Fred Chemi was the ultimate flounder pounder, fishing every summer weekend for as long as I remember. My dad fished with sand eels and squid in Long Island Sound. He used mummichogs and squid in the bays of Long Island, the mouth of the Rappahannock River in the Chesapeake Bay, and the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
A few years ago we fished a New Jersey fluke tournament with a friend, Thomas Zambetoglou, who educated us on more-recent fishing techniques. Dad used his traditional rigs while my son and I tried the newer techniques that our tournament friend introduced. The newer methods out-fished the traditional by a wide margin. Sorry Dad.
Fluke Fishing Rigs
My father’s fluke rig was simple. It had a light-pound-test sinker loop to easily change weights as the speed of the drift and depth required. These rigs were always fished with a strip of carefully skinned and cut squid that was about 3 to 6 inches long and less than 1-inch wide. The squid chunk was fat at the top and tapered to the bottom. The bait was placed on the hook first with a single hook through the wide end, followed by a mummichog or sand eel hooked through the mouth.
Later, he learned an improved rig from a former headboat operator. Capt. Neil’s rig consisted of a simple two hook set-up. Neil preferred to fish the top hook with just a mummichog and the bottom hook with the squid and mummichog combo.
Today, with the improvements in soft plastic baits, no one needs to cut squid or trap live minnows to catch trophy fluke. A simple high-low (hi-lo) rig with a soft plastic tail or jig on the upper hook and a heavier jig on the bottom enables you to catch plenty of flounder, plus without having to utilize dead or live bait.
Base your color choice on local conditions and forage fish, though I’ve seldom found a day when traditional white or yellow tint aren’t productive. Don’t be afraid to get creative and try a feathered hook or fly on the top loop to mimic the local baitfish.
Growing up, we focused on shoals and channels between the shoals. During the low tide, the fish held in the channels. At high tide, they would be up on the shoals in 3 to 4 feet of water. While inlets, shallow back bays and shoals continue to provide consistent fluke habitat, the larger fish are often in 60 to 90 feet of water. Target offshore structure — flounder lie near the structure to ambush baitfish living on the wreck or reef.
Best Anchor Tips for Fluke
Commercially available trolling motors were introduced in the mid 1930s. The technology has progressed today to enable virtual anchoring, contour following, and various other modes that really help target fluke and other bottom fish.
“Heading” mode enables an angler to keep the boat on a constant heading, so you can position your boat near the edge of a wreck and work just off the edge of the structure – focusing your fishing effort on the productive zones. Drop a waypoint when you get a bite, as even big fluke tend to hang out in small groups. Minn Kota’s circle mode helps you work a 50-foot radius from your last bite. All of the brands of trolling motors offer the ability to “jog” from spot to spot in a small area.
Gone are the days of deploying and re-deploying an anchor to get right over the perfect spot. Or deploying a drift sock to slow your drift past a wreck at a fishable speed. Even better, when you’re done with one piece of structure, bring up the motor in seconds, and head to your next destination quickly. Fully integrated trolling motor systems are now capable of handling boats up to 40 feet, allowing anglers in a range of vessels to easily and effectively work a piece of bottom structure. As in all aspects of life, never stop learning. The technology and techniques have developed greatly over the past 25 years. If you’re still fishing fluke using the more traditional methods, give these new techniques a try.
