When do the flounder start to move offshore/nearshore? Wanting to learn how to catch them offshore/nearshore and wondering, live bait or artificial? And will they be at the nearshore reefs or farther? How big will the ones that are caught offshore\nearshore be?
I dive on the wrecks so I know when the flounder are there. I’ve speared them every month of the year. The best is usually summer and fall. Live fish mudminnows mullett are best bait. They are really long offshore but very skinny.
This off a SCDNR publication:
In the late fall as inshore water temperatures
cool, maturing southern flounder migrate from
the estuaries along the coast. They travel to
some presently unknown locations on the continental
shelf offshore where they spawn during
December, January and February. Biologists estimate
that the water temperature where spawning
takes place is about 68? Fahrenheit (20? C).
So…in October and early November depending on water temp, you have a good chance at some real doormats as they head out to spawn.
John
Pathfinder 23 HPS
In my experience, they make a rush out of the creeks in mid October-ish, so I would guess they are offshore shortly after that in numbers
2000 SeaPro 180CC w/ Yammy 115 2 stroke
1966 13’ Boston Whaler w/ Merc 25 4 stroke “Flatty”
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The magic water temperature seems to be 60?. Once the water cools down past that, the numbers dwindle severely inshore and we generally stop gigging them. I have taken divers offshore in December and January and have had them massacre the door mats. One local diver speared 19 jumbo flounder on a 10minute dive. They come up and tell me how they are stacked like pancakes on the bottom, and will not move. The problem is you cannot get a bait past the black Seabass to hook a flounder on Rod and reel.
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PROUD YANKEE
Oyster Baron
NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
I like pancakes…
quote:
Originally posted by sellsfish The problem is you cannot get a bait past the black Seabass to hook a flounder on Rod and reel.
One of the last times Eryc fished with me he caught one on a butterfly! But that’s the only time I’ve seen that done.
Redfish Baron Extraordinaire
[quote]Originally posted by sellsfish
The magic water temperature seems to be 60?. Once the water cools down past that, the numbers dwindle severely inshore and we generally stop gigging them. I have taken divers offshore in December and January and have had them massacre the door mats. One local diver speared 19 jumbo flounder on a 10minute dive. They come up and tell me how they are stacked like pancakes on the bottom, and will not move. The problem is you cannot get a bait past the black Seabass to hook a flounder on Rod and reel.
How far offshore tho?
Charles Jones
100’ of water
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PROUD YANKEE
Oyster Baron
NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
Pro tips right there fellers…
Are they at the nearshore reefs right now or nearshore ledges ?
Charles Jones