While flounder can be caught year round, they are more concentrated and easier to catch or gig in fall and early winter. The best rod and reel fishing starts mid-September and goes on through December, and sometimes well into January depending on weather and how cold it gets.
What is the best bait for winter flounder?
Winter Flounder Bait
Small pieces of clam, mussel, or bloodworm are the preferred baits for flounder. Anytime I shuck clams, I keep the siphons and thread them on the hook as bait. Sandworms, bloodworms, and tapeworms can all be cut into 2- to 3-inch lengths.
What tide is best for winter flounder?
Probably the last two or three hours of the ebb tide and the beginning of the flood are the best. Generally these tides are best because of the warmer water flowing and the small baits that these toothless fish feed on are washed off the flats into the channels and channel slopes.
Where is the best place to gig flounder?
Nighttime Flounder gigging happens shortly after dark when the doormats move into the shallows to look for food. They tend to hang out more in soft mud bottoms, but anglers also work areas with a lot of grass, sand, and oyster beds.
Can you catch flounder in the winter in Florida?
Yes, you can catch flounder in the winter months but you will have to target them offshore or around near shore structure. Flounder move out into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean in the winter to spawn so you might have to go offshore 30 or 40 miles to find them during the cooler months.
Where are flounder in the winter?
Where They Live. Winter flounder are found in estuaries and on the continental shelf of the Northwest Atlantic, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada to North Carolina.
Where do flounder go in the winter?
Winter flounder migrate from offshore areas to nearshore waters in winter, which is where they get their name.
What is the best month to catch flounder?
He says the best months for winter flounder are May, June and July, and August to September for summer flounder, aka fluke.
When should I go floundering?
The flounder spend the day in the deeper water in the middle of this bay and come in with the tide at night. The best time to flounder gig in this area is from low to high tide with the last three hours of incoming tide being best.
What is the best time to flounder gig?
While flounder can be caught year round, they are more concentrated and easier to catch or gig in fall and early winter. The best rod and reel fishing starts mid-September and goes on through December, and sometimes well into January depending on weather and how cold it gets.
How many lumens do you need for flounder gigging?
The minimum amount of lumens for flounder gigging is 5,000 lumens if you are wading and gigging and 20,000 lumens if you are gigging from a boat.
Can you use a frog gig for flounder?
Gigging is the practice of hunting fish or small game with a gig or similar multi-pronged spear. Commonly harvested wildlife include freshwater suckers, saltwater flounder, and small game, such as frogs.
When can you flounder gig in Florida?
You will often see a trail from the flounder’s outline in the sand to where they are currently hiding. When you see them you can gig them as long as they are above the 12 inch size limit. If you are gigging for flounders at night, then you can see their eye shine when your lights bounce off of their eye lenses.
Can you catch flatfish in winter?
Winter flounder can be caught all year long but you can catch more of them in spring. The peak season is from April to June on the North Atlantic coast. During this period winter flounders tend to swim near the surface.
What temperature do flounder like?
Is there a preferred temperature range for flounder? The best water temperature for catching all species of flounder is generally between 55-68º F, although there are some noted differences in water temperature preferences between flounder of Atlantic, Pacific, and southern waters of the United States.
Can you catch flounder off shore?
What is special about flounder is that they can be caught from a very short distance of the shoreline. A casting distance of 20-50 yards is all you need in order to get them. This makes them a good fish to target when fishing low tide or shallow waters. Look for the seaward edge of the first sandbar of the beach.
What is the difference between winter and summer flounder?
There are also slight color differences between the two. Winter flounder tend to be a darker shade of brown than summer flounder, which also have ringed eyespots along the top side of their body. At least five of these eyespots will form an “X”, making the summer flounder look like the 5-side of a die.
What does a winter flounder look like?
Winter flounder’s colour varies with their habitat from reddish brown and olive green to dark slate and almost black. Their underside is white with fins tinged with pink, red or yellow. They grow up to two feet and have both eyes on their right side.
How old is a 25 inch flounder?
7
Summer Flounder (Fluke)
| Age (years) | Length (inches) |
|---|---|
| 5 | 22 |
| 6 | 23.5 |
| 7 | 25 |
| 8 | 26 |
What eats a flounder?
Young flounders are fed upon by crabs, shrimps, and other fish while juvenile and adult flounder fall prey to many predatory fishes including cod, sculpin, striped bass, bluefish, cobia, groupers, moray eels, skates, stingrays, and sharks.
Does flounder bite at night?
Yes, they do bite a night. You will find them on the edge of lights (ambush style). Most of your larger fish are caught during the day.
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