Using Crappie Gear For Flounder

Have you ever seen flounder hitting with your own eyes but they were keyed in on something VERY specific and ignored what you had to offer?.

Sometimes you have to adapt to the situation and even use some unusual bait and lure choices.

A few years back, my friend Thad Daly and kept seeing flounder feeding in the Intracoastal Canal but they wouldn’t hit what we had to offer, which was curl-tailed glow-colored 3-inch jigs on a 1/3-ounce jighead.

We kept snagging the shad as we worked our jigs. With each pop of the line you could feel the millions of tiny baitfish bumping up against it., so we switched over to something that more closely matched the tiny shad in color.

That was a smoke-colored Gulp! Swimming Mullet. We also used the albino shad colored crappie grub from Southern Pro grubs tipped with a small piece of shrimp. Both were  rigged on an 1/8-ounce jighead.

Speaking of unusual choices, back then we started using the Mr. Crappie Troll Tech Double Swivel egg weight and a live finger mullet to catch flounder that were in deeper water along the channel. These weights are great for flounder because with the moving swivels they help avoid line twist. It helps make a more efficient Carolina rig. Some of my best flounder gear consistently comes from the crappie aisle at the bait shop.

A final note is that a good way to look for flounder feeding in the Intracoastal is to look closely along riprap for alligators. I have found when the gators are in the shallows with their heads (and most of their body) out of the water pointed toward the shore, there are lots of shad. The gators just open their mouths when a bunch come by and gulp. Typically this shows flounder are feeding and interestingly also signals a serious “match the hatch” situation. At times there will be gators lined along with herons and egrets all eating the shad and the big lizards totally avoiding attacking the birds.

That is matching the hatch to the extreme!

When alligators are thick along riprap in places like the Intracoastal Canal and are in the shallows pointed toward the shoreline, there tend to be lots of shad present and flounder feeding.

Chester Moore