Article by Sue Foster
“It’s finally here! Labor Day and all the promises of “big fluke” now that the summer season is close to its end. All the anglers that voted for a 19-inch flounder and a longer season are poised and ready for action! All the anglers that have thrown back fat 18 ½ and 18 ¾-inch flounder all summer want their rewards. So don’t even think about putting that boat away or hanging up those fishing rods. It’s time to catch the big ones!
As the days shorten and the nights get cooler, flounder sense the coming of a second season. Flounder will be migrating out of the bay into mid-October. Even after that, when anglers are targeting stripers, big flounder can be caught right until the closing day. As summer flounder are recovering, there are more and more of them out there, so don’t miss out.
“How do we target the big ones?”
Tide can be of utmost importance. Capt. Bobby Gower on the “Bay Bee” said last week, “The flounder are biting at the “top of the tide!” What does this mean? It means get out there two hours before high tide and wait for the tide to slow down. Then get fishing hard in those deep holes near the draw of the Route 50 Bridge, the deep water in the Thorofare, the deep hole offshore of Homer Gudelsky Park, the Inlet, the Commercial Harbor and Martha’s Landing. If you are a local, you know where these holes are. Sometimes the whole east channel between 4th Street and the draw of the Route 50 Bridge can be hot, hot, hot…
When the tide turns totally slack the bite can quit for maybe 20 to 25 minutes. Don’t leave. Wait for the tide to turn and start going out. Change your location from the north side of the Route 50 Bridge to the south side. Drift from the draw of the Bridge, around the Oceanic Pier and along the sea wall. Drifting against the sea wall is a popular hole during the beginning of the outgoing tide. The middle of the Inlet can carry you too fast, but the sea wall drift is slower.
Labor Day weekend and into the fall means a quest for bait. Bait is the second most important factor when targeting larger flounder. Bigger bait, bigger fish. We say it over and over again. Buy yourself a cast net. Get yourself some polarized sunglasses and start staring into the water. Get yourself some tiny hooks and keep some Fish Bite Bloodworms in your boat. Get yourself a portable aerator and a baitwell net. Get yourself out of the minnow and squid routine day after day and try something different!
The next month and a half is “heaven” when it comes to readily available larger baits. Peanut bunker or alewives are swimming around the Commercial Harbor, any lagoon or marina basin, Northside Park and in Herring Creek. You can see them flashing just under the water, and these fish are really slow and dumb. Anyone that can get a cast net to open can catch peanut bunker. Keep a couple dozen, put them in the live well or aerated bucket, throw the rest back, and go fishing. No, you can’t keep them overnight. They will likely die on you.
Spot and mullet are much smarter. The easiest way to catch spot is with a Sabiki
Rig or a 3-hook spot rig baited with bloodworm, FishBites bloodworm, or night crawler. Fish by the Route 90 Bridge on the moving, incoming tide. Catch your bait and put it in the live well. Then, when the perfect “two hours before high tide” comes up, run your boat down close to the Route 50 Bridge or your other favorite deep water holes.
For mullet, you need to get the cast net out again. Mullet are fast so you need to be faster. You can find them on any sandbar in the bay at low tide. You can find them around the Commercial Harbor or any marina basin. You can find them in Herring Creek or any other creek you live near, or any marshy area where there is green grass. Northside Park has them. Homer Gudelsky Park has them. Look for mullet that are swimming and jumping. They are fast, so cast in front of them. They jump, so keep a lid on your aerated bucket or live well.
If your bait is too big for live bait, put it in a cooler and you can scale and strip the bait into nice long strips of fresh bait. Now these baits are especially good if you are offshore on or near one of the inshore and offshore wrecks for flounder and big sea bass. If you have an ocean going boat, now until the close of flounder season is the time to venture offshore where there are big flounder waiting. Pick your days to find smooth seas without a lot of swell, and you WILL catch doormat flounder if you give it some time and energy. Live baits, strip baits, and the ever popular Gulp! baits will bring you the flounder dinners you have been waiting for all summer.
I like to drift for flounder offshore. Go up to the wreck or obstruction, then drift off and around the area until you find “the bite.” If you anchor, don’t just let the bait sit on the bottom. Keep it moving a little. Remember Capt. Monty’s trick of “twitch, twitch, twitch, stop…. And wait for Mr. Fluke to take your bait. The larger the bait, the longer you want to let the flounder take the bait before setting the hook.
When offshore (and inshore), anything you catch can become bait. Sea robin strips are very popular and was used last week in the Inlet to hook a flounder that weighed almost 7 lbs. Those skinny lizard fish are one of flounder’s favorite diets. Small ones can be used for live bait and larger ones can be filleted and used for strip baits. Small bluefish fillets are one of my favorites for offshore flounder fishing. Croaker fillets are excellent. A whole Calamari squid jigged on a big hook or a bucktail jig is another one of my favorites.
Large, live minnows, smelts (large shiner) or long strips of squid will also work. Combo your baits! Combine a nice fat strip of bait with a Gulp! Grub or Belly Strip. Slide a Gulp! Swimming Mullet on your hook before adding a fat, live minnow. Bigger bait, bigger fish. Of course, the ol’ minnow and squid strip or a shiner and squid strip will always work. You just have to wade through more small flounder to catch the big ones. BUT, this time of year, there are more BIG ONES! And that’s what we have been waiting for!
Good fishing….
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
