Hooked Up Designs Magazine May/June 2017 | Page 33

Jacob Wood shows
off a flounder he
caught while fishing
with a jig under a
popping cork
Lake produced the Texas state record southern flounder, a
13-pounder. All of these brackish wetlands create excellent
flounder habitat.
“The marshes between Calcasieu Lake and Sabine Lake
hold many big flounder, but not in the concentrations like
in the lower ship channel or by the weirs,” explained Tom
Adams of Fishing Tom Guide Service (318-675-9114, Fish-
ingTom.Net) of Lake Charles. “In the fall, shrimp move out of
the marshes when cold fronts hit. Flounder hang around the
mouths of those cuts waiting for shrimp to move.”
Twice each year, flounder migrate from estuaries to the
gulf and back, but some stay inshore all year long even dur-
ing the coldest winters. Flounder spaw n in the deep waters
offshore during the winter and return to the estuaries in the
spring. The fall flounder run typically peaks from mid-Octo-
ber through late November.
“In the fall, flounder start moving toward the gulf and we
see a pretty good run around Cameron,” advised Erik Rue
of Calcasieu Charter Service (337-598-4700, calcasieuchar-
ters.com) in Lake Charles. “In mid-October, they’ll gang up
around the mouth of bayous leading into the lake. By No-
vember, we catch many flounder at the southern end of the
ship channel. Oyster Bayou, West Pass and cuts in West
Cove can hold good flounder.”
During their migrations, flounder use passes such as Sa-
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