Article by Dale Timmons
Word is that the season’s first few red drum were caught in the Assateague Island surf last week, so let the games begin. Big reds on the beach, plus the chilly mornings we had last week, are a sure sign that fall is here, even if the calendar says it is officially still summer.
Finger mullet should also be migrating along the beaches by the time you read this, and this phenomenon should really bring the drum into the suds, along with other predators like bluefish, stripers and perhaps even a stray weakfish or two. For the next few weeks, bleary eyed “drum heads” with their favorite “8’n bait” heavers will be soaking spot, bunker or mullet heads, or maybe their favorite “tenderloin”, in hopes of experiencing that screaming run, the “head shakes” and the big tail waving in the shallow water as a drum tries to rid itself of that 8/0 or 9/0 circle hook in the corner of its mouth. It’s an exciting time of year for beach fishermen, from the most experienced to that “newbie” still looking for his or her first big red.
While the drum fishermen, and later the striper fanatics, get the most press when it comes to the surf, there is another smaller group of beach anglers who pursue another species, a fish that many don’t think of in the surf, and that is the flounder. There have been good numbers of flatfish in the surf this summer, and it may only get better as the fluke migrate out of the bays and spend some time along the beaches to take advantage of the fall smorgasbord of bait. The largest flounder ever caught in the state of Maryland was a 17-pound doormat caught in the Assateague Island surf in October of 1974, and while I wouldn’t expect a fish that big, there will definitely be some keepers over the 19-inch minimum taken from the beaches.
Flounder in the surf will take both natural bait and artificial lures. Most natural bait anglers use a medium action rod in the 7 to 8 foot range, with either a spinning reel or a small conventional bait caster. I would suggest using 20 lb. braided line, not only for the sensitivity, but in case you happen to hook a big drum or striper. This happens more often than you might think. The favorite method is to cast and slowly retrieve the bait along the bottom, stopping occasionally. Instead of casting straight out, I like to cast slightly up or down the beach and retrieve along the edge of the shorebreak. Rigs are fairly simple, usually either a single hook off a three-way swivel with a fairly long leader or a simple top and bottom rig. Hooks are generally in the 2/0, 3/0 or 4/0 range, either “wide gap” or “octopus” style. Most anglers fish “naked” rigs, but there is no reason that a spinner blade and beads or even a skirt will not work. Some anglers even like a small float pegged about half way up their long leaders so the bait will bounce up and down off the bottom. Use a bank sinker or other round sinker rather than the normal pyramid style you usually use in the surf. Strip baits cut from squid, bluefish, spot or mullet all work well. Cut a tapered strip about three to four inches long, and just hook it once so it will flutter in the current. Frozen silversides can be another effective flounder bait in the surf. In the Carolinas, fresh shrimp also works well.
As for artificial lures, the most popular is probably a three-eighths or half-ounce jig head with a four-inch curl tail grub attached. I kind of like a red head with a chartreuse tail. I have caught some nice flounder “accidentally” while fishing this combination in the surf for speckled trout or stripers. The recently popular “Gulp!” 4-inch Swimming Mullet should also be a killer for flounder in the surf. Fish the grub slowly, with a slight twitch of the rod tip, so the lure will swim just above the bottom and occasionally bounce in the sand. Flounder will also hit swimming plugs like a Mirr-O-Lure or Rebel minnow that is fished slowly, and I have even caught them on a small Hopkins metal or a Sting Silver.
The most important thing to remember about surf flounder is that they will usually be close, often just behind the shorebreak. I cannot emphasize enough how close this can be, and they will sometimes chase a bait or lure up out of the “dropoff” into just a few inches of water. Don’t end your retrieves too soon.
Flounder can be found around the rock jetties in the Ocean City surf, and again, they might be very close to the rocks. A beach with a deep dropoff is another good area to fish, and some anglers like to target very small “holes” in the surf. Low tide can often be the most productive, and it is definitely easier to fish the low water if you prefer to stand right in the surf and fish.
Some anglers travel to places like Buxton, NC in the fall and do nothing but fish for flounder in the surf. Like I said, this fishery is not as glamorous as the popular red drum or stripers, but if you want to fish light and put some meat in the freezer, flounder fishing from the beach might be just the ticket…
Saw a blurb on the Internet describing how an angler in the Bahamas recently got more than he bargained for. He caught a large tiger shark, and just as he was about to release it, the shark threw up a man’s leg. After trying unsuccessfully to reach authorities on the VHF, the angler and his crew boated the shark and brought it to shore. The shark was cut open, and the rest of the body, minus the head, was found in the stomach. Authorities believe the man drowned first, then was eaten by the tiger. Like I have said before, nature doesn’t waste too much…
A friend of mine set a “fatback” net last week in one of the bayside creeks off Newport Bay on the west side of South Point. He was targeting “cob” mullet and spot to use as surf bait, but he told me he also caught quite a few (50 or 60) small, 8 to 10 inch speckled trout. He released as many of the fish as he could alive, of course, though the crabs had already started attacking some of the fragile spotted sea trout. It remains to be seen in the next month or so whether or not we will have a run of larger specks this fall, but the abundance of small trout bodes well for the future, or at least I hope so…
Contact Dale Timmons at [email protected] or call 410-629-1191.
