Flounder move fast; to catch 'em, you'll have to move fast, too

Flounder fishing fever is a fearsome thing this time of year.

Flatfish are spread far and wide along the Southeast Georgia and Northeast Florida coasts, as they pull out of upper rivers, bays and sounds toward offshore reefs and wrecks where they'll spawn later in fall and winter. That's why a number of popular flounder tournaments are on tap, including the local fourth annual Flounder Pounder on Saturday out of Beach Marine.

Add to that potent fishing mix that flounder also are one of the best table fish available to many inshore anglers, and the heat is on for many folks to catch a boatload of oversize flat fish.

So recently local guide and professed flounder fan Capt. Jeff Crabtree and I prowled the lower St. Johns River seeking flatties. Jeff had been "crushing" fish, as he and a fishing buddy had taken a legal two-man limit of 20 flounder just the previous day, including a sombrero-sized 7-pounder.

"But flounder move around a lot, and you never know where a wad of them are going to be," he said as we pulled up to a dock in the lower river. "When flounder are on the move, you've got to stay with them to consistently catch them. Most of the good flounder anglers I know fish fast and stay moving from known hot spot to hot spot until they hit a school of active fish."

Crabtree fishes from a 22-foot bayskiff, powered by a powerful electric motor. He's at the bow running the boat constantly, never anchoring, as he's seeking flounder, not sitting in one spot waiting for fish to show. He fishes thoroughly, meticulously, probing bottom drop-offs, obstructions and river ledges. And he keeps a sharp eye for baitfish and shrimp flipping at the surface as a clue to flounder feeding activity.

"Find bait - especially fingerling mullet now - and it's a good bet flounder are nearby," he said. "Flounder are voracious feeders, very aggressive. Just look at even a modest-size 3-pound flounder's mouth. Open it and it's much bigger than it first appears. Its teeth are needle-point and fearsome - angling back toward the gullet. They're designed to catch food fast, grab it and not let go."

Unlike many flounder aficionados, Crabtree doesn't use natural baits like frisky live mullet, mud minnows, mini-menhaden or even live shrimp. He believes flounder hit artificial lures just fine, and he prefers not to mess with catching or buying bait and having to keep it lively while he's fishing.

He's a dedicated lure man, casting soft-plastic grub tails threaded onto leadhead jigs. Jig head styles are chosen carefully, and he's a fan of locally made SureSet models in 1/8 to 3/8 ounce, weight determined by depth fished and current or tide speed. A sturdy, long-shank hook is mandated for a jig.

Jig head design can vary, with rounded styles good choices as they are relatively snag resistant when dragged along bottom. Jig heads shaped like boxing gloves and footballs (popular with freshwater bass anglers who "flip" weeds with such lures) are good, too.

Crabtree prefers 3- to 5-inch paddle-tail grubs having flared posteriors that add vibration during even a slow, bottom-hopping retrieve. Grub colors vary, though he often has two contrasting hues, such as yellow-and-black or chartreuse-and-green.

He also uses jigs fitted with add-on gold safety-pin style spinners, essentially making them spinner-baits. He alternates back and forth between a grub jig and a spinner-bait, usually a gold Colorado-style blade about the size of a quarter.

"I know some very good flounder fishermen, though, who prefer very small, dime-size clip-on spinner-bait blades, ones about the size some freshwater bream fishermen use," he said.

Crabtree believes slow, careful fishing results in better flounder catches. He works jigs and spinner-baits along bottom, using sensitive and strong braided line with a 2-foot length of 25-pound test fluorocarbon leader. In proven flounder spots, he'll make many casts, making sure every bottom area is scoured with a lure for a flatfish. And he may revisit such hot locations two or three times during a day, testing the place at different tide levels and current speeds.

"I think the 3-foot depth level is an important one for locating flounder," he explained. "Many area waters have a ledge or drop-off zone at about 3 feet, and that's where I like to keep my boat and really slow down the search for flounder."

He'll position his boat near 3-foot drop-offs or break lines, and make long casts parallel to shore so his jigs or spinner-baits are pulled through key fish holding areas throughout a retrieve.

"During high, flood tides flounder usually push up onto a flat, mud or sand bar as they hunt for baitfish and shrimp, so I fish closer to grass edges during high water," he said. "As a tide goes out, flounder move out, too, and the better fishing usually is found deeper, closer to drop-offs.

"But these are just guidelines, and it's important to stay on the move and fish carefully, but quickly, and don't get into a rut. What I'm looking for is an active, feeding school of nice-size flounder. I'll usually pick a fish or two at several spots, then suddenly locate a school, and it's hold on, 'cause you can fill a two-man limit of flatties about as fast as you can cast and retrieve a lure."