Summer Comes In With Big Flounder

There will be big flatfish taken all summer in our inlets, but there is something special about late June at the jetties along our coast. Big flounder like to snuggle up to the rocks and lie in wait for spot, mullet, and fat mud minnows. If those baits are on your hook, you might feel a tap and when you set the hook, you might be rewarded by the feeling of a small manhole cover coming reluctantly off the bottom.

That might just be the biggest flounder of the season or a lifetime. Don't be like the couple I encountered a few weeks ago who were fishing the jetties with their landing net back in their pickup truck. A one or two pound flounder can be easily flipped into the boat, but a four or five pounder is a different story.

Fishing the jetties isn't for everyone. The mouth of Murrells Inlet or Little River Inlet can get quite bumpy, especially if the wind is blowing in or across it and the tide is flowing out. But it is on the outgoing tide that many good flounder are caught.

The best way to fish is to troll along the rocks, poking the nose of the boat close but not dangerously so to the rocks. If in doubt, stay over the sand, which can be seen on bottom if the water is reasonably clear. There is a protocol to trolling, too. Get in line and follow the other boats. One boat anchoring throws everyone else off, so if you do anchor, leave enough room for the boats that are trolling to pass between you and the rocks.

A big flounder will lie in wait on the rocks or in the sand, ready to ambush almost any fish that goes by. A whiting, a seabass, a pinfish, even a greenback shad, in addition to the baits mentioned above, may be the trick for a doormat.

The mouth of the inlet and the areas between the ends of the jetties and the markers will also produce some good fish. Drifting with cut bait the size of one's index finger can put fish in the box. A bucktail jig with a piece of cutbait or a slice of squid might be worth trying if no good live baits are available. And grubs in green with firetails also produce good flounder all summer in the creeks. Naturally, spottail bass and winter trout, alias spotted seatrout, will fall prey to the grubs.

Drink water frequently out there, since you will dehydrate rapidly. And don't drink colas or beer all day long. Don't forget the sunscreen, long pants and long-sleeved shirt, sunglasses and hat. If you or your guests want to do the bathing suit bit, great, but don't try it for more than half an hour your first time out. That sun is hot. So, too, hopefully, is the flounder fishing.