There was a time before soft plastics and add-on scents were used to increase your chances of catching fish, when flounder sharpies would strive to perfect their prowess with strip baits. When livies couldn’t be procured these were the ticket to success, and many anglers would make up several bags of strips for the freezer and always keep some on hand. Modern artificials have cut down on the use of strip baits, but they remain an excellent natural offering second only to live baits when comes to tempting flounder into biting. If, that is, you remember these three tips:
- Cut those strips long and thin. We mean really, really long. A six-inch strip bait that’s a half-inch wide looks way too big, but in fact, is about right for tempting keeper-sized flounder. If you’re on a hawg hunt, cut them even bigger. Flounder aren’t afraid of attacking surprisingly large offerings and the longer the strip is the more it waves and undulates while moving through the water.
- Rig as you want (on a bucktail, a Fluke Killer rig, or whatever) and drop it over the side. Then swing the rod back and forth and watch it. Is that bait fluttering and flapping, or does it look like a stick moving through the water? We think you know which will attract more bites. Stick-like baits can often be improved by trimming the width of the tail-end, or sometimes by cutting most or all the meat away but leaving a skin intact. If you can’t manage to add some flutter, swap the strip out.
- Make strips up from the species of fish that those flounder enjoy eating in the first place. Mullet are an excellent choice, and spot or croaker work well. Few people realize it but bluefish is also an excellent choice for making flounder strips. Flounder do enjoy eating juvenile blues and bluefish strips tend to be quite pliable, so they wiggle enticingly while moving through the water.