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Me and a buddy of mine wanted to start doing some flounder gigging. Since we have only done it a few times I was hope to hear some advice from the experts. We have a wide, 15 foot john boat that is used for gator hunting. Currently it has two mid size fog lights on the front. Should I have more? Should I get a generator to run them? Is it better to go on a high tide or low, full moon or not? Should we use the go-devil or electronic motor? Any other advice about what type of set up and time to go would be greatly appreciated.

I have noticed that some folks that are flounder gigging have a boat that has a 850 lb capacity,


and the first thing they do is put a huge military surplus generator in,



with a few 20 gallon gas tanks, that weigh an additional 240 for forty gallons, and then they go to a local high school and buy the same set of lights used to light up the football field, and mount about 4 set of those all the way around the boat. At this point the the water is about 4 inches from coming over the gunnels.



Then to big hefty fellars that weight about 325 a piece



jump in and then the water is about 1/4" from coming over the gunnels, then their dog jumps in, and their wife comes down the dock with their 200 qt coolers for each of them loaded down with ice and beer,



and she heaves it into the boat for them.

They drink til it gets dark then they turn on the generator, and start a converation that sounds like the one you would have with your dentist while he is drilling in your mouth. The noise from the generator almost drowns out the radio they brought, but not quite. Then they crank up the outboard which is way over the Coast Guard recommended limit which has never been seen by mankind since it left the dealership. At the end of the night one of the guys falls out of the boat, and the other has to call his wife to put him in a box to ship him to Canada to escape the law.



But serioulsy, you can go to this website and get lots of info about flounder gigging. http://www.floundergigging.com/
The end.

Suber, you have way too much time to play on the internet buddy. Give me a call and lets go fishin'

jsuber wrote:But serioulsy, you can go to this website and get lots of info about flounder gigging. http://www.floundergigging.com/

Dang, Suber, need to warn folks before visiting that link that they best not click it if they suffer from epileptic seizures. I don't, but wondered if I was about to have my first!

Konrad, I have not been gigging in a number of years, but we found that lights UNDER the water work 10 times better than lights above the water. We devised some real cheap PVC holders and brackets and put them on any boat we wanted to use. We always took a deep cycle 12 volt battery and by the time the battery ran down, we were ready to call it anyways.

Bass Pro has an underwater light set up that should work well. I think it would be best to walk along beside the boat to look and gig them.

I think Barefoot Charters takes folks Flounder Gigging. Maybe you could take a trip with him and get some pointers.

You got a couple options. You can go frugile and buy some pvc lights and deep cycle batteries. You can get into it for around $350 or so. This will allow you to see some fish and have a good time.







OR you can go high tech with generators and 1000 watts of lights and have $1500-$2000 invested in a once a month hobby. Costs more, but the results are better.









You'll have to learn where to go and when to go by putting the time in yourself. Some of our spots produce better on a low tide and some produce better on a high tide. Its taken me 4 yrs to get a decent grasp on when and where to go.

Dang, ya'll are some flounder murderers. Way to go. I would say do what he says! That first rig (ya know, the cheap one) looks like what we did.

Thanks for the advise guys! I like that underwater light idea.

Do you go on a high tide / low tide or does it really matter?

I got my underwater lights from here. http://www.fishinglightsetc.com/FlounderLight.html
They worked fine, but they do have to be submerged in the water and sometimes they bump bottom.
I had 4 100watt lights that ran off 2 deep cycle batteries. They would run my lights for around 6-8 hrs. I got tired of charging batteries all the time and replacing two, $90 batteries every year because I wouldn't religeously charge them after a trip.

SO......I mounted 6 HPS lights($240) on a stainless steel railing($480). Got a converter($55) in the front box that charges my trolling motor($200) battery($90) all night. Got a Honda 2000 generator($875), that I have no problem hearing the boom box($120) over or the homeowners yelling at me(free) because my lights are lighting up their bedroom at 2am.

I guess you could say I'm "pot committed" to the floundering idea and rarely wet a hook in the daytime anymore. It's nice to "hunt/fish" for 3-6 hrs from June-Sept and not break a sweat.

If the water is calm, fish can be found at any tide. If the wind blowing, you won't find fish and any tide.

Also with underwater lights only, you can't really see the shoreline unless you hit it with a flashlight from time to time.

With above water lights, you can see what's around you and that's especially helpfull for when these guys are hiding in the grass 10 feet away.

bbb wrote:I got my underwater lights from here. http://www.fishinglightsetc.com/FlounderLight.html
They worked fine, but they do have to be submerged in the water and sometimes they bump bottom.
I had 4 100watt lights that ran off 2 deep cycle batteries. They would run my lights for around 6-8 hrs. I got tired of charging batteries all the time and replacing two, $90 batteries every year because I wouldn't religeously charge them after a trip.

SO......I mounted 6 HPS lights($240) on a stainless steel railing($480). Got a converter($55) in the front box that charges my trolling motor($200) battery($90) all night. Got a Honda 2000 generator($875), that I have no problem hearing the boom box($120) over or the homeowners yelling at me(free) because my lights are lighting up their bedroom at 2am.

I guess you could say I'm "pot committed" to the floundering idea and rarely wet a hook in the daytime anymore. It's nice to "hunt/fish" for 3-6 hrs from June-Sept and not break a sweat.

If the water is calm, fish can be found at any tide. If the wind blowing, you won't find fish and any tide.

What about moon phases?

woopty wrote:
What about moon phases?

On a full moon, sometimes the fish are more spooky and try to take off when the lights hit them. Other times, they are buried up so deep, its hard to see them at all. A flounder is an ambush feeder so if he thinks the conditions call for it, he can bury up so you can't see anything but the eyes. He's not trying to hide from you, but from the prey. If he thinks he's got a good hiding spot, you can get good pics like this.









And then they turn into this


then this


finally this


I have about as many good "high tide" spots as I do "low tide" spots now so the tide only dictates where I go, not if I go.

The moon doesn't effect the fish enough not to go. Actually the picture with the 2 guys under the house I posted was on a full moon night with no clouds in the sky. We got 15 flounder in about 3-4 hours.

I'm feeling a little hungry now.