You can find flounder species within sight of almost every stretch of coastline in the continental U.S., but in few places do anglers fish for them as enthusiastically as in the Gulf of Mexico and along the southern Atlantic seaboard.
Fishing for flounder is fun, as they will hit a variety of artificial and natural baits. And flounder are simply delicious, which is why seafood restaurants often feature them on their menus and why anglers love nothing better than finding a hungry school of these flatfish.
However, being a favorite among fishermen doesn’t mean flounder are always easy to catch. Just like their camouflaged bodies give them an underwater advantage over their prey, they also can be elusive to anyone trying to find them from above.
By understanding a flounder’s preferences in habitat, bait, and a few tips and tricks, you can limit out on flounder the next time you hit the water.
This article covers some of the best rigs, lures, baits, and the timing and tactics necessary to help you find plenty of flounders and then fill up an icebox with them.
All About Flounder
All flounders are ambush predators that adapt to swim sideways and blend in against sea bottoms that are usually muddy or sandy. Often you will find them near underwater structures such as reefs, docks, and bridge pilings.
The two most common species that anglers catch in the Gulf states are the southern and Gulf flounder.
Southern flounders have a wide distribution in this area and are the primary species caught in several Gulf states, especially Texas and Louisiana.
These darker brown, loosely spotted flounder tend to run smaller than some types of flatfish, with 12- to 14-inch fish common.
Gulf flounder are seldom found west of the Mississippi River Delta, and anglers are more likely to catch them on the Florida coast.
Gulf flounder, which have three distinct spots in a triangle configuration near the tail, are also often a similar size to southern flounders. Catches are frequently 1-2 pounds, with 3-pounders reasonably common.
Additionally, anglers are likely to catch another species called summer flounder along the eastern coast of Florida and north along the entire Atlantic coastline into Canada. Also commonly called flukes, summer flounders can grow larger than their cousins in Southern waters, reaching over 20 inches in length. Look for five distinct spots near the tail.
Another larger flounder, the winter flounder, and close flatfish relatives such as halibut are typically found in colder waters farther north in the U.S. and Canada.
All flounders are predators, feeding on crustaceans, smaller fish, and other forage species.
Where to Catch Flounder
Flounder can also be challenging to locate. To help pinpoint likely fishing spots, consider three things: current, structure, and migratory habits.
Current
Flounder prefer a strong current, as the water will bring forage species to them. Therefore, channels, inlets, and passes with strong winds or currents are excellent locations to fish for flounder.
Structure
Flounder prefer to lie in wait near submerged structures such as rock piles, trees, plants, reefs, sandbars, and mangrove root systems.
Typical Flounder Holding Spots
Flounders are masters of disguise. You likely won’t see them, so you must know where they are most likely. When targeting flounder, some of the locations to find them include the following:
• Docks inside inlets where the structure blends with water of varying depths, with currents that smaller fish and crustaceans toward shore.
• Marshy shorelines with shallow sand bottoms and aquatic vegetation, where bait hides in the reeds and the current brings other sources of food past.
• Rock piles on a sandy bottom in a strong current. The rock piles attract bait while also allowing flounder to stay out of the current while waiting for an ambush.
When to Catch Flounder
Season
While flounder will bite year-round, they often can be challenging to catch with any consistency.
The upshot is if you want to hook good numbers of flounder, go after them between October and December. During this time, flounder are transitioning to or from spawning grounds, feeding heavily, and traveling in large schools.
Time of Day
You’ll have the best success fishing for flounder first thing in the morning.
Particularly when there is a morning high tide, flounder head up into the shallows in search of breakfast. Anglers can capitalize on this habit by working plastics away from the shore and into the mouths of hungry flounder.
The evening is also an excellent time to fish for flounder, and I have found that bottom rigs work best with the setting sun.
How to Catch Flounder
Casting
Casting various rigs and lures is an effective way to catch flounder, but remember this: Flounder are easily spooked. You must be careful casting to them.
Bottom rigs often require a heavy sinker that hits the water with a big splash, skyrockets to the bottom, and disturbs the entire fishing hole for quite some time.
