Flounder

I was looking at the AOTY recent catches and noticed several people reporting catches of flounder.  Where are some good places to go and what is the hot set up for catching those guys?

And being a newbie, is this apropos, just blatantly asking for advice and fishing spots?

Thanks, Marcus

If you're talking about the one's Ravdakot and I caught, those are in the Puget Sound.  They're everywhere in the sound.  Flounders tend to like estuaries, and taste really good.

Yea, the taste.  I thought I remembered something about taste when I saw those catches...made me want to get in on it!

Try near river mouths - they spawn around this time of year and some pretty hefty ones can be found there.  also once you locate the depth range theyre hitting at stay near there, youll catch allot more. 

A decent setup i like to use is kind of like a mooching rig, tie as much lead as you need to stay on bottom to your main line with a 4-6 ft leader, snell a 2/0 Octopus hook to the end of that.  I like to use Berkley Gulp Alive off of the hook, but any soft plastic will do.  Ill start small and work my way up to bigger but it generaly doesnt matter.  Allot of the time youll find they suck it down head first.

Another rig that works good is using a 2 or 3 oz jig head, whatever you need to hold on bottom and a 6-8 inch Berkely Gulp curly tail.  tie a trailer hook to the jig head eyelet and hook it through the tail to get those tail biters.

Also as a side note, consider putting a squid jig above the first setup at this time of year for a chance of catching squid at the same time.

Gulp swimming mullet or gulp jigging grubs (~3-4") on ~1oz jigheads works for me.

I usually troll for them with a cut plug herring and a flasher....

Or,
Rig up a dropper rig with two hooks above a weight. Bait works best. Two hooks gives you a shot at a double up. Use little to no action. They just like to eat things on the bottom.

If you find an area with fish that are worm free don't try to find anywhere else. Some flounder can be loaded with worms.

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I usually troll for them with a cut plug herring and a flasher....

Or,
Rig up a dropper rig with two hooks above a weight. Bait works best. Two hooks gives you a shot at a double up. Use little to no action. They just like to eat things on the bottom.

If you find an area with fish that are worm free don't try to find anywhere else. Some flounder can be loaded with worms.

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I've heard some folks say that gutting them (mostly with respect to lings/cabs/rockfish/greenling but I would assume flounder too) right after bleeding them minimizes the worms in the flesh.  True?

I usually troll for them with a cut plug herring and a flasher....

Or,
Rig up a dropper rig with two hooks above a weight. Bait works best. Two hooks gives you a shot at a double up. Use little to no action. They just like to eat things on the bottom.

If you find an area with fish that are worm free don't try to find anywhere else. Some flounder can be loaded with worms.

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I've heard some folks say that gutting them (mostly with respect to lings/cabs/rockfish/greenling but I would assume flounder too) right after bleeding them minimizes the worms in the flesh.  True?

This time of year, with it being so cold, you can bleed them, leave them in the back of your yak, and they're still alive when you get home 6+ hours after catching them.

Sump you are correct, some worms do migrate from gut to muscle:

The 'herring worm' is often found in herring, mackerel, whiting and blue whiting, but it also occurs in many other species. Its scientific name is Anisakis simplex. It grows up to 2 cm long in fish, is almost colourless, and is found tightly coiled and encased in the guts and flesh, sometimes in considerable numbers, particularly in the belly flaps. Anisakis can migrate from guts to flesh in fish left ungutted after capture, notably in herring, mackerel and blue whiting.

http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5951e/x5951e01.htm

However, the worms I believe most fishermen see are Phocanema spp. which are larger and far easier to spot. They do not migrate from gut to muscle after capture IIRC.

Yes removing the guts will reduce the worms for most bottom fish but flat fish tend to have more worms just living in their flesh.

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There ya go. Just learned something new. How long after death do they migrate? Are these the circle ones that you gotta pick out?

Thanks for all the information!

Does time of year, water temp or depth make a difference in worminess? 

I used to boast the ability to find a parasite in any saltwater sport fish but gave up interst long ago.  We eat a lot raw fish at home.  All the raw meat is frozen first.  I'm guessing the lime juice in cevice kills parasites too, I don't generally freeze cevice but always let the citrus fully penetrate the meat before serving.

When I studied acupuncture (and herbology), my Shanghai professors all said the same thing when it came to parasites..."Take the western medicine".  When I moved down to Mexico, many of the expatriot residents had taken anti-parasitics.  That might not be a bad idea for foodie anglers  Ruling them out with an exam at the next check-up might be less traumatic but I'm not even sure they are 100% detectable by sample.

Time if year us not nearly as important as location. We run cod that is FAS and some that is short range shore processed product. Both Bearing Sea and there is a huge difference between cod that is dressed and immediately frozen and fish that is left in the round for 3 or 4 days.

We see about 1 worm per 150 pounds for the FAS fish and about 1 worm per 2 pounds on the short range shore processed fish.

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So I am hearing there may be value to dumping the guts overboard right after you wack 'em?  Even if you are just looking at 4 hours - give or take?