While most anglers in the New Jersey and New York areas are laser-focused on the first stripers of the spring run, a contingent of dedicated, die-hard anglers brandishing small caliber rods and reels are inside the back bays hanging to the sides of 16-foot aluminum boats. Call them winter flounder hounds.
Relatively diminutive in size, averaging just 1 to 3 pounds, winter flounder pack a heavyweight punch as top table fare and even bend rods for a fair fight on light tackle. Though these flatfish can grow up to 4 pounds, and push 6 pounds to enter “snowshoe” status, generally 10- to 16-inch, 1- to 2-pound fish are the average in New Jersey and New York. Open seasons change, so check them, but winter flounder harvest is open for both states in April and May this year.
By mid-April to the end of May, winter flounder fishing is in its prime. Not to be confused with summer flounder or fluke, winter flounder are right-eyed fish. Unlike their toothy fluke brethren, look for small peanut-sized mouths and rubbery lips with no dentition whatsoever.
Best Fishing Conditions for Winter Flounder
Proper temperature and ample tidal flow are needed to successfully get these fish to feed. Outgoing waters in spring are warmer, as the sun heats up the back-bay mudflats first. Many times a 6- to 8-degree temperature jump will occur throughout the outgoing tide.
Not to say incoming waters won’t produce, but generally outgoing tide is best at the start of the season in March and April. When the temperatures stabilize in May to that 55- to 64-degree range, incoming or outgoing tide is not such a determining factor.
Tidal flow, however, is paramount to success as flounder lay in wait to gobble down any passing food. Meals flowing with the tide include seaworms, clam siphons, grass shrimp, sea bugs and other bite-size options. You won’t get much action on a slack tide, so plan your trips near mid-tide hours when the current is running strong. It truly pays to disperse plenty of chum down the line.
Fishing Tackle for Winter Flounder
Chumming is an absolute must to attract flounder. Frozen clam or mussel logs sent down in a chum pot break apart with the tide. The buffet calls in any surrounding flounder to come feed like the Pied Piper. Start off by chumming heavy, sending two pots down with full chum logs without any plastic wrap on them. Continually “stir the pot,” so to speak, by pulling on the tether line to shake out chum bits to flow with the tide.
When choosing baits, bloodworms take top billing, with sandworms and bits of fresh clam coming in second and third. Light tackle is key here, and many times freshwater-type rods and reels do the job. For example, I’ll use a Shimano Teramar 6 1/2-foot rod matched with a Shimano Stradic 4000-class reel spooled with 20-pound braided line.
Rigs don’t change very much, except for the style of hook you can tie on — it needs to have a small gap to fit into the delicate mouth of the flounder. Size numbers 6 to 8 Mustad Baitholder hooks are perfect, but the old school tried and true is the long-shanked number 4 or 6 Chestertown hook. The shank allows an angler to thread on a larger portion of sandworm or bloodworm that can get nibbled and slide down to the barb.
Winter Flounder Fishing Tips
Bells and whistles that flounder pounders swear by include any yellow-adorned trinkets you can dress the hook up with, such as yellow plastic beads above the eye of the hook. Or even thread on a small 1-inch yellow grub tail to the hook before you bait up. When you do bait up, don’t overload the hook as flounders’ small mouths nibble away at baits until they get to the barb. A 1-inch piece of worm will do just fine as you thread it on and allow a tiny bit to hang off the bend of the hook.
Flounder can be notoriously aggressive. I’ve had taps and missed hooksets where I reel the rig in slowly and see the flounder actively pumping its tail in pursuit. In one case, not just a few feet, but for about 20 yards before it finally attacked the bait and found the hook.
As limits are scant with two fish at the 12-inch minimum size, the fishery is more of a boutique or niche species perhaps. But the addiction of hunting down flounder packs and convincing them to bite is what draws many anglers to spend the time and money to target them.
