Your bait should be 2-4 inches in length. In this case, big bait doesn't always mean big fish. I caution you to make sure you don't cut your bait too big. They prove to be very effective baits and last a long time. I personally like you use the muscles from a clam. Bloodworms, sandworms, clams, and muscles are your four (4) basic choices. Now that you have your rod and rig set, your going to want to bait up. Use a snelled flounder hook with a yellow bead, attaching the loop end to the swivel and attach a yellow bank sinker to the fish finder. An alternative rig can be easily assembled by passing the end of the line through a fish finder then attach a black swivel to it. 8 or 9 sized snelled flounder hook with a 12 inch leader attached to each end of a wire spreader with a yellow painted bank sinker attached to its center. Most anglers use a light to medium action spinning rod with 6-12 pound test monofilament line. Granted Winter Flounder provide the most fun when caught on light tackle. If you like to fish light or medium, I cannot tell you what rod and reel outfit you should fish with. Choosing your tackle is more of a self-preference. So we have our location and chum slick in the water and now we have to get them in the boat. The slick will fall back to where your hooks and bait are. Place the pots on the bottom and up current. I mix it all well and I then fill 1/2 inch mesh chum pots. I will then mash it to a thick paste and then add crushed clamshells, clam waste (from shucked bait) boiled white rice, and muscles that I snatch off of pilings and docks. I take a 5-gallon bucket of saturated dog food, and not just any dog food, but a good size kernel or nugget consisting of corn meal as the main ingredient. Chum! I make my own chum based on an improvised recipe that goes back way before my time. Now that we know where to fish, what can we do to improve our chances of catching fish. Broken and crushed mussels from anchors, sinkers, large boats running aground, or storm damage provide an easy meal. Winter Flounder work only along the edges and not on top of the beds. Another spot are the edges of muscle beds. Once they are active, you'll find that most of the fish that are caught are dressed in the mud. The sun heats the mud around the flat and gets them active. These winter fish will stage in the deeper channels, holes and in the mouths of the main tidal creeks like Beaver Dam Creek and feed from the shallow flats. These locations consist of mud flats, channels, and holes. Once you establish where you are going to fish, you will find flounder in 3 basic areas. At the end of the season, good locations such as The Path, Bathtub, Kings Hole or the "2" will hold fish and then eventually we will chase them right out of the Manasquan Inlet. As the school of Winter Flounder start their easterly exit midway in the season, you can find them inside the Manasquan River in spots such as the Hospital, Riviera Beach, or the "6/7" hole. During the beginning of the season we will fish as far back as the Mantaloking Bridge, "18," or the Island. In order to catch Winter Flounder, you have to know where to catch them. I want to discuss the techniques I've found most successful in landing you a good catch. During that time, it is our passion to catch our limits and feast. After the spawning run is over, they start to make their journey back to the ocean and eventually to their summer grounds along the edge of the continental shelf. During November and December, flounder crowd the rivers, bays, and tributaries to spawn. Temperatures are finally starting to get back to normal as March is settling in. However, out of the woodwork, old man winter dealt us a wicked cold February. The Winter of 2007 was uncommonly warm during the months of December and January. We all know that winter months can get extremely brutal and unpleasant. It marks the "official" start of my 2007 season. Winter Flounder fishing is the cure to get me out of the house and wet the line for the first time. Just like most of you, I also suffer from cabin fever.
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