Flounder Fishing
Flounders are a group of flatfish species. They're demersal fish located at the foot of oceans all over the world; some species will likely enter estuaries. They're great fishing, beautiful fish within their functionality, and great eating. This popularity makes them valuable to both commercial and recreational fishers and this popularity, in addition, made them traditionally over-harvested fish. To acquire stocks up substantial commercial limits have been put on Flounder. Also, you will find recreational limits for flounder based upon location and season.
Flounder can is quite a finicky weather-wise. They love temperatures from around 50 degrees close to 80 degrees. I wouldn't expect them in abnormally cold or scorching times. This may include the dog days of summer and the colder times of winter. In many cases, a storm can affect them for the good as well as the bad. Flounder actively follow baitfish. They may feed in the shallows in the evening and move away and off to deeper water the place that the baitfish head over to hide with the sun out. Flounder will also head to deeper water in warmer temperature but seldom deeper than around 20 feet. Tides usually do not stimulate Flounder as much as they might some fish species but fishing with current will definitely increase your odds.
Flounder Rigs
Veteran flounder fishermen know success is determined by terminal rigging. There are numerous kinds of rigs utilized by the dedicated angler, but all retain one attribute: They get baits down to the bottom, where flounder chew. If a bait does not find a bottom, odds are a flounder won't view it, much less inhale it. Several factors deserve consideration when deciding on flounder rigs. Water depth, current and bottom terrain are three significant variables. Bait size also plays a function. It requires more weight to pull larger baits, i.e., silver mullet, pinfish, and croakers, towards the depths. However, a fine line exists. Baits need to move freely across submerged terrain, not hold fast, overweighted, in a single spot. An excessive amount lead decreases strikes as much as using not enough.
A basic and efficient live bait flounder rig is definitely the jighead. With many weights and hook sizes, jigheads make good everyday bait carriers. Simply pin your bait through the lips, toss it current and enable the leadhead to sink your livie into the zone. Nothing may be easier.
Fluke Flounder Squid Rig [Purchase]
Flounder Bait
Natural Bait - The live baitI use will be different, but hands down I enjoy a finger mullet between 3-4 inches long. Smaller mullet are too small for the hook, and larger ones are too large for some of the flounder to obtain a hold of easily. Because the migration moves from September, these finger mullet get hard to find. If I can’t find any finger mullet, I will choose mud minnows. If mullet and mud minnows are both scarce, I will pick live shrimp. Artificial Bait - Gulp, grubs, screw tails, swim tails,what you may call them, these are the plastic trailers we put on jig heads. The action around the jig is most often dependent on a mix of the shape of the lure and the movement of the jig head. Rather than the usual live bait swimming about, you develop the action by moving the jig. Fish these artificials exactly like you fish a live mullet - slowly over the bottom.
Masione Soft Shrimp Fishing Lure Baits Gear for Bream Bass Flathead Whiting Snapper[Purchase]
Spro Bucktail Jig[Purchase]
Flounder Fishing Tackle
My standard tackle is usually a medium stiff semi-fast taper 7-foot casting rod using a small baitcasting reel - I favor the Abu Garcia 5500C on a freshwater bass flippin’ stick. I prefer 14-pound test line, sufficiently small to be somewhat invisible, and yet sufficient enough to handle other larger species that may grab the bait. The terminal tackle is what I call a standard flounder rig: a 4/0-circle hook on a 15 inch 30 lb. test monofilament leader. The leader is bound to a trolling sinker, and also the sinker is tied to the line. These sinkers are the type that looks like they have a small beaded chain on each end. They're long and slender, and they are well suited for dragging along the bottom.
Piscifun® Portable Fish Lip Grabber Gripper Grip Tool Fish Holder [Purchase]
Flounder Fishing Tips
Tip #1
A flounder’s strike will never take the rod out of your hand. It truly is subtle, and sometimes it just feels like a little extra pressure - like maybe your sinker is held on something. The trick to catching more flounder is to NOT set the hook straight away. Once you feel that pressure the flounder normally has the bait in his mouth, holding it in his sharp teeth. He might swim 10 feet or maybe more to his safety zone before attempting to swallow the bait. In case you set the hook when you initially feel the fish, you’ll return with half a mullet! Tip #2
An advantage of circle hooks is that you could let the flounder go on and attempt to swallow the bait. The design of the circle hook is such that it's going to pull straight out to the corner of the flounder’s mouth after which set itself! You never really set the hook - and that is a very hard aspect to understand circle hooks. Simply start reeling slowly and increase speed. While you increase reeling speed, the hook does everything.We catch flounder using this method and these baits all the way up to abnormally cold weather. We look for the current breaks on an outgoing tide, anchor up and commence working an area.
Tip #3
In northeast Florida, specifically, we work the docks that line the St. Johns River from Jacksonville to the ocean. We occasionally seem to find a flounder behind every large piling. At the harbor entrance towards the Mayport Naval Station, the river current is fairly swift. The water depth comes up from about 40 feet deep close to 15 feet near the rocks on the west side. That shallow area is dotted with rocks and offers a great area for flounder to sit and wait. In case you aren’t sure where this are is specifical, just look for the other boats - they will be right in the thick of it.
Flounder Fishing Tactics and Techniques by Keith Kaufman [Purchase]












