I fish out of OCMD, and do quite a bit of back bay flounder fishing, and do fairly well. Last weekend was my1st time targeting flatties offshore, and we did fairly well...but I am wondering what are some of the teqniques the pro's on here are using. I was fishing at the Bass Ground, and mainly fished the clusters of cars out there. I was using a 4oz spro with different belly strips....bluefish was hottest. I had others using various assateague tackle flounder rigs with strips. We were trying to stay close to the structure but would do drifts of maybe 10-15 minutes. we did luck out and get several fish over 25" but I think thats luck....the water we were fishing was 60-70'. Any ideas of how I can improve my success. Are certain type of rigs better? Are certain types of wrecks better for holding flounder than others???? We also caught a bunch of sea bass, some croakers, and some spikes...2 doggies...I want to find more consistant flounder....any suggestions are greatly appreciated. thanks jim
Our season is closed here in NJ but i'll state a few tips:
1) I don't know if you'll be successful after this blow. Water temps kicked the bucket inshore. I am betting these fish are sitting on the shelf in "winter mode" right now.
2) If you wanna still give it a shot you are doing it right.
It's best to fish around the wreck. You'll find you usually hit most of your fish drifting off the structure. Being a diver, i rarely see any sitting on the wreck, but off it.
Big baits for big fluke. Large 6" squid strips on bucket tail squid skirt rigs.
Tommy, I stopped by ake to see if Noah was working but didn't see him there. I will have to give those a shot for sure. I'm leary about the weather this weekend, but want to give it a shot. Otherwise I will give the back a shot. Am I in the right area, or should I be further offshore? I keep hearing twin wrecks/great eastern, but the bass ground is closer so we ran there.
Another tip is the bigger bait/bigger fish theory. I have had moderate success with using either whole small squid(6-8" long) or even your old Ballyhoo. Hook them up front and also attach a stinger hook in the back and Large flounder love it. You won't catch as many flounder because of the bait size, but what you catch will be nice size. As far as where to fish, I have had good luck at B-Bouy and the old grounds around the bass pots, but also at the lower end of Delaware Bay on an outgoing tide. This time of the year, the flounder are beginning to exit the bay and will be heading for deeper water.
My wife and I had a ball drifting across the lower end of the bay and consistantly caught something- not always a keeper, but always were hooking up to something.