Tricks For Summer Flounder

Flounder fishing during the summer ain’t easy.

In fact, it can be quite challenging as the bite seems to turn off in many areas, but the reality is you can still catch them if you think differently. Here are a few tips to help you score.

Deep Dwelling: The biggest flounder tend to hang out in close proximity to deep water. Target a large percentage of efforts toward deep-water access points in ship channels and in areas where passes and channels intersect with bays. This is true year-round but during summer it seems to really pay off.

If you fish the deep side of a drop-off try a drop-shot rig. They work great when rigged with a Gulp! Swimming Mullet or a live or freshly dead shad (menhaden).

Shad: Speaking of shad, they are a great summer bait for flounder. Rigged under a popping cork, they are great to fish around docks and riprap flounder frequent and on a Carolina rig they are good anywhere. On the Upper Coast, shad are a primary part of flounder diets in summer. And at times they will be their primary focus, so don’t ignore this live (or freshly dead) bait.

Line Shy: All flounder are line shy when the water is clear but big flounder are super line shy. Always use fluorocarbon leaders or pure fluorocarbon line is you can see more than about 18 inches in the water when in pursuit of flounder. During mid-summer some of our bay systems clear up and this is a factor virtually no one talks about. I’ve been in Sabine Lake before and could see flounder on the bottom in four feet of water and couldn’t catch them.

That was before I knew about how line shy they can be. Do not ignore fluorocarbon in your flounder tackle arsenal.

Chumming: If you are fishing deep water where you have shallow flowing to deep or into a tidal marsh pool you cannot reach consider chumming. It is possible to bring flounder to you and in areas where their numbers are not necessarily high this can be an advantage. Flounder have large olfactory glands that allow them to smell so give chumming a try and see if you can bring them in.

Over the years, several people have shared stories with me about their success chumming flounder during summer.

Chester Moore