|
Fishing
Techniques :: Destinations :: General
Dragging
up some Flounder
Are you missing 90% of the Flounder that bite your hook?
ghart
What
are you missing?
Over
the years I have fished for Flounder in numerous ways with
a multitude of baits and in many locations, one thing remains
constant tho - its how many fish I lose due to in attention.
The typical method of fishing for flounder is to simply
bait up a hook, cast it and leave it on bottom until something
grabs it. This is the way I used to fish long ago until
I kind of stumbled upon a basic concept - Flounder aren’t
scavengers - they're hunters.
What
does this mean? well they like to hunt their food - they
want it moving, they want it alive.
 Experiments:
Through experimentation I quickly learned that there were
far more fish down there than I thought, the fact that I
was waiting for a fish to grab and take the hook meant that
probably a good 90% of fish who just come up and mouth the
bait were detecting the hook and simply swimming off - Flounder
have very sensitive mouths in case you didn’t know.
Sometimes id hold the line taught and feel small bumps on
the hook end - a large proportion of these turned out to
be flounder. I also noticed sometimes a "dead weight"
when i tightened my line form time to time - surprisingly
these too were actually fish, which up to that point I had
just assumed to be hang ups or seaweed.
The
Truth:
Flounder bite very lightly for the most part and sometimes
they just mouth a bait with no notable strike. By realizing
these facts you should be able to greatly increase your
rate of catch (remember no more than 10 fish). The methods
are pretty simple to me and have even become second nature.
Base
method:
Simply cast your line out and leave your bail open so the
line flows freely - this allows your hook to sink straight
down (if you cats out 30 feet, and you hold the line tight
as it sinks - it will arc back towards you until it hits
bottom - so if the water is 0 feet deep - your hook will
land at your feet). After the line has hit bottom let it
sit for a few minutes (5, 10, 15 minutes...).
Dead weight:
When you bring your line tight and you feel dead weight
at the end - assume it to be a fish and set the hook - if
your wrong, there’s no harm as the movement may actually
attract fish - but if your right then you should hook a
fish you otherwise would have dismissed as a snag.
Detecting
the bites:
By holding the line tight in your hand you can detect slight
bumps on the bait - always assume this to be fish and when
a big enough bump hits, set the hook - you can also simply
slacken the line for a few minutes until you detect a dead
weight on the end and set the hook appropriately.
Retrieving:
Now by action of the constant tightening of the line the
bait will slowly be dragged along the bottom towards you
- this gives your bait motion, a nice slow, steady dragging
retrieve will cause the flounder to instinctively strike
the bait - they are after all - hunters.
The
Bait:
What bait do you use for Flounder? Well all kinds I've used
everything from Squid to periwinkles for Flounder but typically
have all my success with Clams and Worms (worms with a shelled
periwinkle is very effective). Maybe ill even write directions
for shucking clams :-).
by.
Glenn Hart
|
