Where To Find Late Summer & Fall Flounder (Plus How To Catch Them)
- By: Pat Ogletree
- on
Where should you look for late summer and early fall flounder?
What are the best lures to use to target flounder?
Find out the answers in the video below!!
Late Summer And Fall Flounder [VIDEO]
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Flounder are abundant in our coastal waters, are super fun to catch, and really tasty to eat!
They are unique-looking fish and it can be a nice break from targeting other inshore species.
Backwater Marshes
The first type of spot is in the backwaters and marshlands.
These types of winding backwater creeks and pools hold dozens of flounder.
You can find flounder in the marshes all year round but they are for sure holding there, particularly in late summer and early fall.
Outgoing tides completely flush all of the shrimp and bait from the backwaters out to the main bodies of water.
Predatory fish know this, especially flounder.
Depending on the wind and tide cycle, you should aim to fish all the drains and cuts you see.
What I mean by a ‘drain’ is where the water drains out of during an outgoing tide.
That is where all the bait gets flushed out and eventually ends up in the mouth of a drain.
Predatory fish will stage themselves at the mouth of a drain to pick off easy meals.
Fish will be there on an incoming tide but outgoing tides in this situation are ideal.
Furthermore, flounder will stage themselves near points on especially windy days.
These make for excellent fishing spots during a slack tide when the water is mostly stagnant.
The side of the point you choose to fish will depend on the direction of the wind.
Marshes typically will hold flounder all year round because they do heat up in the wintertime.
A shallow, muddy bottom heats up quicker causing the flounder to stick around longer.
Bay & Creek Systems
In another scenario, let’s say you are fishing a spot with a larger body of water connecting to a winding creek.
Flounder like to push up into these creek systems for the winter and hold there until the water in the bay heats up again.
This is why during the spring and fall those creek mouths are an advantageous place to fish.
It is nearly the time of the year right now to specifically target creek mouths and choke points.
Inlets & Passes
This is another spot where you can catch flounder year-round but definitely in the late summer and early fall.
Not all flounder seek backwater creeks and bays during the wintertime.
Some make the trek offshore to hold near wrecks, rockpiles, or other types of structures.
So the flounder are moving between the inlets and passes during this time of the year.
Typically when fishing an inlet or a pass, you want to find deeper water or depressions in the bottom that create ambush locations for flounder.
Their goal is to quickly swim up, snatch a meal, and swim right back down to that hole.
Jetties provide great structure as well and you can find flounder up and down.
What’s even better are jetties close to deep water.
Fish do not want to expend the energy they don’t want to or have to so they’ll use structures and natural behaviors to their advantage when possible.
And this is a spot you can fish by land or on a watercraft.
Bridges
Bridge pylons and structures are excellent spots for flounder as well.
More often than not, flounder will stack up on the down current side of the bridge.
They are waiting for the current to bring the baitfish to them so they can pick off a quick meal and go back down.
Shallow Grasslines
Shallow grass lines are easily accessible (mostly) to wade anglers and boaters.
Grass flats that are near inlets with close proximity to deeper water are no doubt going to hold fish.
Piers
Piers are a fantastic spot to catch a bunch of all types of fish.
Flounder are a possibility around piers as well.
Especially those piers adjacent or near deeper pockets of water.
If you are land-based and looking for flounder spots, areas with depth changes near piers are a possibility.
Live Bait & Artificial Lures
It is hard to beat mud minnows for flounder.
Everything eats shrimp but mud minnows are your best live bait for flounder.
As far as artificial lures go, Flounder like bigger lure profiles.
Lures like our 5-inch BOMBER and other larger soft plastics are the way to go.
You need to make sure you are using enough weight to keep the lure on the bottom.
Jerk shads and BOMBERS with color depending on the water clarity and bait present are perfect for flounder fishing.
Conclusion
Go ahead and try your hand at some flounder fishing!!!
Be sure to have your presentations low to the bottom and around those deeper pockets of water.
The doormats are out there!!
Do you have any more flounder fishing questions?
Let me know down in the comments!!
And if you know someone who wants to learn more about late summer and early fall flounder, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
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The gold digger bomber on a twistlock 3/0 with flash did it for me on creek outlet, also caught a 25″ red on this rig in shallows with oyster beds!
Great video Pat I have never caught a flounder I do thank you guys for all the info.
Thanks for watching Billy! Once you get the hang of it, they are pretty predictable!
Thanks, Pat, for another great video and info. Liked the way you displayed the types of rigs to use too. We used to use a double gig set up (originally called a Trout Tout) here in Tampa Bay when flounder and trout fishing when the flounder numbers were better. Haven’t targeted them for a long time now but have caught a few on the Slam Shady 2.0 and bucktail jigs when searching for “what will bite”, on 1/4 oz gig hd. Also made up our own on 15 or 20# mono with a smaller jig followed by a larger jig about a foot to 16″ apart. Used to do pretty well with that set-up. Always enjoy your coaching.
Thanks for watching Jan! Those double rigs still work. Luke did a video on one dubbed the Donkey rig. If you get on a good trout bite you can double up on just about every cast.
Wow Pat, you covered a whole lot of excellent information in this one! I have one question for you. When fishing marsh drains on incoming tide, what is the best way to position a kayak? I learned in one of the courses that you want to move the bait with the current, so that is why I am struggling a bit in that scenario. Would that be a good time to use the popping cork trick you shared for fishing around a dock, letting the current move it into the drain? Thanks!
Hey Darren, if you’re using live bait go up stream of the structure and drift your baits down to it and if using artificial position down stream and cast up to the structure and work it back with the current.
Excellent reports all along your sojourn!
You are a great coach- for kayakers. As most of the SS coaches, however I don’t own one. We fish out of a 25’ cc – draws 14” – we can’t get back to the water’s that y’all do. Some more insight’s for us cc fisher-persons would be appreciated.
Thank you Richard! We’ll start putting more info about catching fish in a bigger boat.
Awesome job pat. Thanks for the info
Thanks for watching Richard!
I live on the west coast. We don’t have flounder; we have halibut. Would this method work for halibut or do I need to modify anything? We have jetties and points and piers. I have always noticed that the people who caught halibut from the pier did it near the beginning and not way out on the end. Also, a great fisherman told me he likes catching & eating perch but once in a while he catches halibut from the jetty.
These same tactics will work on halibut too. Just use the appropriate weight for the depth and current you would be fishing.
Thanks Pat for the great info , specially on the inlet side…….enjoy all your tips and videos. Keep’em coming buddy and tight lines!🎣
Appreciate the kind words sir!! Thanks for watching!
Really great information Pat. Lots of valuable tips so thanks. I have caught plenty of trout. Reds, and Drum. The flounder I get seem to be unexpected and good luck. Hopefully these tips will bring more to my ice chest as they are delicious!
Hopefully you can start catching them on purpose now! Thanks for watching Jon!
Thanks Pat for the great information don’t have a boat will look for some of the same bank area’s you suggested always fun to catch a flounder have always been told if you put a peace of bacon fat on a hook flounder will tear it up
Glad this helped you out! Never heard the tip about the bacon before.