Article by Sue Foster
Wow! Another week’s gone by and anglers are catching some pretty nice flounder! Catching flounder from the shore is not as easy as catching them from a boat, but since the size limit has been 16-inches anyone with a little time and patience can catch a flounder.
The whole trick to catching flounder from the shore is working the tides. And each flounder hole is a little different. There’s been some nice flounder caught from the Bulkhead between 2nd and 4th Streets in Ocean City, but this current rips by really hard. Since you are casting right into the current, it can sweep your rig and baits right into a snag which is very frustrating! What the locals do is wait for the tide to ease. Since it’s deep there, it doesn’t matter whether it’s low tide or high tide. You just need that tide to not be screaming by!
If you go to a tide table and figure out when dead low and dead high tide is, fish a couple hours on either side of these times. Most tide tables are set for ocean tides so you need to add two hours to calculate your tide. Tide tables are never perfect so you may have to wait it out some more.
So, when the tide starts easing, you can cast your flounder rig, baited with live minnows or frozen shiners tipped with a little strip of squid, out into the main channel. Keep your rod tip up and use whatever amount of bank sinker weight it takes to keep you in the main channel. It may take a 3, 4 or even 5 oz. bank sinker. When you reel in to check your bait or if you have a fish on, keep your rod tip up so you do not get hung up on the underwater ledge. What you have on the bulkhead is a water depth of 8 to 12-feet close to the bulkhead and then an abrupt drop-off that goes to 40-feet in some places.
So if you can’t stay out in the channel, you are best to fish straight down until the tide slacks. Some flounder will still come around the ledge to feed. Keep your rigs as simple as possible. Sometimes it’s best to just use a 3-way swivel, a snap swivel, a pack of leadered hooks and a hand-full of sinkers!
The Ninth Street Pier is a nice public pier to try to catch a legal flounder. It’s small, so the early bird gets the worm here. The incoming tide (that’s between low and high tide) is usually good here. Just as it turns and starts going out for an hour or so can be excellent. Anglers fish the far left hand corner, throw out as far as they can diagonally, and then after a little wait, the angler can slowly bump their rig back in towards the pier.
What’s the basic flounder baits?
Hook frozen shiners through the eyes and live minnows through the lips. Then some anglers like to add a strip of squid to the shiner or minnow bait. Other anglers like to use 4–inch Gulp! Swimming Mullet. You can use the Gulp! in combination with the minnow or shiner, or use it by itself. If you use Gulp! by itself, you have to keep it moving by jigging the Gulp! up and down!
If you are a novice, stick with real bait. Your chances will be better!
The Oceanic Pier is another good spot to fish for flounder. J.J. always says that the Pier does best during the incoming tide. Towards the end of the Pier is generally the best, but you can catch flounder all along the Pier. The start of the outgoing tide can also see flounder, but once the tide starts ripping out, the flounder bite can slow.
The Rt. 50 Bridge is a great place to fish for flounder because the current takes your rigs and bait straight out with the tide. Instead of fighting the current, you can actually work with it! Local anglers set up with spreader bars and big bobbers and let their baits drift over the edges of sand bars where the flounder are lying. It’s like drifting in a boat. You can cover tons of territory while standing on the Bridge!
Some people like to cast out their rigs diagonally, and slowly bump them back in towards the bridge pilings. I like to use a ¼ oz. Spec Rig with a bank sinker attached. I bait up with shiners, minnows or cut bluefish and jig the Spec Rig around the pilings. Flounder like to feed close to the Bridge sometimes and it’s fun to catch them jigging!
You can also use a lead head with a Gulp! Swimming Mullet and/or some bait and cast out as far as you can. Jig the lead head over the edges of sand bars. Usually on the deep side of the bar, the flounder are lying in wait. You can also use your favorite flounder rig, cast out and slowly jig it back in. You can also drop back into the current. Drop straight down, slowly let line out and bounce it out with the current until you get the bite!
The Rt. 50 Bridge has a lot of different depths and all the locals have their favorite spots. Some like the west end where the current is never flying like crazy. It is relaxing and not extremely deep. Others like to work the deep water closer to the draw of the Bridge. It goes down to 30-feet in some places so you have to work the slacking tides, but there can be some big flounder here! This is where the locals bring their live spot later in the season to catch the big boys!
You can catch some flounder right in the Inlet itself. You can also hook some from the beach at Homer Gudelsky Park in West Ocean City and you can even catch some from the Ocean Pier that jets out from the boardwalk. You are not so likely to catch keeper flounder from the Convention Hall Pier, Northside Park at 125th Street, or the Park at Isle of Wight off Route 90 since the water in these places are generally not deep enough. You may catch some small ones and occasionally someone catches a keeper in these places but it is not typical. For flounder, I’d stick to the top of the list!
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.
