Brunswick County’s inlets, creeks and marshes fill up with flatfish this month; here’s how to find and catch your share.
As the days grow longer and warmer as May gets ready to give way to June, flounder fishing along the Brunswick County coast from Holden Beach west to the South Carolina state line gets tough to beat.
That’s when finger mullet and menhaden, favorite meals of flounder, begin to stream through Mad, Tubbs, Lockwood Folly and Shallotte inlets into rivers and creeks and then spread across the marsh.
And the flounder follow.
“I like to fish for flounder in the early part of June because that’s when the big ones move inside,” said guide Toby Fulford of Holden Beach. “I caught my largest flounder, an 8-pounder, in June at a Varnamtown marsh island.”
“We fish from Varnamtown to the Little River jetty for flounder.”
In May, doormat-size flatfish stage around nearshore reefs and wrecks before migrating inshore through local inlets. By June, southern flounder are in the inside waters they prefer, and that’s where anglers like Fulford look for them. Fulford likes to fish live baitfish on Carolina rigs or throw soft-plastic artificials, using tactics that mimic bass-fishing during the spring: casting to visible cover such as oyster beds, docks, pilings and the edges of shallow, marsh islands. Baitcasters and spinning tackle work equally well.
“When I’m fishing for flounder with artificials, I like to cast 4-inch, white Gulp shrimp or white curlytails because they resemble finger mullet,” said Fulford, who guides for Kevin Sneed’s Rigged & Ready Charters out of Supply. “They’ll hit the new-penny (color), too. My jigheads with these soft-plastics weigh a quarter-ounce.”
Fulford likes Shimano Sedona 2500 FD spinning reels mated to 7-foot Kunnan Performance rods. Main line is 15-pound PowerPro braid with an 18-inch leader of 20-pound fluorocarbon. Fulford said he knows fishermen who fish leaders as heavy as 50 pounds to make sure flounder don’t bite through them.
“Flounder, especially big ones, can bite through leaders when they’re fighting,” he said. “I like smaller, fluorocarbon leaders because they’re invisible, and fluorocarbon is tougher than monofilament.”
Lighter leaders also are more flexible, giving lures more movement.
Fishing artificials instead of live bait requires a change in tactics when flounder bite.
“When you get a bite with an artificial, you don’t wait like you would with live bait,” Fulford said. “You set the hook before the flounder swallows the lure and the leader gets between his teeth where he can chew it.”
Fulford targets structure, especially docks or pilings, along with marsh islands. After he flips a lure at a target, Fulford uses a slow retrieve with short hops of his rod tip. The bite may be a redfish or a flounder.
“If a flounder hits a lure while you’re reeling it back to you, sometimes it feels like you hit a rock or shell or something else,” he said. “Your retrieve just stops. What I do is reel in slack as quick as I can, then lift the rod tip just slightly until I feel a fish. If the rod tip bounces or I feel a tiny tug, it’s usually a flounder — and that’s when you set the hook hard and fast. It won’t take a second for a flounder to spit out a lure after he figures out it’s not alive.
“I also watch my line. Sometimes, a flounder or especially a redfish will swim off before you can crank the reel handle, so you need to be a line-watcher. You need to crank up slack line and set the hook in the opposite direction the line’s moving. The hook usually will stick him in the corner of the mouth.
“But a flounder or a red sometimes slams a lure as soon as it hits the water or sinks to the bottom. That’s when you stick him hard and fast.”
Whether casting lures or bottom rigs with live bait, most places Fulford fishes feature some type of submerged structure, including shells, rocks, wood or grass.
“You’re going to get hung,” he said. “If you’re not getting hung up, you’re not fishing in the right place. Flounder like to hang out near stuff, but they bury themselves in the sand.”
When flounder show little interest in artificial lures, Fulford doesn’t hesitate to change his approach.
“I use either small menhaden, if I can find them, or finger mullets on Carolina rigs with a 2-ounce weight,” he said.
With live bait, Fulford uses a 7-foot, light-action rod and a reel spooled with braided line and a 15-inch leader of 20- to 30-pound fluorocarbon.
“You need the braid because sometimes flounder will run you around pilings or docks with barnacles that can cut your line,” he said.
Live baits require a different mentality when it comes to a setting the hook.
“When a flounder bites a finger mullet or pogey, you often feel a hard thump,” Fulford said. “I like to wait at least 30 seconds to let the fish eat the bait. Some people will wait a minute. But however long, you have to wait a few seconds before you set the hook.
