Flounder are the puzzle of inshore fishing. They take patience and a little finesse, but the payoff is one of the best-eating fish that swims, and the takes — a flat, deliberate thump followed by weight — are unlike anything else on the bay. Here’s how we catch flounder in and around Choctawhatchee Bay.
Understand the fish first
Flounder are bottom-hugging ambush predators. They bury in the sand or mud with just their eyes showing and wait for bait to pass, then pounce. That behavior tells you everything about where to find them and how to fish for them: stay near the bottom, fish slow, and target the spots where bait funnels past a waiting fish.
Where flounder hold
Look for transitions and ambush points: drop-offs where a flat falls into deeper water, the edges of structure, and shoreline transitions where sand meets grass. Around Choctawhatchee Bay, the mouths of bayous, dock edges, and channel edges are classic flounder spots. They like a little current to bring food to them, so an area with moving water near an ambush point is ideal.
Bait and technique
The key with flounder is fishing slow and on the bottom:
- Live bait on the bottom. A live finger mullet or mud minnow, or a live shrimp, fished on a light jighead or Carolina rig dragged slowly across the bottom, is the classic flounder setup.
- Soft plastics, worked slow. Paddle tails and jigs hopped and dragged along the bottom near structure draw strikes — the slower the better.
The bite is subtle — often just added weight or a soft thump rather than a sharp strike. When you feel it, the old advice holds: pause, let the flounder turn the bait, then come tight and set the hook. Setting too early pulls the bait out of its mouth, which is the most common way anglers lose flounder.
Let us shorten the learning curve
Flounder reward local knowledge — knowing which drop-off or bayou mouth is holding fish on a given tide. On a Choctawhatchee Bay inshore charter, we’ll put you on the structure and transitions where flounder ambush, set you up with the right bait and rig, and coach the hook-set so you actually land them. Flounder often come on the same trips as our redfish and trout, so you get variety in a single morning.
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