Flounder advice
 

My oldest son is coming to visit in about 10 days, (active duty air force, stationed in Minot ND)

We are gonna try and get after some crabs (he loves eating em) in Rockefeller and are good on that.

But his mom (my better half) has been after me to try and bring home some flounder.

problem is i don't know doodly squat about how to target / focus on catching them.

Can chase after them in Rockefeller or we can go to any of the BIG lake areas. (with my little 17 ft boat would prefer an area to be a little bit sheltered)

I have searched around on the internet... but to be honest have not really found any good info.

Can someone in the know throw me a few bones about general good practices, not looking to learn where your honey hole is.. more along the lines of you should fish in these types of area's using these types of things as baits..


appreciate any advice thru a PM or on this thread.

Thanks

I always caught them on accident fishing rockafeller for redfish....one thing I think everyone would agree on is they love chartruse gulp swimming mullet.

Pink swimming mullet on 1/4oz lead head. Don't know anything about the rock so can't give you locations. And yes, chartreuse is my second favorite color.

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About a week ago i Saw some door mats jumping out the water like tuna along the southerly bank of this canal. You can put in on the West side of channel, at the ferry. That canal is well protected. Caught a few specks on top along that bank closer to the lake.Attachment 53235

me
 

me to, call me a pilgrim, i always wondered this too

I always fish points, cuts into the marsh, drop off on the ship channel, etc.....

I give it a slow drag while reeling. Don't really work the rod a lot. And normally use a gulp and 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jig head. If I'm fishing flats in the marsh I go light, heavy when fishing edge of drop offs.

This works well. Look for moving water also.

They need a pretty good hook set too.. They have a pretty tough mouth. If not they will usually come off at the boat..

Most definitely. Can't guess how many I have lost at the boat without a net.

Also, sometimes you won't feel a thump..... It will just start to feel heavy as you reel.... Set the hook

And make sure you have a landing net.

Did a 2 week TDY at Minot in January. Coldest this southern boy has ever been in my life. Thank him for his service!

Lol he complains on a never-ending basis how darned cold it has been. He has to be out in the weather to do his job so he has learned how to bundle up.

To help get even more bites......"tip" the hook with a little bit of shrimp.

If the water is dirty.....try using a small spinner [gold] bait with the above bait.

So thanks for the tips everyone. Here's my gameplan so far.

Since i have a smaller boat i am gonna stick to the area's around either black lake & some of the area's around prien lake.

Will be trying to focus on Cuts into marsh and edges of channel's

Going to use 1/4 and 1/8 oz jig heads with plastic baits shrimp & mullet imitations. Pink & chart seem to be the colors to go with. Going to load the baits up with some pro cure type shrimp scented gel, and possibly tip em with pieces of shrimp.

I'm not real keen on the idea of buying gulp as the cost is just silly crazy.. but with the other attractants i'm using will i be at a disadvantage not using gulp? Will probably pick up a pack to see what all the hype is about i guess... (gonna piss and moan about it all the way to the register though.)

basically going to fan cast area's and slowly drag the bait along the bottom.

seems like some people say you need to wait to set the hook on flounder and others are saying no... so not sure bout that guess i will see what works when im out there.

and cross their eyes when i set the hook.

and the consensus seems to be fish a moving tide.. incoming seems to be the best bet?


am i missing anything here?

That pretty much covers how to catch flounder.

One more thing to try.....is to catch some live Shad with a cast net. There should be schools of them swimming around.

Fish them just like you would the gulp. You should get lots of bite "action" using live bait. Lots of fish will eat the Shad so you never know what you might catch.

First off do not underestimate the power of the Gulp swimming mullet. You will catch 5x the flounder you will catch on a soft plastic. They are well worth the expense. That being said it is that time of year were live bait is gonna be king for a while. Finger mullet and mud minnows are my favorite Carolina rigged and dragged along ledges in deeper water. Moving water is a must in or out makes little difference on the bite. Just the location of the flounder. Channels and cuts. Depth finder is a must have piece of equipment. Flounder love structure look for it. Try ultralight gear and Vudu Shrimp pearl/chart with pro cure shrimp gel for a good time!! Oh yeah a net allways net dat!!!

10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish

If anyone knows, it's flatfishfreak. That dude mercs the flounder.

^ what he said. Flounder Whisperer has spoke!

Two friends and I went to big lake on monday.We came home with 22 flounder 8 specks and let the reds go.Finger mullet work the best(use a 1/4 oz. about 8 to 10 inch above the hook)In comming tide works the best.Cast as close to the bank as posible reel is slow. good luck

The gulp is going to last a long time, the same 5 dollar sack of curly tails is going on over 5 trips now. The amount of dead shrimp or live that I would have had to buy costs way more than that little bag of gulp, plus I don't have to constantly re bait when nuisances get after it...