Does anyone target flounder specifically (rod & reel)

[LUguy08]

I am a novice when it comes to TX saltwater. I have been and caught the trout and reds but am wondering if people target flounder specifically other than gigging? I am originally from the NC coast and we flounder fish live bait with a carolina rig setup and some form of minnow (mullet, pogey, mud minnow, croaker, pin fish etc...) I would usually target docks that have access to a little bit deeper (10ft or more) water coming past the ends or humps in the mouth of creeks, grass etc with the carolina rig and have caught numerous citation size flounder. My question is if people do this on the TX coast? I know artificial is big and I am comfortable with using artificial but would rather catch my own bait and go the other route. Just curious how the technique changes. On the east coast we have access to the inland waterway that has numerous cuts into the ocean, and plenty of creeks and backwater as well, so not sure how much of that is in TX or if just the access to the water that is a little deeper is the same.

[texnomad]

Around Rockport Tx I target flounder with a single blade spinner bait and a white curly tail jig on it. Work the bottom anywhere close to any object pier piling, rock, old hurricane debris, anything. Mostly it is under three feet deep due to the shallow areas available for wading.

[Ron Mc]

Flounder are notorious short-strikers. Lures fished close or bounced on the bottom with a stinger hook are very effective.
https://www.hhlure.com/products/flounder-pounder

This time of year the best places to target them are in deeper sand holes in the broken grass - also a nice place to turn up a big spec.
Have also caught some really big ones in canals at night, counting down and bottom-bouncing a slow-sinking fly line.
The best time and place to target them is the tide passes in December.
One December day at Cedar Bayou, fishing a sinking fly line and stinger fly with slow, crawling retrieve along the sand, caught 40 smallish flounder on consecutive casts. Could have caught more, but it was cold and we went home.

One spring break at Cedar Bayou, we all caught a limit of specs in the 45 min it took a guy across the bayou to land a flounder the size of a coffee table.

my buddy Ewell with a nice late-summer flyrod flattie in a Palm Harbor canal

if they're big enough and you're doing it right, you get 3 fillets from a flounder

[texnomad]

I forgot about the Flounder Pounders. They are expecially good at night under the lights as I recall around the Rockport Marina and Little Bay. Thanks for the reminder. I have been here in Alabama so long I am forgetting things.

[Yaklash]

What you did in NC will work just fine here, but flounder this time of year are spread far and wide so there aren't many big concentrations. When fishing structure like bulkheads and rip-rap, I use a simplified Carolina rig - a hook with a split shot above it. It is just easier, faster and less costly to replace tackle when you get hung up (you will) than a standard rig with a swivel and egg sinker. The best places to target flounder here are choke points that concentrate bait and tidal movement. Marsh drains, guts, pier & bridge pilings, as well as the sand pockets in grass as mentioned above. Another underfished structure for flounder are the rippled sand bars like what you can clearly see on Google Earth along lower West Galveston Bay's south shoreline. Each of those guts is only about 10" deeper than the bars, but they hold flounder. Best fished wading.

If you go for artificials, I'd suggest Gulp! swimming mullet on a standard jighead or rigged weedless with a swimbait or offset hook. A johnson Sprite spoon has also been known to fool a few flounder.

[Crusader]

Flounder population here is very low compared to northern states. I am not sure if this is result of overfishing or some natural mechanism keeps their numbers lower. Sizes are much smaller too.

Most people target flounder specifically only during the run (when they leave bays to spawn in Gulf, Nov-Dec). Visit Seawolf park (aka SWP) in november if you'd like to see a zoo, esp on a weekend.

There is a guy on the board who occasionally posts epic catches (mostly during run) -- as I understand he fishes Galveston Ship Channel GSC, (practically no public access for kayakers) bouncing live bait (or gulp) on carolina rig. Apparently he typically does it in relatively deep water (5-10') in few honey holes. I guess this is something closer to how ppl fish for flounder in the north.

Flounder pounder didn't work for me at all -- i tried it few times and couldn't buy a bite. I typically catch them on norton eels or chickenboy shrimp.

[karstopo]

Search JMiller in search function. Put name in Author search box. Some of Jantzen posts go into details about what he uses and some details about structure.

He’s posted on TKF over the years. He might have gone by a different handle once upon a time.

https://www.kayakwars.com/angler.php?angler-id=192

Saltykat is another name to search.

[karstopo]

Here’s an old JMiller report with some details.

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 5#p2207925


Search function is pretty good on TKF.