Fluke, or summer flounder, are one of the most popular inshore targets in the Northeast, and for good reason: they are widely available over sandy bottom, they eat readily, and they are among the best-eating fish that swims. They are also a genuine predator, a flatfish with a mouthful of teeth that ambushes bait off the bottom.
How to identify them
Fluke are a left-eyed flatfish (both eyes on the left side when the mouth points left), sandy-brown and mottled to match the bottom, with a large, toothy mouth. That big mouth and the teeth separate them from the smaller-mouthed winter flounder. Big fluke, the coveted “doormats,” are almost square.
Where and when
Fluke are a warm-season fish, moving inshore from late spring through early fall. Find them over sand and mud, especially near structure, channel edges, drop-offs and inlets where current sweeps bait. They lie on the bottom facing into the current, waiting.
Tip Fluke face into the current and eat things drifting to them, so drift with the current and keep your bait or bucktail bouncing right on the bottom. If you are not occasionally ticking bottom, you are fishing over their heads.
How to catch them
The classic method is bucktailing on the drift, a bucktail jig tipped with a strip of squid or a Gulp bait, bounced along the bottom, often with a teaser above it. A simple fluke rig baited with squid and spearing works too. Fish light so you can feel the bottom and the subtle grab.