“Some people say a flounder turns a finger mullet or pogey around in his mouth before he eats it. I think a flounder always attacks a bait headfirst. It may happen fast in the front of the flounder’s mouth, but I don’t think a flounder swallows a baitfish with the fins pointing down its throat and turns it around in his mouth. I think a flounder holds the baitfish in his mouth, head pointed toward its throat, until the bait stops struggling. When people jerk their rod before the minnow stops struggling, it’ll pull the bait out of the flounder’s mouth, and the flounder’s teeth scale the baitfish.”
During June, Fulford fishes many locations.
“The inlets are good because fish move through them,” he said. “A high, falling tide pulls the baitfish through the inlets toward the ocean.”
Local spots include Mad Inlet on the north side of Bird Island — part of which is in South Carolina near the Little River Inlet jetties. Mad Inlet also borders the south side of Sunset Beach. The marsh islands behind tSunset Beach are good places to find flounders during falling tides.
“I like to fish creeks around the islands,” he said. “I cast as close to the shore as I can throw a lure or baitfish.”
Tubbs Inlet at the north end of Sunset Beach provides access to more marsh islands and small creeks that join larger Jinks Creek.
“Shallotte Inlet also is good,” he said, “and you can find flounder up the Shallotte River at edges of islands in the middle of river. The high-falling tides are best to fish.”
Off the Intracoastal Waterway are many small, man-made canals in housing developments, and the docks there will hold flounder.
Farther east is Lockwood Folly Inlet, the outlet for the Lockwood Folly River behind Oak Island. A large bay in the river west of Oak Island is called Varnamtown, although a town of the same name is a few miles south. Flounder gather at Varnamtown’s marsh island edges to ambush baitfish pulled toward the inlet by falling tides.
“No matter where I’m at, I always fish the falling, high tides, especially around the creek mouths and islands at Varnamtown,” Fulford said. “To get there, go up the river that’s also part of the ICW — as if you’re going toward to Southport — then you turn left and go up the river.
“You follow the river to reach Varnamtown. You have to go at high tide because of oyster beds and shallow water. Flounder like to hang out at the river’s marsh island edges.”
Fulford said a day’s catch in June may include as many as two dozen flounders; perhaps half of them under the 15-inch size minimum. Still, a six-fish daily limit is a possibility.
“A typical day’s catch will have fish weighing from 2 to 5 pounds,” he said. “But they get bigger. I’ve caught 8-pound flounder next to the (marsh) grass at Varnamtown. It’s not hard to limit out up there.”
DESTINATION INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE — Brunswick County’s top beaches from which to target flounder are all southwest of Wilmington, accessed from US 17. Take NC 211 to Southport, NC 130 to Holden Beach, Ocean Isle Beach Road to Ocean Isle Beach and Sunset Road to Sunset Beach.
WHEN TO GO — Flounder start to show up in mid-May, and the best fishing will last through June.
BEST TECHNIQUES — Fish artificial or live baits. Soft-plastic baits that imitate shrimp or minnows fished on light jigheads will work, fished on 7-foot, medium-action outfits spooled with 15-pound braid with an 18- to 24-inch leader of 20- or 30-pound fluorocarbon. Live finger mullet, mud minnows or small menhaden can be fished on 4/0 Kahle or circle hooks, with Carolina rigs the most popular, featuring a 2-ounce egg sinker, barrel swivel and 50-pound leader. Short leaders help prevent gut-hooking fish.
GUIDES/FISHING INFO — Toby Fulford, Holden Beach, 910-264-8860, Holden Beach; Kevin Sneed, Rigged & Ready Charters, Supply, N.C. 28462, 910-448-3474, www.holdenbeachcharter.com; The Rod and Reel Shop, Supply, 910-842-2034. See also Guides and Charters in Classifieds.
ACCOMMODATIONS — Gray Gull Motel, Supply, 910-842-6775; Ocean Isle Inn, Ocean Isle Beach, 877-256-0188, Islander Inn, Ocean Isle Beach, 855-965-1638; Sunset Inn, Sunset Beach, 877-959-0971; Comfort Inn, Shallotte, 855-849-1513; Days Inn, Shallotte, 800-329-1992; Econo Lodge Inn & Suites, Shallotte, 855-849-1513.
MAPS — SeaLake Fishing Guides, 800-411-0185, www.sealakeusa.com; Grease Chart by Nautical Publication, 800-326-3567, www.greasechart.com; Navionics, 800-848-5896, www.navionics.com; Waterproof Charts, 800-423-9026, www.waterproofcharts.com.
Be the first to comment