Flounder

Flounder are one of my favorite species to target, not only because they make great table fare, but also because they are an elusive fish to catch with any consistency. I have caught over 300 flounder in Florida, and my best day was 30 keepers, of which I only kept 9, all measuring over 16 inches.

Unfortunately at the time of this writing, the red tide of 2018 took out a lot of flounder in the south of Tampa Bay. My favorite flounder spots which are in and around Tierra Verde, are only producing small fish for the most part.

Flounder take a wide variety of live and artificial baits, and can be targeted year round in Florida, with spring and fall being prime times.

The hardest part to catching flounder is finding them, once you have them located you can target them with any small bait fish or shrimp on the bottom, as well as many artificials.

Some of my favorite baits to use are as follows:

1) Live shrimp on a jig head hooked straight up through the horn (unless pin fish or other bait stealers are present)

2) Gold sparkle curly tail jig on a jig head bounced off the bottom in little hops. This creates a trail of little puffs of sand on the bottom that flounder home in on

3) Live mud minnow or finger mullet on a jig head

4) Gulp baits on a jig head

One of the keys to catching flounder is to keep your bait on the bottom. They will chase a bait for a long distance on the bottom, but will very rarely rise to take a bait.

Flounder prefer a mix of sand and grass when out on the open flats, pot holes in grass flats are a great place to throw a bait. They also relate to structure, and will hold under docks, along seawalls, and next to pilings of a bridge. A great technique is to fan cast an area with a curly tail jig until you get a bite, then you can switch to live bait, or continue throwing artificials.

When fishing for flounder, there are generally 2 ways you can tell if you have a bite. The first,my favorite, is you can see and feel a thump almost like a snook, at which point you should set the hook. The second is you will feel like you are snagged, and I always set the hook at this point.

The fight of a flounder involves them sticking to the bottom and a very distinct head shake, I always know when I have a flounder on due to the fight they put up.

Tackle selection is a personal preference, but generally speaking line's should be 10-20 lb test. Personally I use 8lb mono when targeting flounder with no leader. I feel the lighter line get's more bites, and gives artificials more action.

It is very important to always have a landing net when targeting flounder, as I learned the hard way.

The largest I have landed in Florida was a 10.4 lb fish that measured 31.5 inches, but anything 16 or over is a good fish.

Here are the current regulations for flounder in Florida:

https://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/flounder/