Instead of dropping your setup on top of the prime spot, it’s better to cast the bottom rig past the intended mark and then gently walk it back to where you expect the flounder to be.
Sometimes you can also work a lure to the side of your target area to decrease your odds of spooking the fish.
Trolling
Trolling is another fishing method for flounder, but anglers often overlook the technique for flatfish.
Trolling can effectively cover lots of water in a short time when you’re not sure where the flounder are holding. Frequently using drop shot rigs, anglers cast anywhere from one to four lines into the water and slowly troll right along the bottom.
Specifically, anglers often catch the most flounder trolling during an outgoing tide. That tide will bring shrimp and small fish out of marshy areas, and the flounder will be waiting for a meal.
With enough current or wind, anglers can also drift their bait or lure through an area similarly.
Flounder Gear and Tackle
Having the right gear will greatly boost your odds of catching flounder.
A 7-foot medium-action rod with a bait caster will do the job for flounder. Figure on using about a 20-pound braid for your mainline, and use a similar strength fluorocarbon leader to tie on your rigs.
Anglers use a spinning or bait-casting reel sized for your rod. Spinning reels are easier to operate, but advanced anglers often switch to bait-casters for precision.
Flounder Fishing Rigs
Flounder spend most of their time in the lower portions of the water column. This trait means that lure or bait rigs that focus on the bottom have a higher level of success.
The following rigs are a few of the most popular for flounder.
Texas Rig
The Texas rig is a setup using a bullet-shaped weight on the line above the hook and a bead or another type of sinker stop. The leader slides through the weight, allowing the bait to move somewhat with the current while staying in the strike zone near the bottom.
This is an excellent setup for flounder when surf fishing.
High/Low Rig
Often miss labeled as the Carolina rig, an entirely different setup, the high/Low rig is the setup I have caught the most flounder with.
Excellent for surf fishing, it provides two opportunities for anglers to bait hooks, with a solid sinker on the end of a leader.
Placing baits at varying depths in the water column naturally gives the angler more chances but also provides the rare opportunity of hooking two fish if the conditions are right.
Fish Finder
The Fish Finder rig utilizes a weight on a slider affixed in front of the swivel with a free-floating leader below it.
An excellent choice for surf fishing, the Fish Finder is ideal to cast into channels with moving water where flounder are sure to be lying in wait for prey brought about by the current.
The combination of smell and wafting bait in the lower portions of the water column is nothing short of irresistible to flounder.
Drop Shot
Anglers often turn to this setup when trolling for flounder. They tie their weight to the bottom of their line, with a swivel up the line. Tie the leader with the bait hook or lure to the swivel.
This rig keeps your bait near the bottom and your line nearly vertical in the water while trolling.
Cork Rig
Less frequently, anglers catch flounders on a cork rig. I’ve seen flounder caught in Louisiana while fishing in shallow water for redfish, targeting cuts and points.
Flounder prefer moving water and nearby structure, including grass, and share many similar habitats with redfish.
Anglers often use a cork while fishing shrimp for redfish. The closer you are fishing your bait to the bottom, the higher the likelihood it will trigger a flounder’s strike.
Best Flounder Fishing Lures
Jig head + Willow Blade
Utilizing a jig head with a willow blade teamed with soft plastic lure bodies provides anglers with many flounder-catching combinations.
Gold blades often work the best with 3-inch minnow or swimming mullet soft plastic imitations at 4 to 10 feet depth in the water.
D.O.A. Shrimp Lure
This weighted artificial white shrimp not only imitates a natural food source for flounder but also is an excellent option for walking across the bottom at night or in murky water.
This realistic-looking bait is easy to cast and retrieve, making it effective for both novices and experts alike.
Gold Rat-L-Trap
This hard plastic lure has the perfect blend of sound and sight and is incredibly popular with various gamefish, including bass, redfish, and of course, flounder.
Sinking to the bottom, directly into the strike zone, a Rat-L-Trap is an easy-to-retrieve bait for novice anglers.
The gold Rat-L-Trap is a great bait if you’re looking to cover a lot of grass-filled shallow water with high visibility.
Gulp Swimbait
These baits in off-white resemble fingerling mullet, a naturally occurring food source for flounder.
