Western flats

Two species of flounder are regularly caught in North Carolina’s unique Pamlico Sound

Guide Mitchell Blake pointed out riprap scattered up and down the bank and how the tide was concentrating the water as it flowed around the edge of one particularly large rock. After a few casts at the rock and nearby spots, something picked up the Gulp! shrimp one of Blake’s fishermen had tied on.

“Pause just a second and let the line go slack,” Blake said. “If he’s hungry, he’ll suck it in. Lift your rod tip slowly and see if you feel any weight or resistance. Oh yeah, I see the rod tip bending. Go ahead and set the hook, now!”

The point of the hook its mark, and down below, a flounder felt the sting. It surged backwards as only flounder can and bent the rod even more, but after a minute or two, it was led to the boat. Blake grabbed the landing net, reached out and scooped the flounder up in one motion. A minute later, after his measuring board showed it just a pinch shorter than the 15-inch size minimum, Blake eased the fish over the side and watched as it swam away.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Blake said. “You’re getting the hang of it and did that just right. Now get that bait back over there and catch a big one this time.”

Blake, who runs FishIBX Charters out of Chocowinity, had started the day a couple of hours earlier, headed out of one of the small creeks near Pamlico Beach toward Willow Point and the bays around it on along northwestern edge of Pamlico Sound. But with a sea breeze building and the sound getting rough, he turned back into several creeks near the mouth of the Pungo River.

“I was really hoping we could get around the point and get into the bays without it being too rough,” Blake said. “The flounder have been a little larger out there, and more have been keepers, but we’ll fish in these creeks near the mouth of the Pungo and should do fine.”

The first few creeks produced a few flounder, most of them shorts but a few keepers, and several puppy drum. One move to the lee side of a point near the mouth of the Pungo showed something busting  a school of minnows 10 yards off the bank. Blake immediately shut off the outboard and slipped his trolling motor into the water.

“Go ahead and cast to where that splash was as soon as we are in range,” Blake said. “It looks like the current is pushing bait out a little as it rounds this point, and the fish could be out away from the bank a bit. Don’t give up early on any cast, and fish all the way back to the boat.”

The first cast was inhaled by a flounder that was large enough to keep without measuring. It was followed by a beautiful puppy drum.

Blake eased the boat a little closer to the bank to allow easily casting to an area where he could see some small bait schools passing. Looking up, he pointed to riprap near the next point and said we would fish up this bank in the clean water and give that a try.

Moving, clean water with bait was the ticket. More flounder — and more keepers — came over the gunwale as Blake kept the boat in easy casting distance of the spot. The trip ended with a couple of limits in the livewell, proof that there are flounder to be caught on the western side of Pamlico Sound.

Blake uses a variety of Z-Man and Gulp! soft plastics, plus live bait, for flounder. Some days they prefer one; some days the other. When they are hitting soft plastics, they are usually more aggressive, and the hook can be set more quickly. When fishing live baits, fishermen must give the flounder time to turn the bait and get it deep into its mouth before setting the hook.

Blake fishes soft plastics on 1/8- and 1/4-ounce jigheads; he uses Hurricane Jigs and has some custom-poured with larger and stronger hooks.

Blake said the best flounder fishing on the western bank of Pamlico Sound usually cranks up in August and continues through the fall. Flounder usually spend the winter on nearshore and offshore reefs and wrecks, moving back to the barrier islands and sounds in late spring as the water temperature moderates. They’ll stay until the water temperature starts to drop in the fall, when they migrate back east across the sound and to the ocean through various inlets.

Pamlico Sound is tidal on its eastern end, especially around the inlets, but the lunar influence wanes moving to the west. There is approximately a foot of lunar tidal variation in the area from Swan Quarter to the mouth of the Pungo River. Pamlico Sound is much more influenced by wind-driven tides that move water back and forth and can vary the depth greatly in just a few hours’ time.

DESTINATION INFORMATION

HOW TO GET THERE/WHEN TO GO — Washington, Bath, Pantego, Belhaven, Swan Quarter, Fairfield, Englehard and Chocowinity are primary access points for the western side of the Pamlico Sound. Best access to them are from US 264 and US 64, which can be accessed from I-40 around Raleigh. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission operates three public ramps beside or close to US 264: in Belhaven, at Rose Bay west of Swan Quarter and at Swan Quarter near the ferry terminal beside NC 45. Some of the smaller communities have small, for-pay ramps; many are noted on maps in GMCO’s Chartbook of North Carolina. The best flounder numbers and largest fish are caught from August into the fall.

TACKLE/TECHNIQUES — Medium to medium-light spinning outfits between 6 1/2- and 7-feet are plenty for flounder; baitcasting outfits will work fine as well. Reels should be filled with 10- to 20-pound braided line, with a short piece of monofilament or fluorocarbon leader. Soft-plastics should be fished on jigheads; live bait on Carolina rigs.

REGULATIONS —  The limit for flounder is six fish per day, with a minimum size of 15 inches. Capt. Mitch Blake suggests adding at least a quarter-inch to that to account for shrinkage once flounder are put on ice.

ACCOMMODATIONS — Carawan’s Motel and Cabins, Swan Quarter, 252-926-5861, www.carawans.com; Hyde-Away Hotel, Fairfield, 252-926-8101; Hotel Engelhard, 252-925-2001, www.hotelengelhard.com; Jeannette’s Lodge, Engelhard, 252-925-1461; Baymont Inn & Suites, Chocowinity, 252-946-8001; Hyde County Chamber of Commerce, 888-493-3826, www.hydecountychamber.org.

GUIDES/FISHING INFO — Capt. Mitchell Blake, Fish IBX Charters, 252-495-1803, www.fishibx.com; Radcliffe Marine, 252-943-3923, www.radcliffemarine.com. See also Guides and Charters in Classifieds.

MAPS — Capt. Segull’s Nautical Charts, 888-473-4855, www.captainsegullcharts.com; Sealake Fishing Guides, 800-411-0185, www.thegoodspots.com; GMCO’s Chartbook of North Carolina, 888-420-6277, www.gmcomaps.com.