Flukin tips

[Luna Sea 5]

lot of good tips here have to try some t^dont forget the best pl to fish , buy the nuddy beach at the hook

this is a negative..

[Capt Craig]

On a Flounder trip in the bay I also take an assortment of bait. Killie's, Squid, Plastics, Mackerel etc. You don't know what will produce on any given day.

I usually will put out a couple different rigs. I'll use a double jig rig similar to Luna sea's rig. A single hook flounder rig a top and bottom rig or a shad dart with a Killie on it or a 3/4oz bucktail with a strip of Mackerel or a strip of squid w/Killie. I'll put these baits on the other rigs also. Each of my people in the group gets a different set up. If one or two seem to be working better I'll switch the rest over.

I most definitely agree with Luna sea about not putting out dead sticks. Although you may catch a fish here or there it usually ends up being a waste of bait. You miss more than you will catch. You need to feel the fluke. Many times they just grab the end of your bait and will hold it till they decide what they want to do. In this instance I tell my customers to back a couple feet of line down to the fish to give them a better chance to eat. Don't be so anxious to set the hook on Flounder. PATIENTS is the ticket. Once you feel good pressure on the line and a head shake you can pull back with the rod and set the hook. If you are dead sticking you would have missed that fish. The bait would keep going with the drift and the fish let go. You need to feel everything when Fluke fishing and be ready to back line down to the fish so it can eat.

As far as where to fish. I fish structure, edges of drop offs and in sloughs. If I don't find them there I'll give the flats a try.

[Hotrod]

Great Tips,  from everyone!!

Thanks Guys

[IrishAyes]

With fishing mainly the ocean for fluke my biggest speil is, if you can find the structure-you should find the fish. 

I am constantly checking my charts and looking for new charts that I don't have.  I look for any type of bottom change, be it a lump, a hole, drop off, rocks, clam/mussel bed or wreck.
I will hit these areas hard, as that is where the bait SHOULD be, and the bait is what will attract the fluke to any given area. 

If I find fish and we get several on at the same time I mark the spot on my GPS and also put a marker bouy over the side if we are fishing alone (which is most of the time).  If there are other boats around I will just mark the spot on my GPS.  Not because I don't want the other boats to see where I am catching, but because I don't want my marker to interfere with other boats drifts.  The marker bouy acts as a visual mark that will take you back to the absolute spot you had fish and not just close to it as with the MOB mark on the GPS.

I will continue my drift until we are no longer catching.  Then I will move back, going past the marker.  I pay particular attention to where we are hooking up fish and shorten my drift accordingly.  I will continue making drifts until we no longer catch, then we will move off to find another spot.

Here is a pic of a catch we had two years ago using this method.  (We had to find the five largest for a tourney, that's why they are on the deck like this) These fish come off of one spot.  We did not move from it all day.  There were five people on the boat, we kept our limit and returned another eleven fish that were keepers.  It was a slow drift and most fish were caught jigging with a Spro w/strip bait.

[Flukedood]

Irisheyes Thats a nice mess of fish..

Oh man just a few more days..

[Luna Sea 5]

that looks like a great trip.  I wonder if the clam beds where we striper fish will produce the fluke as well. 

My method is the same, my honey hole is near the Schrewsbury Rocks, not on them, but just along side of it.  My best day last year, just me and one other person.

[IrishAyes]

Another thing I do when I have people on board who want to use killies:  I don't use a killie bucket, lost em 'trolling' to next spot (read-forgot to bring them in).

I now use a 6-pack size cooler.  I had a friend put together a wood crate-like insert that fits inside the cooler.  I put ice in the bottom of the cooler and the killies in the crate-like insert.  You can also put a wet rag or water soaked newspaper over the ice and the killies on the wet rag/newspaper.  You don't want the killies directly on the ice and you want to drain the water from melted ice.

This system will keep the killies in a suspended state (pretty much immobile).  When you put one on the hook it'll liven up and return to it's normal state.

They will last all day on ice like that.  Much easier to get your killie and you don't need to worry about 'trolling' your bait.

[CAPT. JOHN K.]

Just a passing thought on using your fish finder/depth finder: Looking for holes & lumps. A lot of people assume that a lump has to be a big thing. That is not always the case, A lump can be as small as 2' high and hold fish. Not all lumps have to look like Mount Everest, quite the contrary. Just don't overlook the smaller rises in depth as not being productive. Have caught many Fluke on these little lumps.

[IrishAyes]

Just a passing thought on using your fish finder/depth finder: Looking for holes & lumps. A lot of people assume that a lump has to be a big thing. That is not always the case, A lump can be as small as 2' high and hold fish. Not all lumps have to look like Mount Everest, quite the contrary. Just don't overlook the smaller rises in depth as not being productive. Have caught many Fluke on these little lumps.

Escellent point Capt.  Anything that changes the bottom is structure.  It does not have to be an extreme change.

[nickfishbait]

IrishAyes,
Can you post a pic of the Six Pack cooler "crate"? I'd like to craft something similar.
I remember reading about a similar gadget in the Fisherman but can't find the article ... I do the same thing with wet newspaper but after a few hours its hard to keep the killies away from the water ... they eventually get soaked and die.
Thanks!
--Nick

[IrishAyes]

I will be down to the boat tomorrow or Saturday.  I will take a pic and post it ASAP.

[njdevil]

IS THE COOLER ABOUT THE SIZE OF A LITTLE PLAYMATE COOLER OR LARGER?

[IrishAyes]

It is the little playmate cooler or one similar.  I just couldn't think of the name when I posted. 

[njdevil]

Are there holes in the bottom or sides of the crate-like insert?

[Great Bay Junky]

The 6 pack cooler works great. I had a plexiglass cut out for my 1st one to keep my minnows alive. It was a pain in the butt. I now just use a rag over a little ice with the minnows left in the plastic bag.

[njdevil]

Stupid question but can the minnows lay on top of each other and still stay alive in the cooler?

[Great Bay Junky]

yes

[Skolmann]

I've been able to keep kllies alive using the aforementioned small cooler with ice covered with wood/plexiglass for close to 3 days.

Just keep the killies out of the melted ice water.

I've used this system in the past to transport killies out to the canyons as they make great mahi chum/live bait.

FYI, sea bass also love to munch on killies.

[Flukinator]

I like to dip my bait of choice in 100% Columbian coffee I buy from Juan Valdez...

HAha, actually, I'd say a common thing that people do that may hurt their catch more than help it is the squid/killie combo.  There are days this works well, but overall I've had much more luck using just killies, either one really big one or 2 medium sized ones, on your hook of choice.  The reasoning that makes the most sense to me for this is that the squid strip/strip bait is meant to imitate a sand eel or similar baitfish, so you're more or less wasting your killie, as it doesn't do much to help.  In my experience a frozen spearing or smelt with the squid is a better combo, as it much more closely resembles a sand eel.  Any combination of current/drift/short jigging motion should give it a decent wiggle and flutter that will catch you something.

[salty pig]

dumb question but what is a Spro ?