I am sure you think I should have written this a week ago before the Flounder Pounder tournament out of Paradise Grill on Long Neck. That contest is tough to win against big boats with the ability to run farther out in the ocean where the larger flounder are usually found.
What I am talking about are flounder that are found closer to shore and can be accessed by anglers in smaller boats, like my 16-foot Starcraft.
My friend and expert flounder fisherman Bob Baker caught his personal-best flounder, an 11-pounder, at the Savannah Road drawbridge over the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal. I feel certain he was using one of his handmade flounder rigs. Another friend, Sonny Crowell, used a live spot at Site 10 to catch a 10-pound flounder.
While it is true that elephants do eat peanuts, big flounder like big baits. They may grab a minnow, but are more likely to go after a live spot or a whole squid.
It is my personal opinion that a live spot is the best bait if you are fishing for big flounder. First, spot are a natural feed for flounder, and second, they are easy to catch and fill up a live well. All you need to catch spot is a Sabiki rig baited with bits of bloodworm. Drop that where spot are found around structure such as dock pilings or rough bottom until you get enough in the live well for a day’s fishing.
My 24-Albemarle did not have a live well, so I made one from a pickle barrel that I plumbed with a bilge pump to move water from outside into the barrel with an overflow back outside. It worked.
I used spot to catch amberjack at the Southern Tower and other structure out of Virginia Beach. That was stupid fishing, where you just hooked the spot through the lips, dropped it over the side and made sure the angler held on tight to your rod and reel.
Flounder fishing with live spot is a bit more difficult. You will need a fish-finder rig with a circle hook tied to 30-pound fluorocarbon leader. The 3-foot leader is tied to a black barrel swivel, and that is tied to the 40-pound braid running line. The depth of the water and the strength of the current will determine the weight of the sinker needed to get the rig to the bottom.
I hook my spot through either the lips or the eye sockets. I want the spot to swim in as natural a manner as possible.
I use a conventional rod and reel because I find it easier to let out line with a conventional reel when a fish takes the bait. A flounder will grab a live spot and move off before trying to swallow the fish. This is why you use the fish-finder rig. Once the flounder turns and swallows the bait, just crank out the slack and the circle hook will set in the corner of the flounder’s mouth.
Spot are not the only large bait you can use. I found some beautiful large squid in the Food Lion frozen fish section that I rig with a double-hook spread, once again on a fish-finder rig.
Heavy bucktails with Gulp! have been bringing up some impressive flounder over the past few years. Tsunami makes a rig with a clip for the bucktail and a small teaser just above. I put a large Gulp! on the bucktail and a smaller one on the teaser.
Of course, you will have to figure out just where big flounder live before you can catch one. The truth is, big flounder can live wherever they want to, but they are more likely to live where they can find food without too much work. That is going to be behind some sort of structure.
Wrecks are excellent locations for big flounder fishing. The fish can tuck in behind some part of the wreck and wait there for food to pass by. The problem for fishermen is getting our bait to pass by without getting the rig hung up in the wreck. No easy solution, just trial and error.
As we get into fall, the mouth of Delaware Bay becomes a good location for big flounder. The fish are moving out to spawn and will congregate there, feeding on the down-current side of the ridges. Back when we had stripers here, it was not unusual to catch a few flounder on the live eels fished for rockfish.
If you fish on a boat with others who use smaller baits, they may be catching more and smaller fish. So it takes perseverance to keep using the larger baits until you are rewarded with that super doormat.
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Eric Burnley is a Delaware native who has fished and hunted the state from an early age. Since 1978 he has written countless articles about hunting and fishing in Delaware and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast. He has been the regional editor for several publications and was the founding editor of the Mid-Atlantic Fisherman magazine. Eric is the author of three books: Surf Fishing the Atlantic Coast, The Ultimate Guide to Striped Bass Fishing and Fishing Saltwater Baits. He and his wife Barbara live near Milton, Delaware. Eric can be reached at Eburnle@aol.com.
