Flounder Fishing: Southern vs Summer, Baits and Timing

Southern flounder vs summer flounder

This guide covers the two species the agencies profile, and the spot pattern tells them apart. Both are left-eyed (Texas for southern, NOAA for summer).

Florida adds a third look-alike: the Gulf flounder has three spots. Maryland says the largest summer flounder reaches 4 feet and 30 pounds.

Where flounder hold

Flounder are ambush predators that camouflage by changing pigmentation (Texas). In Texas they gather at jetties and oyster reefs. In South Carolina southern flounder use estuaries, rivers and tidal creek mouths, moving into flooded marsh at high tide. They eat blue crab, shrimp and fish (North Carolina), mostly fish such as mullet, spot, mummichog and anchovy plus shrimp and blue crab (South Carolina).

When to catch flounder

The season is set by the move offshore to spawn. NOAA describes summer flounder as offshore in winter and early spring, inshore in late spring and summer, and offshore again in the fall. Maryland says summer flounder are in coastal waters from spring to fall, with the Chesapeake recreational fishery in late summer.

in season · peak

South Carolina says southern flounder spawn at about 68°F offshore and are back inshore in spring. In Texas:

• Fall: fish stage in channels and passes before heading to the Gulf.
• Spring: they hold on the edges of channels as they re-enter the bays, and juveniles enter the bays in late winter and early spring.
• Night: adults come into the shallows to feed.

Alabama’s Mobile Delta has fall runs that include flounder. South Carolina’s author says the best fishing is when the tide is out of the marsh grass, rising or falling.

How to catch flounder

Live bait

Texas prefers live bait: live shrimp worked slowly along the bottom, and killifish (mud minnows). North Carolina names live finger mullet on a single hook. South Carolina’s author calls tiger minnows, or striped killifish, the best bait. Maryland uses minnows and squid strips while drifting, and Alabama’s Mobile Delta anglers fish bottom rigs with bull minnows or grubs.

Artificials

Texas fishes worm jigs over barren bottom and shallow-running spoons in vegetation. For summer flounder North Carolina names small bucktails and jigs alongside bottom or flounder rigs with cut bait, shrimp or live minnows.

Rigs and methods

Texas says rod and reel with light tackle, or gigging. North Carolina gigs at night from lighted boats.

Rules

Limits and seasons vary by state. Check the agency where you fish, such as North Carolina Marine Fisheries, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department or NOAA Fisheries.