Made the decision to really make a go at commercial fishing down here on the coast about a month and a half a go and couldn’t be happier. Not the cheapest endeavor with about $35k invested into it with license and boat but at the rate I’m goin that’ll be paid off well before the first year. It sure is fun to make a livin at the things you love to do. I target flounder down here so next time you order a flounder dinner at a restraunt you might just get a one from my hands to yours, never know. Some pictures from past couple weeks.
Good times















I’ve got plenty more but they all just kinda start to look the same lol

Did you flip them white side up for the picture or is there some other reason? JW and also how do you catch them is it a long lining thing or traps. This northerner wants to know. Also do you sell them whole or filleted?

The gar throws me off. Are flounder found in brackish/fresh water or do gar actually visit salt water?

Yah there white side up for the picture otherwise you can’t see em,
How you fish for them is you have a specialized flat bottom aluminum boat, you have a small fan motor on the back of the boat with controls and throttle on the front of the boat. Tilt your outboard out of water and run in shallow water like 1ft or so at night with lights on the front of the boat and stab them with a gig. They are sitting on the bottom buried in the sand or grass or whatever. And they are sold whole, markets pretty good right now at $5 a lb

Sometimes the flounder will get in brackish stuff but most all salt water. The Gar will come out into completely salt water, I stuck that one with the nearest fresh water source prob 30 miles away. I’ve seen dead ones on the beach before when there’s a bad red tide and a fish kill.

My dad was a commercial fisherman, worked a great deal of my off time. Used gill nets in Lake Michigan. That is no longer allowed for the white man, just Indians. They may have some limits on what they can do also.

Getting there-
What types of fish would y’all target

Do flounder ever “swim” so you can catch them some other way than gig them?

Perch, whitefish, and some walleyes.

Back during my youth, I worked on a couple of party boats out of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn NY... and to this day I consider those the best jobs I ever had.
Lots and Lots and Lots of time to fish... all year round....

I remember the owner of the Blue Sea III's father telling me that you do not get into the fishing business [*party/head count boat...] unless you can go for two solid years without a pay check.

That was back in 1981/2, and to this day - i feel that is solid advice for anyone looking to start their own business - because that's how long it takes to get established.

Good Luck friend, may the fishing serve you and your family well.

Love me some smoked chub.

Yes, they can be caught hook and line. Just not in numbers like gigging. They spend most of their time on bottom waiting for food to come to them.

Thanks warrior I was hoping someone would figure out what I meant.

Some of my fondest memories was fishing with my Grand Dad off Clearwater, FL. Flounder, speckled trout, sheepshead (the black/white striped in the photo).

Good luck with it Greg.

Are your sheepshead marketable down there?

At different times in my life I have done commercial catfishing, using traps and trotlines. For the last 11 years I have done commercial snapping turtles (considered fishing here in 'Jersey) but that may end soon (today actually).

That sounds like a good price. I’ve been a commercial halibut fisherman for 34 years. All our flatfish are always handled white side up. Keeps blood from migrating down to the skin and discoloring the fish.

O yah they swim just like any other fish, you can catch on rod and reel no problem

Like $.80- $1 a lb.