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I love catching flounder, and I've caught them on the flats, oyster bars and nearshore reefs, but it's always random.
Anybody have advice on where to find them at different seasons of the year?

Publix
Joking aside, I'll target them by looking for any sandy areas in the grass on the flats. I'll rig a gulp shrimp on a 1/4 oz jig and tie a DOA shrimp 12" to 18" above the gulp and drag it through the sand.

I like to target flounder from late August to early October when I understand they are heading offshore to spawn.

Cool, thanx!

Geofish,

All those places you stated are great spots for flounder all season. The randomness in your hooks ups may be in the presentation or they way you handle the fight.

Focus on keeping your jig in contact with the bottom with a retrieve speed to help you stay there. If you have current allow the current to move your jig to the flounder, works very well.

Also, a flounder strike it isn’t like trout or redfish. Where a red or trout are active feeders, a flounder is not. After sucking up your bait, they are prone to staying in place. I have gigged flounder after watching them inhale a croaker lie there as if nothing even happened, waiting on their next victim. Because of this behavior you may not detect the strike initially, sometimes you just feel a slight resistance. Set the hook, they don’t cost anything.

And finally keep in mind how a flounders is designed. It’s mouth doesn’t open north to south as other fish. When you hook up keep them right side up. (FLAT) That means keep your rod to the side and keep it there. Lifting your rod straight up will cause many to come off a hook. Usually right at the boat..

Hope this helped.




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Thanks, I'm pretty good at hooking them if I find them. I've fished other places like the Chesapeake Bay where you just always knew where they were going to be (drifting across inlets just past the jetties in the summer, for example). I just haven't been confident that I would know where to go in specific months to target them specifically. After reading John 21's comment about August thru October on the reefs, I looked back in my log and found I had indeed caught a bunch of big doormats last September at Rotary reef. What about spring and early summer? Would sandy spots on the flats be the place to go now? Or sandy bottom edges of the channel when there's a good current running?

geofish wrote:Thanks, I'm pretty good at hooking them if I find them. I've fished other places like the Chesapeake Bay where you just always knew where they were going to be (drifting across inlets just past the jetties in the summer, for example). I just haven't been confident that I would know where to go in specific months to target them specifically. After reading John 21's comment about August thru October on the reefs, I looked back in my log and found I had indeed caught a bunch of big doormats last September at Rotary reef. What about spring and early summer? Would sandy spots on the flats be the place to go now? Or sandy bottom edges of the channel when there's a good current running?

John 21’s reply is the fall run. Which can produce some hawgs! I’m not certain of where you fish exactly, so I’m not sure what you have available or how you fish.

They are everywhere right now, just about finding them. Where one is more are near.

Sandy bottoms, grass flats with sandy potholes, channel ledges, near crab traps, and any kind of underwater structure. I do know they do not like a muddy soft bottom much. Higher the tide the shallower they can go, lower the tide the more concentrated they are to a smaller area.

Anywhere you can find a redfish you can find a flounder. Sent you a PM to see if I can help further.


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As already stated, the best time to target flounder is during their migration (either out to breed starting in the fall and or when they head back to the bays starting around Spring but flounder are out there year round.. When they're migrating, fish sandy areas around running water, currents near inlets and passes leading to deep water. Other times fish sandy spots, points, etc. Always use a net to boat em. Over the years I've learned that they will often get off at the boat if you try to lift them with a rod and they are probably the dumbest fish that swims. If they get off or fall off at the boat, drop your bait right back down and many times they will hit it again.

By-catch while trout fishing. I'll keep 'em though.
OD

Old Dog wrote:By-catch while trout fishing. I'll keep 'em though.
OD

You can give em to me.
BTW: I liked the old dog better you old Squid.

Juan, you can have my reds and snot cats too?

You gotta take me with you....that's the secret

I've been catching a lot recently from the kayak by using 1/4 red jig head w/a gulp shrimp along sandy bottom

Better get’em while you can cause they talking about raising the minimum to 15” and probably decreasing the bag limit.

That’s fine with me. 12 inch flounder barely have any meat on them and 10 per person is too many unless you are commercially harvesting them. 15 inches is starting to be a good fish. Flounder are deliscous!!

luckywsp wrote:That’s fine with me. 12 inch flounder barely have any meat on them and 10 per person is too many unless you are commercially harvesting them. 15 inches is starting to be a good fish. Flounder are deliscous!!

I agree and fine with me too! You can see through a fillet from the white side of a 12" flounder.