Once successfully gigged, your Flounder doesn’t have much of a chance of surviving. Therefore, you only want to spear as many Flounders as you’re planning to eat later. All the action typically happens at night, although day trips are also possible.
What is the best time to flounder gig?
The best time of the year to catch flounders is the late summer/early fall months. But they can be caught regularly during the spring and summer as well. The flounders migrate offshore during the colder months to spawn, so they’ll be more abundant at the beach as they move from the inshore estuaries to deeper water.
What time of day is best for flounder fishing?
Flounder are the most active early in the morning and late in the afternoon offshore at sites like wrecks and reefs. Inshore, flounder are the most active swimming and feeding at high tide. You can find them searching for food near grasses, channels, flats, and at the mouths of feeder creeks.
Can you gig flounder on high tide?
Flounder move in on a rising tide, so the beginning of a rising tide may not be the greatest but if you wait an hour or two, flounder gigging may rapidly improve. This is due to the flounder starting to move in. A rising tide also opens up more ground for you to flounder gig when gigging by boat.
Can you catch flounder in the middle of the day?
During the middle of the day, you can still catch plenty of flounder as long as there is some moving water, but the middle of the day usually provides a slower bite than the morning and evening.
What color light is best for flounder gigging?
warm white light
A warm white light works best for muddy water and a cool white light works best for clear water. The Swamp Eye Lights offer the best color light for flounder gigging because they are adjustable from warm white to cool white for different water conditions.
Why do you flounder gig at night?
It’s a unique experience because it allows you to see all the marine life in the shallows at night. Flounder gigging is popular in the spring and summer months and primarily done at night by shining bright lights on the ground in the shallow flats and backwaters.
Where is the best place to gig flounder?
I generally try to gig them just behind the head so I don’t poke holes in the meat, but sticking them in the center works just as well. Another sign to look for are beds, or spots where they have been laying in the sand. A fresh bed is easy to spot because it will be the exact shape of a flounder.
What is the best depth to catch flounder?
Flounder congregate in sandy areas in 10- to 15-foot depths just off those reefs. Soak a Sardine: Live sardines with a 1/0 to 3/0 hook, fished with just enough split shot to get them to the bottom, are hard to beat.
Is low tide good for floundering?
The flounder spend the day in the deeper water in the middle of this bay and come in with the tide at night. The best time to flounder gig in this area is from low to high tide with the last three hours of incoming tide being best.
What tide is best for gigging?
Although gigging can be done in the daylight hours, it is far more fun and productive to gig for Flounder on a very dark night. Gigging a few hours before dead low tide or at low tide before the tide starts to come in will bring you the best results as the Flounder will be closer to shore.
Do flounder like deep or shallow water?
While flounder are commonly found in deep water out to 100-feet or more around reefs and wrecks, for most anglers, flounder are usually targeted when they move into shallow water bays, inlets, river mouths and inshore creeks and marsh areas. These are some of the best flounder fishing areas.
Is it okay to fish mid day?
You can catch a lot of fish in the middle of the day with the right approach. Fish are opportunistic predators and will readily eat at any time of day if the right prey presents itself. Furthermore, fish are more locked to cover during this time frame which makes them easier to locate and target.
Does flounder smell bait?
To those fish that make their living in stained to murky waters, smell is a critical component of their livelihood. Flounder are one of those species that uses its olfactory sense to locate food. Guide Bryan DeHart of Manteo, N.C., is a firm believer in using scented baits or adding attractants on his soft plastics.
Where do fish hang out during the day?
Overhanging Trees and Brushes. Overhanging trees provide great overhead cover for fish and shade on sunny days. They are good resting areas for fish if the water isn’t too shallow. The deeper the water under an overhanging tree, the better place it is to fish.
Can you flounder gig in the winter?
You can also gig for flounder in the late winter and all the way through spring and summer.
Do green lights really attract fish?
What color light attracts fish the best? Overall, green light attracts the most fish. Green has a high lumen output of 130 per LED alongside a 520 nm wavelength. Shrimp and insects have both of these wavelengths in their color vision alongside green light receptors around 530 um.
Does blue light simulate night for fish?
Blue LED lighting creates a calming ambiance in your aquarium. Many fish enthusiasts say the blue light serves best as a transition light between light and darkness. So, you can use the light in the evenings to help your less curious fish to come out of the hiding spots as blue light mimics the moonlight.
What is the best bait to catch flounder?
Using live bait is essential for many flounder (fluke) fishermen around the country, and can be extremely effective for picky flounder (fluke). Shrimp, crabs, smaller flounder, sardines, shad, mullet, and mud minnows can all be great options for live bait.
Can you gig flounder in March?
Normally, the season starts in late August and lasts through November, although you can also arrange a gigging trip in spring and summer if local regulations allow it. If you’re planning a Flounder gigging trip in Australia or New Zealand, November until May is the best choice.
Why do flounder jump out of the water?
Fish tend to jump for several reasons, the most common being because the fish is hunting or is being hunted. Jumping makes for a good defense mechanism as the fish being hunted can temporarily escape the fish that is doing the hunting.