Winter Flounder Fishing

[team heat]

Do you have any favorite early spring spots.I know shark river is good but since the dredging I not sure how it's going to affect them.I'd like to try manasquan river for them but have never fished for winter flounder on that river.

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by team heat

Do you have any favorite early spring spots.I know shark river is good but since the dredging I not sure how it's going to affect them.I'd like to try manasquan river for them but have never fished for winter flounder on that river.

Personally, I like the shorelines of Raritan Bay between Keyport and the Highlands.. The shallow flats off Keyport and Union Beach were something special at one time.. Still some there, and they are bigger than what you'll find in the rivers... Its a later fishery,, later in April through may.. I have caught them there in mid summer as well. BIG ones... contrary to popular belief, some flounder stay in the bay all summer.

We used to catch a lot of them drifting on days when the wind was light and it was an extremely effective way to find the concentrations.. Plain old flounder rig, with tiny yellow twister tails on the hook shank, and a small glob of mussels was deadly.. NO bait of any type is better than mussel snot.. That includes sand/blood worms...
Thats all we used at one time, and it was all we needed.. when we anchored, we would bat a few mussels around the boat to get them started/.. nowadays, you pretty much have to chum I would think, but i would bet money that yellow sinkers or small yellow twister tails on the hook work as well today as they ever did.. Flounder have this weird thing about anything yellow... bob

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by team heat

Do you have any favorite early spring spots.I know shark river is good but since the dredging I not sure how it's going to affect them.I'd like to try manasquan river for them but have never fished for winter flounder on that river.

Not my area so limited knowledge but the Manasquan River is as good as any place to start.... Early I'd be looking pretty far up the river in the area where the canal comes out and further up and on the Barnegat Bay side of the canal as well..

[torchee]

I toss clams out front at sandy hook for bass every spring late april - early may.
We always put out a flounder rod or 2 with worms.

Seems like when we time it right you can catch 2-3 in the wash as they leave Raritan bay -and the river. And maybe a bass as well...... So they must still populate Raritan.

Great kills holds flounder as well. I think its open this year.

[torchee]

Bob is right, def add a yellow grub....
people would put corn on to add yellow to the worm when i was a kid....

[WhaleFart]

Flounder fishing is a love hate for me, I almost only fish on land for them... for me its either an all out skunking or a slaughter. From land you can chum them with a pot, some dog food and some cooked yellow rice. I do the basic two hook rig with sandworms, however when they are active and you run out of bait you can catch them on sabiki rigs jigged on the bottom... most of the flounder i clean have mainly grass shrimp in them so it makes sense. I like posted above have caught them in the middle of summer in the river (Manasquan). Biggest flounder I got was about 4lbs off the surf mdw about 10 heads ago on a 6/0 hook.

[Irish Jigger]

Our annual trip to visit my brother in Mass early spring is always phenomenal flounder fishing. Boat is out of Quincy Mass for half day $450 up to 4 anglers and have never been disappointed. Non stop from start to finish and bring home 20 plus pounds of filets and fish up to 4+ lbs. 12” and 8 fish limit per man bag limit. Any other info pm me

[Ice Cream Bill]

Gerry,

Great seeing you, Joey da Fish and Dales529 at the RFA booth in Edison!

Irish Jigger: I am booked for Sunday July 8th on that same boat in Quincy. Capt is holding Sat pm trip if I want as well. May and June trips are all booked.

He is not a sponsor on this site, but I need some NJ Fishing guys to join me—feel free to PM me if interested. Limit is 8 flounder per angler!

Bill

[Skolmann]

Originally Posted by Irish Jigger

Our annual trip to visit my brother in Mass early spring is always phenomenal flounder fishing. Boat is out of Quincy Mass for half day $450 up to 4 anglers and have never been disappointed. Non stop from start to finish and bring home 20 plus pounds of filets and fish up to 4+ lbs. 12” and 8 fish limit per man bag limit. Any other info pm me

Capt. Colby on the Little Sister no doubt.

Been fishing with him since the early 2000’s.

When I first started fishing with him we’d also limit out on #4-6 cod fishing in the same spots we fished for flounder. I’d book Saturday PM and Sunday AM trips and almost always limited out on both trips with cod and flounder. Sadly, cod are rarely if ever caught in the bay anymore. Out of @15 trips, I think we’ve l8mited on flounder 14 times but we set a boat minimum length of 14”s even though I believe the MA size limit is 12 or 13. Caught many #3+ and a few #4+ flounders with him.