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STRUCTURE! The key to finding flounder and the best kept secret to good flounder fishing, is to find structure and to fish structure. Rocks, channel marker poles, bulkheads and drain pipes, ledges, humps, contour changes, bottom debris, piers, shell piles, anything that baitfish are drawn to and can relate to or feed on. Structure that offers shade, cover and current deflection. Often times wade fisherman are faced with open water and no visible structure. This is the time to find what is under the water, and on the bottom. Many times simple changes from mud to sand, shell to mud, soft bottom to hard bottom is the structure that flounder will relate to. Learn the structure above and below the water to be the best flounder fisherman.

You need tough line to fish where the flounder are and the best line you can get is POWER PRO from

The best braided line available. Casts like mono pulls like cable. The most sensitive thing between you and the fish is this line. When your in structure you can get your tackle back with POWER PRO braided line. POWER PRO is so tough it might even land the structure. I use it because it works like no other. Rounder smoother, stronger, Power Pro is the Best. Phil Ortiz Flounder Pounder Lures.

This bottom rig gets you in and out of structure. It is made for flounder water.

Drifting for Flounder.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS TO TRY WAS DRIFTING FOR FLOUNDER.

I ALWAYS READ ABOUT DEEP WATER DRIFTING FOR FLOUNDER ON THE EAST COAST AND OVER SEAS FOR OTHER TYPES OF FLOUNDER.

SO AFTER THE FALL RUN WAS GOING FOR A WHILE I DECIDED THAT I WOULD GIVE IT A TRY.

I RIGGED UP MY WALKERS WITH WORM HOOKS AND 3-4 TWISTER TAILS TEXAS RIGGED. I SET OUT TO CATCH THEM DRIFTING.

IT WASN'T LONG BEFORE I WAS WORKING ON LURES TO PUT BEHIND THEM. OVER TIME THE CUTTLEFISH AND THE MAD MINNOW PLUGS CAME AROUND.

IT BECAME CLEAR THAT IF YOU ARE ON THE WATER YOU CAN ONLY FISH WITH ONE ROD IN YOUR HANDS BUT YOU CAN SET UP DRIFT RODS ALONG THE BOAT.

DRIFT ANGLERS THIS IS A TOOL YOU CAN USE OVER AND OVER BY SIMPLY SETTING RODS IN YOUR HOLDERS WHILE DRIFTING FOR REDS , SPECKS, OR ANY FISH YOU CHASE WHILE CASTING AND RETRIEVING WITH ONE ROD IN YOUR HANDS.

Slidin' Walkers

FLIPPING AND PITCHING

Fishing with lures for flounder has a special technique, and it's one that is easily mastered. That technique is to fish your lures on a controlled slack line. Learn to pop the slack not the lure. This keeps the lure in the flounders strike zone, and covers a square foot of bottom with each pop of the slack. When you fish a tight line to feel the strike you are also fishing a tight line to impart action into the lure, and you unknowingly move the lure up and out of the strike zone of the flounder and it leaves to much bottom uncovered by your presentation. Stop at a friends swimming pool and see for yourself the amount of movement you impart on your lure while fishing a slack line and a tight line. You will see very quick why you want to fish your lures for flounder on a controlled slack line presentation.

LIVE BAIT OR LURES? With Flounder Pounder Lures you can set the hook immediately. But the choice is up to you on which style of fishing to choose. Live bait is highly recommended for kids and beginners, and lures are far better if you learn them and learn to understand them and for when you want to fish faster and more effectively. The best flounder, fluke and flatfish anglers use both and know when to choose which is best for each given situation.

Live bait is the most easily fished, but it is also the slowest method for fishing for flounder. Live bait requires many accessories as well, your going to need a bait bucket, a live well, an air pump, and perhaps a cast net or minnow trap.

Live bait rigs are simple to make, but your going to need some sinkers (eggs) and swivels (barrel) and some hooks (treble). After you have gathered some live bait (finger mullet-mud minnows- shrimp-) and stored them away in your aerated bait tank you are going to tie on a rig for flounder.

A rig that slides is best, hence the egg sinker and swivel or the Sliding Walker. You must create a leader. a Length of 8 to 18 inches is best, in dirty or dark water 8 inches is good and in clean or clear water up to 18 inches works well, one this long will also pick up trout and redfish. I use 12 inch leads most of the time.

Now add a treble hook and your rig is ready. Single regular hooks will work, but trebles seem to be more suited for flounder. I prefer number 6 but many anglers rely on size 8, it really depends on the size and type of live bait you use.

So now you have bait, and you are rigged up, lets fish. Flip or Pitch your bait a distance that you can again consistently hit, and let the bait hit bottom and sit there for a while, about 10 seconds will do. Now move it about a foot and stop it. Let it sit there for a while again, at least long enough to let the live bait swim its leader length around the weight. Nothing yet no strike from a flounder, then move your bait again and wait some more.

As you can see this is a long and drawn out process. This can be overcome with lures in that lures are always kept in motion, a steady cadence bounced along the bottom. Now don't forget that when you do feel a strike with live bait that you must still wait for the flounder to eat the bait, how long to wait is the question.

A simple technique is to gently pick up on the offering the flounder struck and make the fish think it is losing its meal and the flounder will turn and swallow the bait instantly. You will feel a second thump on the line, when this happens you can set the hook immediately afterwards.