Then exploring a new area for winter flounder, especially when the fish are scattered, try drifting parallel lines, with a couple of baited rods that are slowly dragging bottom. Note where the strikes occur, then either shorten drifts to concentrate in those areas or anchor in the hottest zones. It helps to tie a couple of chum pots to the boat in order to attract flounder around the boat.
Anglers use clams or sandworms for bait. In a pinch, nightcrawlers will work, but they are not as effective as natural baits. Rig up with a sinker and a couple of hooks tied above each other or use classic wire flounder spreader rigs with hooks that have yellow beads.
Many anglers are using yellow sinkers and adding yellow grubs or twister tails as attractants on their baits. Berkley power baits are good for this task. Winter flounder are attracted to yellow, so don't hesitate to experiment with various styles and types of teasers and attractors on or above hooks.
Last month, when the season was still closed, the best area to fish would have been upper Jordan Cove, Niantic River or Bluff Point right from the dike or parking lot.
Now that temps are rising, Bluff Point was 49 degrees Monday, according to Covino, who didn't have enough winter flounder abuse during our skunking Sunday. That day he fished further down the cove, south of the dike. He took two keepers from anchor and two others and six shorts by drifting across the channel, while shortening drifts in areas where he caught fish or had strikes.
Look for these fish -- at least the bigger flatties -- which are much more warmth-sensitive, to pretty much leave the shallow areas once temps reach 50 degrees. The juveniles will stay in warm bays and salt ponds for the summer. The bigger, keeper class flatfish will hang around in the Sound, adjacent to their wintering areas for a few weeks, until warm water temperatures drive them to cooler waters.
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