Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Ala. (PRWEB) November 4, 2010
We hate to break a tradition that?s lasted for hundreds of years. But if you serve stuffed flounder for Thanksgiving dinner this year, instead of stuffed turkey, you?ll probably never serve turkey again. You?ll also start a new Thanksgiving family tradition of serving stuffed Gulf of Mexico flounder.
Derek Vonkanel of Bon Secour, Alabama, fishes off Alabama?s Gulf State Park Pier in Gulf Shores, Ala., the longest pier in the Gulf of Mexico, three or four times a week. Vonkanel is one of the many anglers who come to the pier in the fall to catch the hard-fighting, great-eating flat fish known as flounder. ?The flounder hold next to the pilings on the pier, and we fish for them with live shrimp,? Vonkanel says. ?On a good day of flounder fishing, I?ll catch five or six flounder, and on my best days, I?ll catch a limit of 10 flounder. On a good day, you probably can catch and release even more.? When asked what his secret is for catching flounder, Vonkanel explains, ?Keep your live shrimp on the bottom right-up next to the piling, and pray.?
When fishing for flounder around the Gulf State Park Pier, you?ll find that the other fish that come into the pier and hold around the pilings don?t know that your live shrimp is intended for the flounder. ?I?ll also catch redfish, mangrove snapper and any other fish that comes to the pilings,? Vonkanel says. Many fishermen go to Alabama?s Gulf Coast at Orange Beach to participate in the fall red snapper season, which ends at 12:01 am on November 22. However, if they fish one day on a charter trip for snapper, they often will spend their second day on the Gulf State Park Pier fishing for flounder, redfish, mangrove snapper, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel and the big bull redfish that often weigh more than 20 pounds and are now beginning to show-up at the pier in early November.
Here?s a longtime favorite flounder recipe of Stuffed Flounder Supreme:
Ingredients:
4 small flounder
1/2-cup green onions, chopped
1/4-cup celery, diced
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 small can shrimp, drained, or better yet ? 6 ounces of fresh shrimp
1 small can lump crab meat with liquid, or better yet ? 6 ounces of fresh crab meat
1/2-cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
Oil
Lemon juice
Paprika
Directions:
Prepare flounder by making a slit along the backbone on the dark side of the fish; then cut a pocket by sliding the knife along the flounder?s ribs on both sides of backbone. Mix green onions, celery, garlic, shrimp, crab meat and bread crumbs. Salt and pepper to taste. Add enough oil to moisten, and stuff 1/4 of mixture into each flounder. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Rub skin with paprika, salt, and pepper. Wrap flounder individually in aluminum foil, slit-side up. Bake at 350-degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes; open foil, and brown 15 minutes longer. Serve with lemon butter sauce.
For more information on fishing the Gulf State Park Pier, which is open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, call 251-948-7275. To learn more about fishing guides and charter boats, lodging accommodations, restaurants and entertainment on Alabama?s Gulf Coast, call Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism at 800-745-SAND (7263), or visit http://www.orangebeach.com. You also can get a fishing report three times each week by visiting the ?What?s Biting?? column at http://www.orangebeach.com/fishing/biting/.
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