Northwest Fishing Reports

Hello! I was crabbing in the Nisqually Delta today, and on the way out saw a lot of starry flounder in 4-8 feet of water. I know they come in really shallow in the summer, but yeesh, they were all over the place. Nice sized ones too; a lot of one and two pounders, and one that must have been three-plus.

Does anybody have any techniques they'd be willing to share? I've caught them on jigs before, but that was in 40-plus feet of water. I think I'm going to target them next weekend-- I was thinking gulp minnows and curly-tail jigs, but if anyone knows better than me please let me know. It'd be really cool to sight fish for them!

I'll be following this one as well. I've been doing some research on this topic and from what I've found it seems there are plenty of techniques that'll work.

I've read that jigs work, minnows rigged drop shot style, even a slip sinker with a couple feet of leader. Bait that is supposed to work is clam pieces, shrimp, nightcrawlers, and herring pieces. I plan on giving it a shot next weekend. Good luck! Post up results if you get some. Oh, they are pretty tasty in fish & chips!

In the past I caught small flounder on a 1/2 oz jighead and a rubber worm. It's something to see them chase the jig and catch it in shallow water. I would go with that method and become the "pied piper" of flounder fishing as it seems to get a bunch of them following the jig.

i sure do miss catching them in the north sound area. when we were kids, a simple rig: sinker at the end of your line and a bait holder hook off a dropper about 1.5 feet above the sinker. use worms, clams, or shrimp for bait. the secret is to keep your bait moving (rather than still fishing). drag/bounce your bait slowly along the bottom

Thanks a ton for the information Zen and Shad! I think I'll anchor up, and try the pied piper method with some clam necks I have in the freezer (usually reserved for surf perch). I'll try using little chunks of them on small jigs, or by themselves. Pips, I will post my results under Area 13 on saltwater reports. On the off chance something comes up and I don't make it this weekend, I'll post that here.

Thanks again!

It's the stop of the jig when the flounder bite. I would hop mine along the bottom and with each hop the batch of flounder would hop also. I'd get them biting the jig and landing on top of it to smother it... In 15 feet of water it was easy to follow the activities.

I catch tons of flounder this way ; I set up my rig almost like im fishing for trout. I have a sleep slinker on my mainline, then my swivel, and about a 2 ft leader. On the hook, i thread half of a regular nightcrawler onto my hook so it looks natural. Then i cast out, let it sink, then reel in 4 or 5 times slowly then stop. let it sit for about 7 or 8 seconds, then repeat. Good luck !

I used to fish off of that pier that is now closed in that area. I caught many large flounders using fresh sandshrimp I dug from the beach.

Woo! A lot of good advice here-- thanks FishBait II and Toolman for contributing! I am itchin' to get out there this weekend now! Time to catch some sandpaper!

Shrimp work best, and hambuger balls too. I put prawns in an egg loop, just a little chunk gets the job done.

nwtoolman wrote:I used to fish off of that pier that is now closed in that area. I caught many large flounders using fresh sandshrimp I dug from the beach.

now that the pier at Luhr's Beach is closed, is there even any public shoreline still available in the area for shore fishing?

How about wading at the beach at the base of the closed pier and casting out as far as possible?

I think wading the beach's shoreline would work just fine! You could certainly cast to the flounder from shore.

I would not wade in that area, the tides come in real fast. Also there is this black mud, I remember about 20 years ago someone getting stuck there and dying.

Well, if wading too death isn't on your to-do list, I think you could do okay in the rocks left of the boat launch on extreme lowtide. We saw a flounder right after we launched, and that (very shallow) channel runs near that shoreline for awhile. Might need a big weight to get out though! I think we saw the most flounder our first 15 minutes in the water (and it was slow going because it was low ride).

Pips4bucks- report posted here: http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReportCo ... lid=16&t=2. Thanks again all! Going again Sunday!

I knew you were gonna get some fish! Nice job !

I was thinking of trying the shore method. My little boat is blocked by my big boat lol. figures. Im sure with some weight you can cast out far enough. Just cant use ultra light gear. Why in the heck is the dock closed?

You could get into them from shore with some weight on the line. Looks like dock was closed in 2010 because it was "decaying." WDFW story: http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/release.php?id=jul1310b Fishing right next it-- I've fished off of worse. But I could see a big group being on it being bad news.

I would imagine that they would come in moreso with a high tide aswell. I think I will give it a shot sometime soon. I see them all the time out there while out in a boat. Even in the fall. Monsters aswell. Some I would say up to 20 inches.

I catch live flounder for ling bait with trout hooks and small 1/2" chunks of herring. Usually one or two bounces on the bottom and fish on.