By Capt. Joey Farah
A well placed cast along the edge of the corner of the two small channels bought my bait floating along the grass line. My line ticked and I felt a light thump through the rod. The cast before was just the same but the trout had bolted up current and came to the surface, this fish sat on the bait after the strike. The line bumped again and started to tighten as the fish slid out into the channel, I reeled up the slack and rose the rod to a hard bend. The fish swam right to the boat and as it surfaced the sight of the best eating fish on the coast had everyone scrambling for the net, “FLOUNDER!!!” This scenario plays out often during the month of October as waves of Texas Flounder stocks make their way towards the Gulf passes for their annual flounder run. The majority of these flat fish will winter the coldest weeks of the year out in the deepest muddy parts of the Ship Channels and just offshore. They will spawn as the cold water groups them together on this journey. The anatomy of the flounder along with its hunting strategies are very unique from any other bay species, thus making it the most challenging species to target. For many the month of October will be all about the flounder and out smarting this tricky, flat, and tasty member of the Texas Bay Slam.

When flounder are born their eyes are on both sides of their body as they mature to about four inches one eye will migrate around to the other side. One side of the flounder is thin and white while the other is thick and colored. Flounder are able to change their color to match their surroundings blending in like no other. They have fine fins that surround their edges that they use to fluff sand and mud up and over their body while they “bed” up in the shallows. This hiding technique is deadly when hunting small baitfish in shallow water. In skinny water the flounder has the advantage with a lighting attack and very little water for its prey to escape in. This is when the popular flounder gigging is at its best. At night flounder will move to the edges of their habitat and wait in less than two feet of water, where fishermen with underwater lights move along looking to spear them. This practice is a lot of fun and an old pastime of mine and many other Texas sportsmen. The last twenty years
there has been too many people founder gigging, Winter Texans and locals alike stressed out flounder stocks. Now, with new regulations the flounder has come back strong and can be successfully targeted on rod and reel. With the flounder’s thin skin they are effected easily by water temperature, thus they migrate to deeper water for the coldest weeks of the winter. Their favorite food source is small baitfish. Mud Minnows, Kill Fish, small finger mullet, and tiny pin perch are some of best bait choices. Shrimp, piggy perch, and croakers catch them as well. Flounder are easily caught on lures, and some classic colors and styles can’t be beat. White curly tailed jigs are by far the deadliest, green and red soft plastics can also be good. Bright colors seem to trigger flounder bites, but natural and darker color combinations can work well during certain times. One old flounder hunting trick is to cut the belly meat of a hard head catfish into a small triangle and hook it on through the wide side adding a strip of scent and flash to your soft plastic. Flounder have some serious teeth and one can tell immediately that they are a predator. Use some clear mono leader at least 20# thickness and a very sharp hook. The sideways position of the mouth makes the flounder famous for spitting the hooks out at the angler. The first bump is usually the flounder striking the bait then holding it in its teeth, the second chomp is the flounder swallowing the bait which should be followed by the angler tighten the line and raising the rod. Don’t set the hook like a Bass Master!
The haunts and habits of the flounder are what make up the secrets to consistently catching them. In my years I have known some true FLOUNDER ADDICTS, most are obsessed with the challenge of finding and catching the trickiest of Texas Game fish. My good friend Cody Bates would pass up a frenzy of feeding Trophy Trout to catch one “FLATTY”, as he calls them. Cody taught me many years ago that flounder are going to be where the bait is. He likes to sneak around along piers, docks, and bulkheads, jigging and bumping small soft plastics and presenting small live mud minnows. Cody says that current is everything to a flounder and that they often post up along the down current side of any structure waiting for small minnows to hide in behind in an attempt to get out of the flow of the moving current.
I’ve seen him pull up to old pilings along the channel and hold on with one arm and jig with the other. After five minutes of laughing and telling him to let go, he hooks a flounder and shuts me up. He looks for small pockets of swirling water along the drop-offs of channels and cuts. Gravely sand pockets where water is flowing off of the shallows. These are minnow highways and will funnel baitfish to waiting flounder. The change between high and low tide find flounder along the entrances to marshes and shallow areas everywhere in the Coastal Bend. Some of the best Fall Flounder Hot Spots are the edges of the Intracoastal Waterway between Corpus Christi Bay and Bird Island. This area is good in the beginning of the month as flounder from the Lagoon move north towards the Gulf Pass. The second half of the month hunt flounder along the Humble Channel and in the areas close to Packer Channel. The sandy areas next to the rocks and all the bridges will hold schools of flounder waiting in the current for the fall of darkness to move up along the shallow edge for their opportunity to explode on minnows. The Port Aransas area offers a massive amount of opportunities for anglers to target flounder. With easy access along both jetties and the ship channel start off along the bulkheads around the ferry dock. The boat docks and sea walls in the area are full of migrating flounder during Oct. and Nov. The redfish bay area is also a good place for fishermen with boats to catch flounder moving up to hunt the guts flowing in and out of the shallows to the channel. Get creative and find small corners and pockets that you might imagine a flat fish would set a trap and wait for an expecting baitfish to swim by. The flounder is the ultimate ambush predator. They are a schooling fish so when you catch one be sure that there are more in the area. Work the area methodically presenting lures and baits from different angles and with varied technique. Along the way you will find other fishermen sharing in our obsession with the FINE FINICKY FLAT FABULOUS FLOUNDER!
Capt. Joey Farah has been a full time guide in the Laguna Madre and Baffin Bay for 16yrs, as well as a outdoor writer for many Texas publications. Get Hooked-Up on FACEBOOK@JOEYFARAH’S FISHING ADVENTURES
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