How To Gig Flounder
How do you gig flounder?
Want to know how to gig flounder? Read on!
Gigging for flounder involves walking the flats with a fish spear (flounder gig) and bright light (flounder gigging light), looking for the outline of a flounder. With a quality flounder gig and a bright light, you have everything you need to get started. When you spot a legal sized flounder, spear him right between the eyes and put him in the ice box. It's best to not gig flounder in the main body or tail, but to aim for the head. Gigging flounder in the tail can result in losing the fish from them flopping around, and if you gig flounder in the main body you are going to damage those precious flounder fillets. A headshot on a flounder will preserve the fish fillets and give you best chance at bringing him home. With this information, you now know how to gig flounder!
Where to gig flounder?
The most common place to gig flounder is in the mud flats of saltwater bays. To learn where to gig flounder, it’s helpful to keep the habits of this type of fish in mind. Flounder move into the shallows at night and can be found in depths of just a few inches of water. Flounder are found on a variety of bay bottoms, including rock bottom, grass or sand bottom, and even oyster reef bottoms, but their preferred choice is a soft mud bottom. This can make it tough for flounder giggers to wade and gig, which often results in most flounder fishermen gigging from a boat.
The most common states for gigging flounder are the states along the gulf coast from Texas to Florida, and up the east coast to North Carolina. The regulations for gigging flounder vary from state to state, so we recommend checking your local wildlife and fisheries department prior to heading out.
If you're new to the flounder gigging sport, and want to learn more about how to find a good flounder gigging spot, the best tides for flounder gigging, what equipment you need for gigging flounder, or even want some good ideas for cooking flounder, we recommend reading our in-depth article that covers all things related to gigging for flounder.
If you're a seasoned flounder gigging veteran but want to learn more about how to track flounder movement based on the different tides, we recommend reading The Best Tides For a Successful Flounder Gigging Trip.