Flounder on Artificials

James Brooks with a nice flounder. Note the lure that he caught it on.

Photo by Ron Brooks It would appear that a flounder, lying on the bottom waiting for food, would not be a very aggressive fish, one wiling to reach out and grab a lure. I spend most of my time looking for flounder with live bait, but I was surprised at their aggressiveness when presented with an artificial bait like a grub.

We were looking for redfish in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). My son had an upcoming redfish tournament and he was looking for fish. The tide was moving out and we had headed back into a small oyster bar laden creek. We had caught fish in this creek before, and the bait that was moving told us we would probably find fish.

We started out using topwater lures; popping plugs and mullet imitations. We also had a rod rigged with a jig head and plastic grub combination. We like the Bass Assassin saltwater series grubs.

The color we started with was called Electric Chicken, a swim tail grub with pink on the top moving to chartreuse on the bottom. We also used some pure chartreuse, pure pink, and some that were pink and white. All of them were rigged on a quarter ounce jig.

We worked the deep (this is a relative term in a small creek) side of the creek casting our plugs and jigs to the edge of the oyster bars. The water was about three feet deep up against the bar, and the boat was sitting back about forty feet in two feet of water.

As the tide moved out, schools of small baitfish, mostly mullet and glass minnows, made their way out. We used the trolling motor to remain stationary and cast behind the baitfish.

The retrieve was slow, something that let the lure have plenty of action and remain close to the bottom.

The first fish we caught was a seatrout, and while we fought that one, another one almost jumped into the boat chasing a second lure. These fish were not big, but they were hungry and aggressively attacked our baits.

After catching several trout, I saw a small commotion against the bank ahead of the boat. I made the long cast to that commotion and quickly hooked up with a nice flounder. He absolutely inhaled that Electric Chicken grub!

Seeing that the redfish were really not up in this creek (we only caught one in a two hour stretch), we changed out tactics and began pursuing flounder. As I said at the beginning, I usually opt for live bait for flounder. Today we had only artificials.

We began moving to the mouth a various creeks and cuts where they empty out into the ICW. If the water was running out and there was a good flow moving across the bottom, we stopped and made several casts.

Bang, bang, we would hook up tow flounder at a time. They were sitting on the bottom watching the current flow, waiting for a meal to come off the flat or creek mouth., Our grubs became that meal!

As a freshwater bass angler, I use artificials exclusively. Growing up fishing in saltwater with my father, I used natural bait almost exclusively. If we did use a lure, like a bucktail jig, it was tipped with a strip of cut bait or shrimp.

Staying strictly with artificials min saltwater is almost foreign to me, but this trip proved something. Flounder will aggressively attack an artificial lure if it presented in the right place at the right time. And at the coast of live shrimp these days, that, as one famous television personality puts it, “is a good thing.”

I have since emptied the racks of my local tackle shop of Bass Assassin grubs. There are other grubs by other manufacturers like D.O.A., but these that we used worked better for us. I’m not sponsored by any particular bait, but I believe in letting you know what works.

The Bass Assassin lures were longer and softer that any of the others we tried. That meant we could retrieve them slower and still get the swimming action we needed. Other brands were made with a harder consistency – meaning they would stay on the hook for more than one fish – but they had to be retrieved much faster to get any tail swimming action.

It may be that on another day the faster action will be what the fish look for, but today they wanted it slow and on or close to the bottom.

Flounder on artificial baits and lures – it doesn’t get any better than that!

What Makes a Fish Bite?

Anglers the world over have always struggled with that question. I know times when the fish were visible, lots of them, and they would not so much as nibble at even a live bait presented to them. What reason is there for a fish not to bite?

Perhaps the better question would be to ask what makes a fish bite rather than why they won’t bite. Fish are animals and just like all other animals they get hungry. Empty stomachs will drive a fish to feed. But the savvy angler knows that there are other factors that will entice a fish to strike, even when they aren’t hungry.

All kinds of projects and studies have indicated that fish feed more and better in a moving water situation. Tidal water movement and current are major keys to the feeding effort.

You may have experienced this yourself. On an outgoing tide, the fish are biting and you are catching them at a regular rate. Then as if someone turned off a light switch, they stop. If you paid attention you would probably see that the current stopped with a change of tides.

Current, or rather lack of current will turn off a bite. Even offshore, where you may not realize it, the current will make a difference. A slack tide with no current, while really good for getting a bait to the bottom with very little weight, usually means no fish. The fish finder marks fish all over the bottom, but with the exception of small bait stealers, you can’t buy a bite.

Weather conditions definitely affect the feeding habits of fish. As the barometric pressure drops, indicating a storm or low-pressure condition, fish will feed. Storms and low-pressure areas (hurricanes are the ultimate low pressure) mean that the water will be stirred. Fish seem to realize that the dropping pressure, sensed by their lateral lines, means stirred water. They tend to feed ahead of the storm because they will not be able to feed as well in the murky water following the storm.

You can witness this for yourselves ahead of a major thunderstorm. These are low-pressure cells in their own right, and as they approach, the fish will turn on and begin feeding.

After a cold front passes through, high pressure invades the area and the fish seem to get lockjaw. That is probably because they feed heavily as the front and low-pressure center passed through. Now full, they tend to ignore baits presented to them.

In a shallow water setting, water clarity can play a huge part in getting a fish to bite. Long casts from a position well away from the fish are usually required to keep from spooking the fish. As a rule of thumb, if you can clearly see the fish, you will probably have a hard time getting them to bite. Remember, they can see you and your boat as well.

So, if the tide stops running and the fish stop biting, take a break, eat some lunch, and get ready to move to an area that will hold fish on the opposite tide. Learning to move and change with tide and weather conditions will help you put more fish in the boat.