🌊 Best on the ebb💨 Likes calm wind📅 Apr, May, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
- Water temp
- 54–84°F
- Depth
- 2–26 ft
- Max weight
- 9.9lb
- Day vs night
- ☀️ 🌙
Southern flounder are the big, olive-brown flatfish of north Florida's estuaries, most common along the northeast coast from Jacksonville to Matanzas and in the Panhandle bays, with the smaller Gulf flounder more common further south. They ambush baitfish from the sand beside docks, bridge pilings, jetty rocks, creek mouths and the drop-offs of inlets, feeding best on the falling tide as it pulls bait off the flats and out of the creeks. Fall is the peak, when fish move toward the passes and inlets to spawn, with a second bite in spring. Drag a live mud minnow or finger mullet slowly on a Carolina rig with a 1/2–1 oz egg sinker, 20 lb fluorocarbon and a 1/0–2/0 hook, or bump a paddle tail or bucktail along the bottom. When you feel the thump, give the fish a few seconds before setting the hook. Their teeth are sharp, so net them rather than lipping. Check current FWC rules before keeping one.
Best bait for southern flounder
- 1 Mud Minnows
- 2 Finger Mullet
- 3 Paddle Tail Swimbait
- 4 Live Shrimp
- 5 Bucktail Jig
Rigs that work
- 1 Carolina Rig
- 2 Jighead
- 3 Fish-Finder Rig
