now, maybe I would have been able to put a fly in front of a flounder that I couldn't see.  I should have been looking for bubbles (forehead slap)!  I'm now thinking that on an incoming tide we could drift the boat with a drop shot rig kind of back bouncing with scent and get into them on the flat.  Pretty much the next stop is wet suits.  Seriously.  Snorkeling with Flounder will happen.  We had a good day though, wore the dogs out,  and learned some things that may help us with catching them on the fly.  It may not be over, just over for now.