Fishing Mortgage Man

Written by Bob Maehrlein

Fishing for winter flounder doesn't require any fancy gear. Almost any rod and reel combo in your arsenal will work as long as you don't go too heavy. I like to fish as light as possible for these flatties. And since most of my flounder fishing is done in less than 15' of water, I can usually get away with it. My preferred outfit is a 5' to 6 1/2' light to medium light power rod and a small spinning or bait cast reel loaded with 6-10# braid. Berkley Fireline, Power Pro, Sufix and Stren Super Braid are all popular brands. The combination of shallow water and the fact that none of these fish are going to make a long run, means you're not going to need a whole heck of a lot of braid on your reel. And since a lot of folks like to fish multiple rods when flounder fishing, this can save you a ton of money. I would recommend a top shot of about 30 or 40 yards on each spool. That means you can buy one 150-yard spool for about $15 and have enough to fill four rigs! .......Read More Terminal tackle is very simple as well. A few hooks, some sinkers, and hardware are all you're going to need. You can leave the top water plugs and butterfly jigs at home on this trip! (Although, I think that's a note for myself.)

You can buy pre-made flounder rigs at any bait shop, Dick's, or Wal-Mart. Another option is to tie your own. If you choose the latter you'll need to pick up the following:

• two packages of snelled hooks (Chesterton, size 9 or 10)
• a bag of small 3-way swivels
• a bag of duo lock snaps (size 6)
• some corn beads (if the snelled hooks don't already have them)
• a bag of 1" - 1 1/2" curly tail grubs in yellow and/or chartreuse
• a piece of small diameter surgical tubing (optional)

To tie your rig:

• take two of the snelled hooks and add corn beads on the line (if not already supplied)
• next, tie a small dropper loop in the middle of the leader.
• slide a short, 2" section of the surgical tubing over the loop of the other snelled hook and onto the line (optional)
• make a loop to loop connection by passing the end loop of the second snelled hook through the dropper loop on the first snelled hook and then bringing the second hook through its own end loop
• then just slide the surgical tubing up over this connection. This will make this connection neater and will add some stiffness there to help the two leaders stand out from each other.
• loop your 3-way swivel to the end loop of the snell you made the dropper loop in.
• attach the duo lock snap to the 3-way.

The finished rig should look something like the above photo.

The 'bigga da bait' the 'BIGGA DA FISH' and when fishing for big doormat flounder this is also true. Big Flounder love long slender flowing strips of squid, cut bait like flounder belly or the side of a croaker(my favorite), and even live baits like spot or pinhead croakers, but these big baits have a downside unless you fish them properly. Your baits may be different depending on your region, but the same similarity in all cases is that the baits are long which causes a problem for many anglers. So many times the flounder will not be hooked because they bite the trailing end of the bait, missing the hook altogether. This has a lot to do with angler patience too as the average angler will feel the bite and their reflexive instinct is to yank back on the rod. This is the worst thing you can do when flounder fishing for the big boys when drifting long baits. The flounder, especially when fishing long or live baits must be given a chance to get the hook in his mouth.

OR another way that I have been using for quite some time is to get a hook in the tail end of your long baits. I have been using a double hook setup where I snell two 5/0 or 6/0 hooks about 4 - 6 inches apart depending on how large or long my bait is. I put this onto my home made fluke killer rigs which are like the store bought ones but 'industrial strength'. The store bought Fluke Killers aren't for doormats and you will find that out the hard way if you use them to fish for big flounder. Anyway once your rig is tied go ahead and use the first hook and bait up how you usually would. If on a live bait you hook thru the mouth on a single hook rig then you would use the front hook and bait up the same way. Now take your other hook with the 5 inch line and hook it in the tail end of your long bait, make sure the bait still looks natural as possible. Now drift, or slow troll (bumping the boat along) until you get your next Big Flounder hit - your odds of hooking him will greatly increase and you will catch more big flounder.

You can also you a smaller hook for the tailend hook if you like. Sometimes too big of a tail hook will affect the bait negatively in the way that it swims or flows through the water. Try to avoid that.