They have an average lifespan of 11 years for males and 12 years for females. Concentrated in coastal bays and inlets around the Bay of Fundy, Winter Flounder have a wide salinity tolerance, and occur in waters ranging from typically oceanic to brackish estuaries.
What is the lifespan of a flounder?
Biology. Summer flounder grow fast and have a relatively short life, about 12 to 14 years. Males grow to more than 2 feet in length and females grow up to 3 feet.
Are flounders male or female?
Under good conditions, the flounder develop as female. Under poor, stressful conditions the flounder become sex reversed XX-males. It is believed they do this because it is energetically less costly to be a male than to be a female, who have higher growth rates and must produce eggs.
What is special about flounder?
The bottom side of the flounder is white while the topside is dark. This is a special adaptation called counter shading. It makes it harder for predators (animals that eat other animals) to see the flounder when it is swimming. Flounder can also change color to match the background.
Are flounders aggressive?
Flounder can be aggressive, far more so than some folks give them credit for. They’ll strike any appealing bait, lure or even fly. Speaking of rigs, I’m a fan of the “keep it simple” for most of my angling pursuits, yet flounder options are many.
What eats a flounder?
Young flounders are fed upon by crabs, shrimps, and other fish while juvenile and adult flounder fall prey to many predatory fishes including cod, sculpin, striped bass, bluefish, cobia, groupers, moray eels, skates, stingrays, and sharks.
What’s the biggest flounder ever caught?
Captain Charles Nappi from Hicksville N.Y. holds the current fluke world record. Captain Nappi was fishing off of Montauk in 1975 when he landed his gigantic 22-pound, 4-ounce flatfish. Nappi’s record was almost dethroned in 2007 by Monica Oswald.
How many eyes does a flounder have?
Larval flounder are born with one eye on each side of their head, but as they grow from the larval to juvenile stage through metamorphosis, one eye migrates to the other side of the body. As a result, both eyes are then on the side which faces up.
How can you tell a female flounder?
Livebearing Fish
Males are usually smaller and more colorful than females. They also possess an external sexual organ, the gonopodium, which makes it easy to differentiate males from females. In the male, the anal fin is rod-shaped, while the female has a traditional fan-shaped anal fin.
Can flounder live in freshwater?
Flounder have proven to thrive in pure fresh water and have pretty good cold tolerance. I personally have seen southern flounder thriving and growing nicely in fresh water ponds for several years running.
How big can a flounder get?
Size: Typical Southern flounder catches range from 15 to 18 inches, but the fish can grow to as large as 33 inches.
What environment does a flounder live in?
The flounder dwells at the bottom of oceans and seas near docks, bridges, and coral reefs. Its main areas of occupancy include the tropical and temperate waters along the coasts of Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia. Some species also reside much farther north near the Arctic.
How do flounders reproduce?
They spawn by a method known as broadcast spawning, where females and males release their eggs and sperm into the water column at the same time. This method increases the likelihood that the eggs will become fertilized and decreases the chances that fertilized eggs will be eaten by egg predators near the seafloor.
Can I keep a flounder as a pet?
For the most part, flounder are semi-aggressive fish and they need to be kept in very large aquariums. Do not keep these fish with any species small enough to be viewed as prey. The flounder is also known as a flatfish which is a fitting name because its body is laterally compressed and it lays on its side.
Can flounder bite you?
Backwater Flounder Fishing | The Chatter. A flounder bite is different from any other backwater fish like redfish or speckled trout, and sometimes it requires a little more patience when targeting this fish. Most times, a flounder bite is not neccesarily a hard bite, in fact, it might not even feel like a bite at all.
Do flounder have teeth?
Family Paralichthyidae. The southern flounder is a member of the sand flounder family. It has a flattened and oval body, with both eyes on the left side. The body and much of the head and fins are covered in cycloid scales, and this species has a large mouth with strong conical teeth in both jaws.
How old is a 25 inch flounder?
7
Summer Flounder (Fluke)
| Age (years) | Length (inches) |
|---|---|
| 5 | 22 |
| 6 | 23.5 |
| 7 | 25 |
| 8 | 26 |
Where do flounder go in the winter?
Yes, you can catch flounder in the winter months but you will have to target them offshore or around near shore structure. Flounder move out into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean in the winter to spawn so you might have to go offshore 30 or 40 miles to find them during the cooler months.
Where do flounder lay their eggs?
Spawning for winter flounder typically takes place in near-shore waters from winter to spring, with adults often returning to the same areas where they were born to spawn. Females produce between 500,000 to 1.5 million eggs, which they deposit on sandy or muddy bottoms and algae mats at night.
What is the best flounder bait?
Best Baits and Lures for flounder: The best live baits for flounder are croaker or mullet. For strip baits, he likes bluefish, squid or the belly of a gray trout or croaker. When fishing artificials, his go-to list includes Berkley Gulp!, swimming mullets and spinnerbaits, such as the Strike King Redfish Magic.
What’s the difference between a fluke and a flounder?
What’s the Difference Between Fluke and Flounder? Put simply, Fluke is Flounder. Fluke is another name for Summer Flounder, a large, predatory species of Flatfish that lives in the North Atlantic. The reason people get confused is that Winter Flounder also live in the same place.