Pacemaker Fishing Forum

This was my first time to CHSP and its a beautiful place that is worth multiple visits. I went with my brother in-law and a few kayak friends. My bro in-law and I arrived the night before to scope out the area and see what reports are coming out from the tackle shop. Most people were catching flounder on gulp and minnows. We did learn that flounder size limit was recently changed to 17". We thought about night fishing that night but had insane traffic coming in because of some concert in DE so we were exhausted from a 6 hour car ride that was only supposed to be 2 (from Elkton, MD).

Water temperature averaged about 69 degrees. Morning air temp was around 66 and went up to 75.

I first tried a 3/4 oz buck tail bottom and 3/0 bait keeper hook top both with 4" gulp mullet all chartreuse, including the buck tail. This is the same set-up John Skinner on Youtube uses. I had some hits but no hook-ups. I switched to a 1oz buck tail because I couldn't feel the bottom like I wanted to (still learning all this stuff). I caught a toad fish and a small flounder with that set-up. While I was doing that, I dropped a top and bottom rig with cooked salad shrimp for croaker. Surprisingly I only managed two... Other friends were catching a few flounder with one guy getting 3 keepers. It was slow for my bro in-law and I so he suggested the minnows. I'm glad he did because not only did it turn up the fishing but it also turned it into those nice lounge sessions on the kayak with the minnows doing all the work LOL! That's about when I hooked up with my first keeper flounder at 17" followed by a couple of shorts. I had two set-ups. A top and bottom rig with two minnows on flicker snelled 3/0 hooks. The other set-up was a home made 3 way swivel with a 3/0 flicker flounder snelled hook. Both had 2oz weights.

All our action was in and around the old pilings from the pier. My action picked up significantly when I went to the first sets of pilings right after the broken pier. Armed with the minnows I drifted slowly in there and kept bumping between the piling and hooked up with a 17.5". After that I hooked up with 5 more, with one keeper at 19". I ended up going home with 2 fish rather than the three keepers because I gave one to one of my friends.

It was one of those days filled with awesome memories of firsts!





On a side note, I know I said I'd like to Masgouf every species I catch at least once, but I'm a little perplexed with the flounder LOL! My bro in-law said it best, "How do you Masgouf something that was already created Masgoufed with both eyes on the same side??" LOL!!!

I ended up filleting the 19" and I wanted to do something special with the 17.5"...

Ever since I found out that catching a flounder was a reality (again I'm still new to all of this) I dreamed of being able to reproduce my favorit dish from a Thai restaurant, crispy whole flounder. That dish is also the first way I ever ate flounder, so it has a special place in my heart, err stomach. So coming home with the keepers reminded me of my dream and so I did my best to recreate it.

I scored the fish (as in the restaurant) and I lightly floured it and fried it whole. Side note, cleaning a flounder is surprisingly easy. Their innards are soo compact. I never knew that a flounder's butt was an inch from its mouth! Isn't there a saying about that? LOL

Anyway, I made the sauce with fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind concentrate, mushroom sauce (vegetarian version of oyster sauce), small amount of tomato paste (fresh tomatoes would be better) and fresh orange slices. I reduced it until it was thick added sliced bell peppers. I was out of thai basil, which was crucial but I did without it. I didn't add any thai peppers because of the kids...

Here is the final result:



It was awesome and very close to the real deal from the restaurant. I think the Thai basil would have done it!

Best thing about this dish is all the fins and tail become very crispy and so everything could be eaten. Nothing was left from this fish except the spine and the skull.

Last edited by AbuMasgouf (Jun-23-13 7:39PM)