Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

As I profess most times here, I'm still learning my way around fishing. Last year, I caught a couple flounder and they've remained my favorite fish to catch and eat. Problem is, I suck at catching them. I've YouTube'd a few videos on how people catch them, but wanted to pick your collective brains. What sort of rig and bait works best for them? Any special techniques I should learn aside from dragging the bottom? How about landscape? As I understand it, they like to hang out by ledges and catch their meals as the tide pushes them by. Any other areas I should be targeting?

Thanks in advance, all.

HC

I haven't fished for flounder in Florida, so you may want to disregard my advice. But up north we would concentrate on ledges and creek mouths. Even small ledges could hold fish. I always had luck with bucktails tipped with Gulp or a flounder rig with live minnows. Maybe down here you could use something along the lines of shrimp or finger mullet. Let me know if start catching, I haven't had flounder in forever.

Will do. Thanks, man. I'll have to pick up some bucktails. I'll give it a go this weekend and let you know if I have any luck

Mud minnows and finger mullet seem to be the most popular baits, at least on the east coast. Regular fish-finder rig, retrieve SLOWLY..often you won't even feel the bite, they will just sit there with the bait in their mouth.

Sweet. I recently found a great place on shore here to catch finger mullet. I know they're not any kind of fight, but man are they tasty!
I'll look up how to tie a fish finder rig. Haven't tried that one yet.

Appreciate the advice from both of you guys.

Carolina rig with a kahle hook and a lindy weight, if there isn't many snags in your area then a regular egg will be fine, about 36 inches total. I prefer live finger mullet, but dead or gulp will work as well. Spro style bucktails are pretty lethal once you find a spot that's holding them.

Backwater or in the surf?

PhishingPhanatic wrote:Mud minnows and finger mullet seem to be the most popular baits, at least on the east coast. Regular fish-finder rig, retrieve SLOWLY..often you won't even feel the bite, they will just sit there with the bait in their mouth.

Notice he mentioned mud minnows first. If you can find them and are fishing for a fish that lays on the bottom where most mud occurs.

Leadslinger wrote:Carolina rig with a kahle hook and a lindy weight, if there isn't many snags in your area then a regular egg will be fine, about 36 inches total. I prefer live finger mullet, but dead or gulp will work as well. Spro style bucktails are pretty lethal once you find a spot that's holding them.

Backwater or in the surf?

My set up would be very similar to yours. Didn't know that is called Carolina rig. I recalled Kahle hook worked better than any other hook.

Believe or not, US east-coast flounder is one of best sushi/sashimi fish. I used to catch my limits in Montauk where the keeper size is 19 inch.
I would believe 19 inch founder may have more fillet than the same size snapper. Flat fish has a lot of meat.

Founders (in north, they called fluke) are typically ambush at bottom looking up. Once they spot their target, they are chasing it aggressively.
Bouncing the weight up and down while retrieving/drifting, always works best for me. I recalled they bite more in down motion than up.
When it bites in down motion, you feel something pulling down further (if you can feel this, you will catch the limit) and then, lift up the rod slowly and the bite becomes stronger. Soft medium tip action catches more.

If you fish in strong current over the bridge or pier, free lining while bouncing the weight with Carolina rig is effective method.
Somehow, I caught more doormat flounders with white flounder strip (bottom skin) than any other baits.

Awesome advice, guys. Thanks. Sounds like I have quite a few different things to try out. I definitely appreciate all the input!