Flounder and Storm wildeye shad lure

[texnomad]

This year when I get back to Rockport my emphasis will be on flounder at least half the time. If anyone has experience with flounder and Storm baits Wild-eye Shad, what size and color have you found best. Actually other paddle tail baits would probably apply just as well. Any constructive commentary would be appreciated.

[Ron Mc]

anything with a stinger hook will catch flounder. I'm afraid they'd bite the tails off most of the wildeye shad you throw at them.

https://www.hhlure.com/products/flounder-pounder

[texnomad]

Now that is some really good info. I have caught a few flounder in my years of fishing but not many. So this is sort of a new thing for me. I appreciate the info.

[Ron Mc]

you're welcome.
I tied a jointed stinger fly for them one year. The tail was a 4x-long size 6, and the head a normal 2x-long size 6, joined with 2 loops of 12-lb wire braid. Bead chain eyes on the head and chenille wrap.
On a December day at Cedar Bayou, caught 40 on consecutive casts, slowly dragging a sinking line across the sand.
Probably could have caught more, but it was cold, and 10 miles to get back to Goose island launch.
Very similar to this, but jointed, and a pointing down hook at the very end (this is a single 4x-long size 6 - and upside down in the vise)

the red flounder pounder with white tail is the traditional color, but proof chartreuse works.

[screwston420]

i have the best luck on jigheads and gulp swimming mullet. ive hooked int oa couple on the wildeye shad im not sure what size it was but it was a larger one, and like ron said, lost the tail of the wildeye :(i just get a say 1/4 jig head rig with gulp mullet cast and let it sink then when it hits bottom i shake my rod fast but short shakes and reel slowly or ill bounce the jig, i tend to catch more doing it the first way i just said every now and then ill pause and give my wrists a break lol, thats usually when i either feel the bump or see the line move, i usually try and set hook too soon cuz i have 0 patience so i try to snug the line and lightly pull nice and steady and when i feel the weight of the fish, i let the line slack and count or wait as long as my ADHD adult mind will allow lmao. i noticie the smaller flounder tend to swallow the bait quicker :/

[karstopo]

I think Jantzen Miller uses gulp a lot and I think the mantis shrimp one. You might do a search. If I remember it right, saltykat used gulp too on the flounder and caught a bunch.

I’ve never used the storm wild-eyed Shad.

Flounder definitely have hot spots. My fishing buddy and I used to fish a charity tournament for a few years. My buddy caught the winning flounder (winning $600) on a texas roach norton bull minnow in a marsh drain. He lost an even bigger flounder at the net (this one was worth $1,000 as the tournament got bigger) that would have easily won that year’s event in the exact spot with the exact lure. I fished twenty or thirty feet from him since the drain was narrow on both occasions and while I caught flounder, mine might have been 18-19” and his were well over the 20” mark.

I’ve never been a flounder guru. I’ve done better since I started fly fishing than I ever did with lead head jigs and straight or paddle tails. I think the nature of fly patterns and fly hooks aids in getting a good hook set and keeping the flounder from spitting the hook. I know Jantzen Miller fishes pretty deep for flounder, at least some of the time. His reports have a lot of details without giving out exact locations. Since I started fly fishing, I’ve only really gotten into using floating lines and even with weighted patterns and long, thin fluorocarbon leaders, I can only fish so deep that way. I do have some sink tip lines and need to make more of an effort to using them. There’s some areas I fish that seem to beg for a line that will let me fish a little deeper.

I want to do a lot of fishing starting any day now and going well into the fall. I also want to put some focus on flounder. Last year, so many of us including myself were dealing with Harvey and the aftermath, I can’t even remember fishing. Pray there’s no storm to mess with this year. I’d love to see a bunch of nice flatties taken.

[Ron Mc]

sand potholes in the grass are another good spot. Being close to passes definitely helps.
They want bottom to bury in for ambush feeding, and of course you should be targeting any pothole you see in the grass anyway - could be a big sow spec sitting in there for her ambush spot.
I've definitely caught them over 24" on a fly rod. One day at Cedar Bayou we were slaying trout on the outgoing tide, and watching a guy across the bayou hooked up to a flounder. We each got a limit of specs before he landed the thing, and we got to see it - it would have blanketed a coffee table - had to be 4' long.

[screwston420]

wow thats big, might even call it a halibut lmao

[Yaklash]

I grew up fishing with a friend whose father was a flounder guru. We always used live finger mullet, live mud minnows or belly strips, in that order. When I got older and started to use artificial baits for trout and reds, I still used live bait for flounder. About 10 years ago, my friend and I were taking his 80+ year old father flounder fishing. We couldn't get enough bait for three of us, so my friend and I deferred the live bait to his Dad and used Gulp! Swimming mullet on a weed-less hook set-up. We both out-fished him; me for the first time ever. Since then, I have always used Gulp! Swimming Mullet in Charteuse, White or Red. I rig in on an offset hook or a swim-bait hook that has a screw-in keeper at the front. Works really well and they are pretty tough.

[texnomad]

A big thank you to all the helpers of my silly question. I appreciate the answers.

[kneekap]

I have caught a few on H&H usual suspects paddle tail lures. What I see is the larger flounder swallowing it at one shot, while the small ones bite and hold. As far as Gulp goes, I have had better luck with the Ripple Tail mullet. A bit larger and perhaps more smell.