Night Fishing for Flatties

Every year as the weather turns and the Christmas decorations come out to play, the anglers that have not hung their rods up for the winter, look towards the shallow waters of our estuaries and rivers, for our flat mud-hugging friends the flounder. This year even more so, as they making a bit of a comeback thanks to what many are saying is the ban on the commercial boys, not being able to target them! flounders are or always used to be popular as they can be caught in most weathers, tides, and under the rod tip on light gear. So with all this in mind, a lot of anglers head out over the Christmas period looking for that elusive 4lber, but most are happy with any size of flounder nowadays, but with all fishing no matter what you target a bit of homework they do not hard to locate.

Along the south coast, we are spoilt for venues with harbours and rivers all over the place, but one area that draws them in from all over the place is Poole harbour, with all its little islands, sandbanks, gullys mud, spits, flat and broken ground. It’s not hard to see why, every year this chucks up some good bags and some monster flatties, both day and night, in all weathers, you can find some action in Britain’s largest natural harbour. As a result, there are so many marks to target it’s often the hardest choice to make, but most head for Holes Bay Road, Rockley and Baiters point, but there is loads more marks that many overlook as they only smaller marks that often are not easy to get to or find.

I prefer night tides for the bigger flounders, but some I know like the daytime tides for them, guess it’s down to the chosen mark and what you have confidence in targeting them. With shortest casts the order of the day you will find you don’t need the rig array you would normally take to a big storm beach, a simple 2 hook or 3 hooks flapper is all that required along with ragworm and lugworm, yes I said lugworm, Poole harbour flounders love them. In some areas of the country maddies and mackerel can do well, but this is down to learning and knowing your area to what works best. Like most flatfish flounders have small mouths so small hooks are often the way forward when targeting them and because they don’t mess about when they find your baits you will sadly lose a few hooks. They do like a bit of bling, but in Poole harbour the crabs are a real pain no matter what the weather, so pop-ups work really well along with lots of movement so use light leads and keep moving your rigs by reeling in a meter or so every few minutes, you be amazed the number of bites this can induce.

So with all the Christmas stuff sorted off to Poole harbour I went, would be hitting it over low as well as high over several tides during the Christmas period. My 1^st mark was hard to fish as a very small spit where I was stood in the water at high. this produced 3 flounders to 1lb 12ozs all to ragworm on 2 hook flappers with size 4 Aberdeens’ with plenty of pop-ups, all over low water just as the tide turned, never saw another flounder from there up and over high, but the biggest issue was bass of a 1lb8ozs to 2lb mark being a real pain at times, with the odd double shot thrown in but did keep me warm.

2^nd trip was around to Rockley area fishing over the light broken ground with a nice gully running along the beach about 80 yards out. this was a more enjoyable mark with me beaching a flounder of what I thought was a personal best at 1^st when I stood over it and looked down, but sadly when I picked it up this newspaper sized flattie was all skin and bone, so that was short-lived even more so when I weighed it and went 2lb dead, but these things motivate me to do better. As it turned out that was the biggest fish of the night, but did end up with 7 flounders in around pound mark, taking both rag and lug baits on again 2 hook flappers with small hooks and plenty of pop-ups fish came from the ground just 20 yards out and the gulley further out. Peak times were when the tide was just starting to move or die, luckily the bass was absent this time, but the crabs were not.

3^rd trip was to try daylight hit for them, but this time aimed for a deep watermark at lake road, again a nice bank could be seen close in, and light broken ground, downsize was water was clear flat and bright sunlight. Armed this time with just small ragworm and being day time I put small blades on my hook links to give them a bit more pulling power along with popups and beads, well I hope it would help me in daylight. It was busy along there with not many fish showing, I ended up with just 3 fish all pound and half mark, but I had to work hard at it to get bites in those conditions, again all came just as the tide picked up or dropped. Think the main reason I caught when all around me did not, was because I kept moving the bait every few minutes, by reeling in a meter or so, then leaving, I’ve found over the years of playing around this can often induce a take and seemed to work on this day for me.

My flounder hunt will continue well into the new year as the fish will only getter bigger but harder to find

TOP TIPS

Always source the freshest worms you can get your hands on fresh dug worms are always the best as you will find they still have tails on and are lively compared to older worms.

As the season goes on small bits of crab start to work and on open beaches, mackerel can be deadly.

At night use plenty of pop-ups to keep your baits off the bottom, this helps keep crabs off and induce movement in your hook links.

During the day use plenty of coloured beads and small blades to help attract the flounder, I like to also keep moving the bait, as the movement as this often attracts hungry flounders that are naturally inquisitive.

If you are lucky enough to find a spot from the shore that will allow you to fish a float and spoon, then do it as this can be a deadly way to catch flounders, as well as be great fun