A stop-and-bump retrieve with this lure has caught more than one tight-lipped flounder.
Bait Fishing for Flounder
When it comes to catching flounder, natural bait is always a great option for bottom rigs and corks mentioned earlier.
Shrimp
Shrimp is an excellent bait when fishing salt or brackish water. If you can get it, fresh shrimp is usually best. While frozen or dead shrimp can work, the movements of a struggling shrimp can trigger a bite from a hungry flounder like little else.
Minnows
Flounders love eating minnows, especially one swimming. Your minnows will survive and swim around awhile if hooked through the lower lip.
Select medium-sized minnows, as some flounder will likely pass on larger ones.
Fingerling Mullet
Mullet is a staple in a flounder’s diet throughout the surf zone and most marshes.
As with minnows, if you hook a mullet correctly, it will struggle against the line for a while without dying. This bait provides a perfect opportunity for a flounder to snack on a wounded fish.
Crabs
Flounder and redfish share a voracious appetite for crab, so bottom rigs or corks rigged with these small crustaceans is a smart best.
Chopping crabs in half or quarters is a viable option for larger crustaceans, but a piece of dead crab loses the wounded bait appearance that flounder can’t resist. Use smaller crabs for bait when available.
Tips for Flounder Fishing Success
We wanted to emphasize some of the essential tips you need to keep in mind to have a successful flounder fishing trip.
Flounder are skittish
Flounders are incredibly sensitive to any environmental change, so stealth is imperative.
Casting massive sinkers directly onto or near the flounder can spoil the fishing hole, so anglers fishing on the bottom should do their best to use the minimum amount of weight to create the smallest splash possible.
Additionally, casting directly on top of flounder is never a good idea. Placing your cast up current or parallel to where you expect to find flounder is always a viable technique.
Flounder are bottom feeders
Because flounder are bottom feeders, they are often caught alongside drum and catfish.
To specifically target flounder, try working plastics or selecting shallow water to avoid catching saltwater catfish and drum.
Look for hiding sites
Like any good outdoorsman, try and think like your prey.
Consider that flounder like moving water, shallower water with muddy or sandy bottoms, and structure. So if you narrow down your search area to locations where these structures intersect, there is a strong bet these flatfish will be there.
Fish the best season
Flounder are seasonally migratory fish, meaning that during spawning season (October-December), they will head into the Gulf or deeper waters of the Atlantic.
During the warmer months, flounders are often in inlets, bays, and closer to shore but are likely spread out rather than concentrated.
Anglers who pay attention to the seasons, notably the transition pieces between seasons as flounder school up, will fill up an icebox fast.
Switch it up
Flounder are not picky eaters, but sometimes, you aren’t using the right bait. Here are ideas to consider when selecting your baits.
Color
Make sure the lure works with the water color. Brighter, less natural colors in murky water help them stand out, while clear water means lures should have a more neutral color.
Natural Look
Try to use baits that closely imitate a flounder’s prey, such as mullet, minnows, or shrimp.
Size
A bigger lure doesn’t necessarily mean a bigger flounder.
Flounders don’t have huge mouths. At a certain point, flounder will cease to eat larger prey and continue to eat smaller shrimp and minnows, simply more of them.
Lure Weight
Weight can play a big factor in selecting the right bait for flounder fishing.
If the lure does not weigh enough, it won’t fish near the bottom and flounder will miss it.
Anglers will often mistakenly believe that there are no flounder in the water while their lure sits several feet above the bottom where the flounder lay.
Alternatively, if the lure is too heavy, it will dredge up silt on the bottom and disturb the flounder instead of triggering a strike.
Add Natural Bait
If possible, tip your jig, swimbait, or other artificial lures with shrimp. This bit of real shrimp can help scent the setup with a naturally occurring food source and elicit a strike when all else fails.
Summary
Flounder are an incredibly popular species of fish that are angled for along the southern shores of the United States. These hard-fighting flatfish are delicious and a load of fun to catch.
Anglers who use the tips above on rigs, baits, locations, conditions, and techniques will have a much easier time bringing fish home for dinner.
As always, good luck and stay safe out on the water.