[PatrickJ]

My parents were here on vacation so I took them out hoping to catch some drum, or blues. We fished with shrimp, fishbites shrimp, gulp shrimp, and a crab lure. I haven't had any luck with the fishbites shrimp, or gulp shrimp. We caught about 15 flounder, all undersized, the biggest probably 15-16 inches. Didn't keep any, some guy on the beach cut one up for bait though, my mom didn't know any better and let him take it.

They were happy though, they caught more fish on their 10 day license then they do in PA all year.

On a side note, what are the chances of a fish actually surviving with a hook stuck in it? Flounder love to swallow some hooks. I think we left hooks in about 4 of them.

[Marlin Maniac]

Patrick, the survival rate for fish with hooks left in is pretty good, with the deeper the hook set the lower the chances of survival. You did right by cutting the line and leaving the hook in rather than ripping it out and killing the fish. Good show! Using circle hooks can help prevent some of the deeper set hooks. As to using the small founder for bait, that is illegal. Also, I think using gamefish for bait kind of shows poor sportsmanship. I'll use spot and croaker for bait, they are plentiful. But no trout, flounder, stripers or drum. But that's just my opinion. Glad to hear the parents had a good time!

[BLACK ADDER]

I use circle hooks that are too large rather than gut-hook puppydrum. When doing the tag-a-rama with Dr.Wright, I felt so bad about gut hooking that I went to a THIN but Large hook like a kahle for flounder and a circle for pups. I told him we had to do something about it,and that's when I stopped using long shank "flounder" hooks and went to rigging BIG kahles.When he would buy the OLD SALT rigs, I re-rigged them right out of the pack. Just me,I guess.