Most people think of flounder as a deepwater fish, but the early season offers a unique opportunity to catch them on shallow flats with light tackle.
When it comes to fishing for flounder—fluke, if you live north of the Mason-Dixon line—most people envision drift fishing in deep water along channel edges or at reef sites. And yes, that’s a great way to catch these fish. But that generally requires several ounces of lead and often includes baiting up the hooks. What if slinging light tackle with artificials is your game? This form of fishing can be just as effective as hunting deep, particularly early in the season. If that is, you time it just right and toss the ideal offering.
Finding Fluke in the Shallows
Flounder aren’t afraid of bright sunlight. In fact, they thrive on it. These fish are sight-feeders, and clear water with bright conditions are prime. So the first factors to consider are water clarity and weather. It’s always best to find the cleanest water possible, and in many coastal areas, that means fishing on an incoming tide and/or the beginning of the outgoing when clear oceanic waters fill the bay and inlets. Periods of high turbidity following a big blow or storms are likely to be slow, and mid-low to low tides can also be crippling in bays where the waters are generally murky. And while you can certainly catch fish on cloudy days, generally speaking the brighter it is outside the better the bite is likely to be.
So, how shallow will these fish go? There’s really no limit. At some times in some places you can get a bite in a mere six inches of water. In others, four or five feet is hot. But as a general rule of thumb, when the flounder creep up onto sand bars or hunt at the mouths of feeder creeks and marsh drains, two or three feet of water is ideal.
Speaking of feeder creeks and marsh drains: these are the perfect spots to find fluke in the shallows. Particularly at the very beginning of an outgoing tide when sun-warmed water is draining off, creating a current where the drain meets the bay, flounder will gather to feed. Most of the time you’ll only find a fish or two at small drains just a few feet across, but at spots where a larger creek opens up you might find larger numbers. Finding a spot where a foot-deep marsh flat drains off through a mouth 10’ or more across with two or three feet of depth at the center is an ideal scenario.
Sand bars rising to a couple feet of depth that are surrounded by deeper channels are another excellent place to find shallow flatfish. These are usually hottest during the second half of an incoming tide, through the high tide, and into the beginning of falling water. When the tide is halfway to low or lower, the shallows usually aren’t as productive, and it’s time to tie on heavier offerings and then probe deeper zones along channel edges.
Fodder for Flounder
When the fish are in the shallows, forget about sliding squid and a minnow onto a hook and drifting around—this is the time to offer up artificials you can bounce along and just above the bottom. A four- or five-inch soft plastic on a half-ounce jighead is ideal. Paddles and twisters will work, but for some reason straight split-tails often seem to produce the most bites. And, just as is true when fishing deeper zones with artificials, scent helps. A Gulp! Jerk Shad in white or chartreuse is an utter killer, with other top offerings including the Fishbites Fight Club Brawler and the Fin-S Fish or a similar plastic slathered with Pro-Cure. Another excellent choice is a small bucktail trimmed with a Gulp! or Fishbites.
Any 6’ to 7’ light or medium-light fast-action rod paired with a good 3000 or 3500 spinning reel will do the trick, but using braid mainline, generally topped with three or four feet of 20-pound fluoro, is a must for lightning-fast hook-sets. Be wary of going lighter on the leader because although you may get more hits, you’ll have more cut-offs, too. Flounder have very sharp teeth, and if they inhale a jig deep enough to get those teeth on the line, lighter stuff regularly gets snipped off.
The most effective retrieve is almost always hopping the jig along the bottom. Cast out, let the jig tap down, then pop it up and take in slack line. Try to work it back to the boat in increments of just a foot or two. When a flounder hits, it’s almost always as the jig is about to hit bottom again, and often it’ll feel like the jig tapped down and snagged a chunk of weed or an oyster shell. It’s critical to set the hook immediately, and set it with full force. Yes, you’ll have some false alarms when you do actually hook weeds or shell, but it’s best to always react to a snag as though it’s a hit.
Fluke put up a great fight and earned top honors on the plate, but for many anglers, drifting around in deep water with six or eight ounces of lead on the line just isn’t all that exciting. Light-tackle aficionados, grab those jigs and head for the shallows—hit the right places at the right times, and you can catch just as many fish while having a heck of a lot more fun.
