Flounder Fishing Techniques?

[CookieMonst3r]

What baits work best?

What's the best presentation?

Is anything better than Mud Minnows?

Where to fish for them?

What tackle is recommended?

I'm fishing Florida.

Thanks  

[BassinSoldier]

I have found that a spotlight and a 3 prong gig work quite well ;D

Man I miss salt water...

[daviscw]

Fish minnows or live shrimp like you would a plastic worm for bass.

[BassFishingMachine]

Were talking winter flounder right? Not summer fluke? Just asking cause "flounder" sometimes refers to both. Anyhow if its winter flounder (the ones with the tiny mouths and no teeth), then use bloodworms or sandworms on a high-low flounder rig.

For sinker use what ever you can get away with, if you can get away with a 1oz, use it, if not go up to 1 1/2oz - 2oz or w/e you can get away with. Fish for them by slightly bouncing the sinker off the bottom, not much off the bottom, like an inch or two. Supposably the effect of this, is to stir up the bottom, creating a little mud or disturbance around where your bait is, this way the fish sees the mud cloud, and checks to see whats up. Other then bouncing the sinker, slowly drag the set up along the bottom, with requent pauses. The hit will come as a little tap or two, set the hook quickly.

Now sandworms/blood worms work the best in my opinion, but they can be expensive, so because of this you might want to do what I do on occasion which is to use a bloodworm on the top or bottom hook, and use a peice of clam, mussel, corn, average nightcrawler, or gulp sandworm on the free hook. Oh, and you don't want to use a huge amount of worm on each hook. you want to thread the worm up the hook so the worm takes up the entire hook and hangs about a half an inch to an inch off the end of the hook point. This will give the worm alot better action and still be not too big to get ripped off the hook with ease by the fish.

[BassFishingMachine]

Now since I am not too sure wether you were referring to winter flounder or summer fluke I will answer it regarding summer fluke this time.

Summer flounder I use quite a few different tactics/baits. I will list a few. First off, if your going to be using any sort of bait, the common rig that I find works best is a 3way swivel attached to a duo-lock snap, attached to that snap is your sinker, again try to get away with the lightest weight you can, I'd start off seeing if you can get away with 1oz, and go up to 1 1/2oz to 2oz+ if necessary. If your fishing in deep water you'll probably need a 6oz+. I tryed to find a link to a picture of the rig I am talkin about, http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/a6/71/4f/36608103-100x100-0-0.jpg is a the exact rig, but the sinker isn't attached obviously, and the hook I'd recommend to be a fluke hook instead of the average "J hook" shown in the link (incase you didn't know, this is a fluke hook http://di1.shopping.com/images/pi/ac/5c/8e/30893341-177x150-0-0.jpg) And a reminder, you want the leader, meaning the distance between the hook and the eye of the 3way swivel its tied to, to be a distance of about 2 - 2 1/2feet.

As for baits there are several I use and do well with. Although I find each work best in different areas, and some work best in all areas.

1. Killies - You want them to be alive, they don't typically work to well dead, they're a very durable fish and won't die easily, they are sold alive. I find these minnows to work best in the beginning of the season. Although they still work throughout the whole season. I find they work best in bays/rivers, inlets, and occasionally in the ocean. You rig them by sticking the hook under their bottom lip and out through the top. Remember, you want the hook to go through their LIPS, not through the head, if you go through the head they'll die fairly quickly. Fish this bait by slowly bouncing the sinker, slowly dragging the rig along the bottom with requent pauses, and you can also let the bait simply sit there for as long as you would like, just watch for any taps, or sudden pulls. Although dragging the rig along the bottom I find to be best.

2. Spearing - You can buy these in any tackleshop frozen, but they work best when fresh. Although frozen will work. If your fishing in a river, or bay wheres theres not much water movement, I'd use killies instead of spearing, UNLESS they're fresh spearing. Hook these minnows through the 1 eye, and out the other. If you catch your own though, and they're alive, hook them "gently" through the bottom lip and out the top as you would a killie. Live spearing I'd have to say is probably one of the best baits you can use, although they're very fragile, and hard to keep alive unless you keep them in water with a constant oxygen supply, such as keeping them in a bait bucket with holes in it along the side of a dock. You fish these the same way you would a killie. They work best in the ocean, and inlet. Although they do work great in rivers, bays, and so on as well. But, if you can only buy frozen unfresh spearing, I'd use killies while fishing the rivers/bays. Although the frozen spearing I find are a better bet then live killies while fishing in the ocean.

3. Live Snapper aka baby bluefish - Ok, IMHO this is the best bait you can possibly use for keeper fluke. With live peanut bunker working pretty much exactly as well as the snapper does. You cannot buy these fish in tackleshops, you must catch them on your own, either with a sibiki rig, snapper popper, small metal spoon etc. You really don't want to use them for bait if theyre any bigger then 4 1/2 inches IMO. But anywhere from an inch - 4 1/2inch is a amazing bait. You rig these baits as you would a killie, through the bottom lip and out through the top. Although you do not fish them in the exact same way as the other 2 baits I have mentioned. You want to cast out the live snapper, and basiclly put your rod down and watch for any hard taps, you can also hold your rod if you wish. But you don't drag the bait too much or hop the sinker, the snapper is very fragile and will die fairly easy. They typically only last a cast or two, after that they're mostly dead from hittin the water on the cast. Live snapper will definetly catch you some quality fluke.

