Interested In Flounder Gigging

Where did the time go? I used a Coleman kerosene lantern back in the sixties!

 

Some of the early area history referred to "fire fishing". The old timers told me that fire fishing was gigging using a kerosene soaked lighter knot for a light! I can't imagine having enough light to find a flounder!

 

Back in the sixties? I used a Coleman lantern as recently as 1998 to gig flounder.

 

Similar, yes. But longer and usually a clear or white light. You mount them just under the surface of the water. Take a look at the DIY section, Sam had some pictures posted of his boat with the gigging light set up

 

So what exactly is gigging? Is it basically pole spearing from a boat?

 

Yes - a gig has three or more prongs and a ten foot + pole. You pole the boat through the shallows.

Flounder in bed partially cover with mud



Flounder bed without the flounder in it

 

I do not know about it for flounder, but lightard knots and chips used for night hunting is how the name "fire hunting" came to be. I've read about it in a two-volume set of "Hunting Wild Life with Camera and Flashlight" by George Shiras III, National Geographic. Where the hunter would take an assistant, usually a youngster, have him carry a long pole
with three wires suspending a tin plate filled with lighted lightard chips from one end. The assistant would carry a burlap sack with more lightard chips to keep the "fire" going, when they saw eyes of an animal he would add chips to increase the flame and hold the plate of flame high in the air to give the hunter the most possible light in which to shoot. There's no mention in this article of kerosene soaking, the knot being so dense and saturated with it's own turpentine. The difference being if they were lighting knots versus lightard chips, an accelerant would have helped get the knot started until the sap of the knot started to flow. I still use a lot of lightard each year, chopped into chips, splinters and pieces no bigger around than your arm, and my experience with it is if you have good "heart" lightard, no accelerant is needed. I would imagine cleaner, clearer, shallow waters probably held a much larger population of flounder than we find today. It would be great to find some articles about it though.

 

I would like to try it sometime. I gave it a shot once last year, but the water was so dirty you couldn't see the bottom.

 

Bob has been here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :laughing my butt off:

 

What depth do you usually find them in? Inches, feet or both? As for the lantern, I would guess water clarity was better in the sixties so less light was needed. Also the fish were more plentiful.

 

Water clarity was horrible in the Port Orange area way back! That's why they they dug out the old causeway and built the flat bridge!

 

Never did any gigging but speared many fluke/flounder in MA while diving for lobsters. Nice clear water and plenty of them..

 

Thanks for the info fellas, maybe I'll give it a go sometime.

 

yes you can start a good lighter knot with a match

 

There's a term i haven't heard in a while..We used to use those "Lighter Knots" when we would camp out on one of the spoil islands down in Sebastian and Vero Beach..Guys would go out 2-3 days before the camping trip and look for them. They would burn all night long.

 

Well gee, now I need a boat for sure. Perhaps I can rig a makeshift for the kayak until then.