Flounders

We wanted to revisit a post that covers Specimen fish caught at Poole Quay. Well known for big flounders. Thanks Alan for sharing the memory.

Back in the summer, I was asked to do a prize for a charity match in memory of the late Martin Kennedy, so I came up with the idea of offering a day’s fishing with myself along with all bait supplied and a chance to pick my brains!! The original plan was to target the cod, but with the season so far being below poor we opted for the mud lurker’s, the good old flounder that has been making a bit of a comeback within our harbours. So, plans over the weeks were made, which we picked a good set of tides, but then we would need weather and of course the flounders to play ball. The evening before Richie Payne fought the Friday traffic to get to Solent baits in Portsmouth to collect 8lbs of ragworm and some fresh lug for our trip.

The following morning at 7 am we met up with the prize winners Tyler Ginn and ray Breton at a carpark near Ham, Poole, along with Richie Payne who travels down with me. After a quick chat and explaining where we were to Tyler and Ray and why I had chosen this mark as our 1^st stop, we got the gear out and did the short walk to the point. I explained to the guys where they needed to aim at putting their baited rigs and then let the guys just get on with setting up and seeing how they approached their flounder fishing to see if there was anything I could do or change their approach or help them improve their catch rate.

The sport was slow with Tyler bagging a fish about a pound than the odd fish drifting through onto our baits, which was no surprise with the conditions. I then spent some time talking to them and giving them a few pointers to help tease these flounders to snatch their baits, after I noticed what they could do to improve their fishing. I explained that movement is important as flounders are very inquisitive and will often hit a bait that otherwise they might not have bothered taking a second look. I had noticed that their rigs were lacking, so showed them mine and went through the thinking behind it, I like to use loads of pop-ups of a diameter equal to my baits, not only keeps the bait or should I say slow the crab activity down it also creates more movement. Also, noticed their hook links were a bit short and could do with being a bit longer.

The guys then went back and made a few alterations and were quickly rewarded with a quick response from the flounders upping their catch rate straight away, which was good to see they listened and now could see the benefits of the changes. Not long after the ebb eased so did the flounder with everyone bagging a few flounders with most fish over a pound mark, biggest to myself of 1lb12ozs. So, we decided to go get some late lunch and put the fishing world to rights before we moved to our 2^nd mark for the night tide.

Holes bay road is where most anglers head as this stretch of Poole harbour is very well known for chucking up some big flounders on the right night. We headed mid-way along this stretch for the night ahead. This time Tyler and Ray were gagging to get started with the new rigs and information they had gathered to put to good use. Again, things were slow with the clear water facing us. Ray was over the moon as he beached his personal best flounder, followed by another then another, he was over the moon as he could see what I explained does work and the result was a 2lb10oz flounder. Oh, we all caught but nothing came close to Rays, so despite it being hard going we all caught fish, so we all ended leaving happy.

TOP TIPS

Don’t be afraid to fish light, I use 12’conoflex flattie fanatics and Diawa millionaire multipliers with 12lb mainline, 30lb shock and rig body, and Quicklink Clip with size 4 Cox & Rawle Aberdeen’s.

I like using plenty of pop-ups I go for 10mm and up to 8 at a time so streamlined rather than a couple of big popups that look out of place, on long hook links up to 3-foot long.

I like to use 2-3 oz leads if the bottom is hard I go for ball leads to get some movement, if soft I go for a watch lead to try to get movement by twitching the rod by reeling in a foot or so of the line every few minutes.

When using ragworm, during the cast how often do you see the tails fly off everywhere? A simple solution is to dip your hook links in the water just before you cast as this tightens the worm up! Also, try tipping with a small piece of lug.

Another bait tip for when using up clipped rigs is to leave a large tag end on the knot you use to tie your hooks on, this helps stop the worm from sliding around and over the hook point.

The biggest mistake I see is anglers reusing what ragworm is left after they reel in? don’t put fresh on as the what worm is left is dead and as good as scentless.