My son, Tom, called me the other afternoon. He and his family were to eat with us that night, but he begged off, saying he was going after a few flounder. As it turned out, we postponed the visit one day and switched the menu from steak, to the flounder he brought back. Here's how he provided supper for us, and you can do the same thing from Maryland all the way around to Texas.
Tom met Aaron Bousquet and Timmy Lundquist, a couple of friends from work in St Augustine, and together in Timmy's boat, they headed down the intracoastal waterway, looking for some shallow flats.
The idea here is to be able to see the eyes of the fish on the bottom. So a good light or lighting system is a necessity. Hand held lights will work, but they are cumbersome, bulky, and worst of all, easily dropped into the water. A fixed lighting platform works best, and Timmy had made one specifically for his boat.
As they moved along the shoreline, they used the gigs from both the bow and stern of the boat to provide a controlled drift with the tide. When the eyes of a flounder showed in the sand, they punched the gig just behind the eyes, making sure the gig barbs went all the way through the fish.
Flounder will position themselves in and along the sandy bottom, waiting patiently for food to drift or swim by. They will seldom be found on a mud bottom, so look for the sand to find the fish.
As they moved along finding a few fish, Tom saw a big set of eyes in the sand. He knew it would be a big one, but he underestimated the size. When the gig struck, it did not go all the way through the fish, and the fish quickly freed itself. A pretty big commotion followed, but Timmy calmly told Tom to look for the fish again.
They stopped the boat and began looking. The fish had only moved about six feet from where Tom had struck him the first time. As Timmy swung the boat around, Tom hit the fish with the gig again, this time forcing the gig to penetrate to the other side. But, before Tom could lift the fish, Timmy jumped in the water and wrapped his arms around the fish to prevent it from escaping. The method changes a bit for the larger fish. Instead of lifting the fish into the boat, the idea is to keep the fish pinned to the bottom until help arrives! Help in this case was Timmy!
They gigged for about two hours that evening and brought back five flounder, the biggest being the nine pounder you see in the picture. Not bad for a quick evening outing, and you can do the same thing with a little preparation!