4. Saltwater Gulp - Ah.. the bait that has accounted for majority of my fluke. This bait is simply amazing for fluke, I wouldn't say its as good as live snapper, live peanut bunker, or live spearing, but its darn close. You do not rig these baits on the rig I mentioned above as you would all the other baits I spoke of. Instead you want to tie your main line to a barrel swivel, and you buy fluorocarbon leader material which you tie to the opposite end of the barrel swivel. You want the leader of fluoro to be about 22-26inches in length. Ok, the one end of the fluoro should be tied to the barrel swivel, the other end you tie to a jighead. Try to use the lightest jighead you can get away with. I'd start by trying 3/8oz, then go up to 1/2oz if needed, and to 3/4 oz if needed. This rig typically works best in shallow water 1-30feet. Other then that I have no experience with it off boats in 30+feet of water. There are many saltwater gulp baits, such as sandworms, jerkshads, etc. But the baits that I find work best for fluke are the "swimming mullet" and the 4inch gulp shrimp, for colors the best are chartruese or white. Just thread the bait up the hook shank of the jighead. To fish the bait, you want to hop the bait along the bottom frequently, with very short pauses, the hit will come as a tap or a typical hard tug/feel of resistance. You don't really drag this bait too much, its more of non-stop short hopping, keeping the bait on the bottom the entire time.

Now there are many other baits you can use, but my response has gone on long enough so I'll end it in a few. By the way, bait can be expensive, so I recommend if your going to be fluking alot, buy yourself a killie trap and catch your own bait, its a hell of alot cheaper, but it does require a little time. I will now tell you how to catch your own bait in killie traps, as when people first buy them they have no clue what to do with em. First, the areas you want to use the trap are bays, and rivers, shallow water ranging from 1-6feet deep. Look around, and find where you see killies/spearing swimming along the bottom, they typically hang out in back areas of rivers/bays, or on small "mud" beaches of rivers/bays, another great place to find killies is brackish ponds/rivers. Now lets talk about bait to use in the trap. Alot of beginners to using a killie trap will use bread as bait, or dogfood, now this will work but imo its not to great.

The best bait for the traps, and fortunately the easiest to come upon with a little knowledge, is spider crabs, rock crabs, green crabs, or basiclly any crab. Walk around sides of docks with a net, and scoop up any crabs you find (remember blueclaws have a regulation on them, rocks, spiders, and green crabs are all unregulated) get yourself about 4-6crabs per trap, and you can either use them that day, or put them in a bag and in the freezer. When your ready to use them in the trap, stomp on em real well, I mean just stomp a mudhole in em, so they break into tiny peices etc. Then gather the stomped up mess all up, and throw it in the trap. Trust me, the killies/spearing LOVE and I mean LOVE! crab. Throw in the trap and wait, I would recommend hanging around so you can see your trap, cause I have had mine stolen a few times. I would say to typically hang back a few feet from the trap, so you don't spook any of the baitfish willing to go inside. Usually I leave my trap in for about 40mins- 1hour, but if you can see its packed with baitfish obviously you can pull it out earlier. By the way, if your targeting spearing with the trap, crab will work, but the best bait for spearing is a can of sardines in soybean oil, just open up the can, break the sardines down into smaller peices with your fingers, and dump the can into the trap, I also throw the can itself in their with it, as its nice and oiley (the oil is what gets em comin). Hah.. I drifted off again.. ok, now its really too long.. its just that I have alot of experience with fluking since I do it every summer, so there is alot of info I can give about it (even more then I typed). Trust me, if you follow all the advice I gave, you will definetly catch fluke. Good luck.

[CookieMonst3r]

Sorry for all the confusion, yes it was Summer Fluke I was referring to. I must say that's a lot of good information but I have a few more questions.

- For the live bait fish (Spearing, Killies, and Baby Blue Fish), would hooking them through the tail also work? I heard this makes them swim very erracticly adn drive Flounder crazy.

- What # leader is best when using the Gulp?

- Where should I fish for Flounder? (Around Jettys, Points, Drops, Sandbars)?

That's all for now. Thanks alot man.

[BassFishingMachine]

Sorry for all the confusion, yes it was Summer Fluke I was referring to. I must say that's a lot of good information but I have a few more questions.

- For the live bait fish (Spearing, Killies, and Baby Blue Fish), would hooking them through the tail also work? I heard this makes them swim very erracticly adn drive Flounder crazy.

- What # leader is best when using the Gulp?

- Where should I fish for Flounder? (Around Jettys, Points, Drops, Sandbars)?

That's all for now. Thanks alot man.

Ah, the hook through the tail thing is a preference, although from the way I have seen it, I find it like 30-40% of people hook through the tail, and 50-60% go through the lips. I have no experience rigging through the tail, so I can't really say much about it, but I can say that I have always been successful going through the lips.

The best leader size for gulp I'd say is 20lbtest. I like to use Seaguar fluoro in #20 (20lb test). 30 is usable but 20 is preferable.

And for where you should fish for them everywhere you listed is correct, although you missed Inlets, and rivers connected to inlets. I find when fishing Jettis the fluke tend to hang about 3-8feet off the jetti, although you certainly do catch them further out from the jetti then this, alot do hang close in. (Try the saltwater gulp swimming mullet, or shrimp on a jighead around the jettis you won't be dissapointed.)

[CookieMonst3r]

Thanks for all your help   Time to catch some Flounder.

[BassFishingMachine]

Thanks for all your help Time to catch some Flounder.

No prob, good luck out there, oh, and whats the regulation for you guys? Here in NJ they got to be 18inch or above. Very hard to get one like that  >.

[CookieMonst3r]

Minimum 12 in.

10 Per Person Per Day

That 18 in minimum really sucks.

[BassFishingMachine]

Minimum 12 in.

10 Per Person Per Day

That 18 in minimum really sucks.

12inches!?!?!?!?!? You lucky sob!!!!!!! > :'(