Summer Flounder

[VSdreams]

Some help with fluke please. What is the largest fluke you ever caught? What do youb feel are the best ways to catch them? thanks

[vpass]

My biggest is 23 inches caught 2 years ago in Jamaica Bay.

[finchaser]

9 pound 7 ounce 2 years ago

[crosseyedbass]

I caught one at 7lbs last year.

[vpass]

Did you guys catch them on a boat or beach? What method did you use to catch them? I started last year using Bucktails and Gulp minnows.

[cowherder]

Do you guys go by the tides, or time of day? Can you catch them before first light, or after sunset in the dark?

[finchaser]

Any time dawn till dust just as long as the tide is moving. Slack water turns off most fish.

[vpass]

I never caught fluke during slack tide. Moving tide is what you need. I fished today in my regular outgoing tide spot when it was income. I had no hits After 30 min. ( on outgoing when I fish this spot I usually nailing fluke every 2 or 3 casts.) I decided to fish inside the inlet which is a good income tide spot and had good action. Bait was stacked, spearing and peanut every where.

[7deadlyplugs]

When fishing bait count to three before setting the hook. I was having some trouble and the old timer near me gave me this hint. He was hooking up and I wasn't. Followed his advice and :wow: what a difference it made.

[surfstix1963]

Yes sometimes they mouth the bait or are trying to catch up to it especially in a fast drift it depends on how they are biting that day sometimes they will just nail it and other times they will need a little coaxing I lift the rod and if I feel the extra weight drop back down to a 3 count and send it home unless you are using braid then just a mild lift of the rod is needed.Use to watch my grandfather just sit with his foot on the side of the boat drop back when he felt the bite or weight and just set the hook he never really missed with this technique.

[nitestrikes]

.Use to watch my grandfather just sit with his foot on the side of the boat drop back when he felt the bite or weight and just set the hook he never really missed with this technique.

It sounds to me like your grandfather was a "sharpie" before the term sharpie even existed. And I agree with you, you need a few secs to let the fluke take that bait.

[clamchucker]

Some good info on summer flounder.
http://www.gma.org/fogm/paralichthys_dentatus.htm

[voyager35]

Here is a summary of color changes. Someone here recently caught a fluke where it had the partial coloration on the white side as well. That was probably due to color variation in the bottom in that area. Perhaps mussel beds.


Color?
It has long been known that flatfishes are generally dark on a dark bottom and pale on a pale one. Perhaps the summer flounder is the most variable in color of all our local species and the one which adapts its pattern the most closely to that of the ground on which it lies.

It is white below and of some shade of brown, gray, or drab above, like most flatfishes.

But it can assume a wide range of tints, from nearly white on white sand through various hues of gray, blue, green, [page 268] orange, pink, and brown to almost black. Its upper surface is variegated with pale and dark, as a rule, with the pattern fine or coarse according to the bottom, and it may or may not be marked with small eyespots of a darker tint of the general ground color.

Mast's experiments show that it is slower in adapting its coloration to the actual colors of the bottom than to the general pattern, and also that it responds more rapidly to yellows and browns than to reds, greens, or blues, on which the adaptation may not reach its maximum for two or three months. He also observed that the skin simulates the pattern of the background, and does not reproduce the latter.
http://ccesuffolk.org/assets/galleries/Marine/Fisheries-Management/summer-flounder.pdf