Winter Flounder in Cape Cod Bay | S19 E04

Many saltwater fishermen got their start with the humble winter flounder. Populations of this delicious flatfish have declined in parts of their range, but in Cape Cod Bay, the winter flounder fishery is alive and well for captains like Mike Fowler of Bad Dog Sportfishing.
On this episode, Chris Megan and Andy Nabreski join Captain Mike and his first mate "Little Jim" for a morning of flounder fishing and a drift down memory lane.
Book a charter with Bad Dog Sportfishing: www.baddogfishingcapecod.com/
To read more about winter flounder fishing on Cape Cod check out this article: www.onthewater.com/winter-flo...
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[@mountainman8359]

I work at Freedom Boat Club at Sesuit Harbor in East Dennis and have seen Capt. Mike and the Bad Dog a lot during my work days. I dont know him well but from what i have seen he is one of the best Captains in the area. Love seeing him on the show!

[@saltyfisherman603]

I'm up here in New Hampshire and I still go out and catch lots of nice blackbacks

[@gcogs2296]

Great video. Reminded me of my youth in the early 80s catching double headers on tandem rigs off the Shore Road sea wall in Brooklyn, NY.

[@herbertfisher1656]

My dad and I fished behind Maco’s Bait Shop in Buzzards Bay for many years. We enjoyed spending days fishing there and at the fish pier in Sacusit beach. We camped there for many days and nights.

[@bobbyc1849]

Nice to see the winter flounder making a comeback. I thought they were extinct.

[@drummerweene]

You can’t go wrong fishing with captain mike. He is the first one to take me deep sea fishing! Great video!

[@Redcrown48]

Quincey Mass was a big flounder spot back in the day. After the outflow was from the sewer plant onshore was cleaned up the fishery died. Blood and sandworms were the best, paint your sinkers yellow. Use a flounder pounder, a round steel disc with holes and eye for a rope.

[@JigEmUp]

You sound just like me. I was obsessed with flounder fishing since I was 5 years old when my dad took me to Captree Long Island on a party boat named the Jib V. I still have pics of my years there and numerous other spots. My first boat was a 18’ Carolina which had a wide beam and could get into 6 inches of water. I would double anchor and use a 5 gallon chum pot and a whole bushel of skimmers and a bushel of mussels which I would bust up around the up tide which would sink down right under the boat. I would go through a flat of sand worms and a flat of blood worms. I would also use a 25 pound Olympic plate to pound the bottom with but make sure not to over chum. Make my own tandem rigs with the half Chestertown hooks and a 2-3 inch piece of pink glow tubing inserted into a small rubber tube like the ones you would use freshwater fishing and on top of that I use a glow bead in pink. To top them off I would use a yellow sinker or red one dipped in Plasti dip instead of painting them. Soon the chum would put them on the feed and then non stop action until the tide stopped which gave us a brake and then when the tide started moving the action started all over again!

[@martinmoskat1034]

Fished Cape Cod Bay for Winter flounder and Yellowtail around the canal for the last 45 years or so. Never had a hard time finding them.

[@timconnors3211]

foot of snow today in my driveway! I'm counting the days,,, Great post as usual gentlemen. Thanks for sharing.

[@georgeniebergall7074]

Are used to go to Quincy all the time it’s been 30 years to Springs back good memories I love flounder fishing

[@vitaignis5594]

Love catching these fish from deep Jersey wrecks! It's so much fun reeling in 3-4lbers from 200+ft of water

[@OnTheWaterMedia]

Their scrappy little fish. A lot more fight in them than ling.

[@oghostcc5649]

Good job Fowler and Cookie!

[@Spleen4Sale]

Love this channel. Keeping the spirit of fishing, (responsible) catch and cook, alive! Sport and food

[@herbertfisher1656]

My dad and I fished behind Maco’s bait shop in Buzzards Bay and would camp and fish off the State Pier in Sagamore for many years. We also could good flounder at Maco’s and mom always cooked them for dinner.

[@lazlo5971]

Memories... we used to go winter flounder fishing in Quincy Bay. We wouldslay them with bonus Tommy cod thrown into the mix

[@josepharvizzigno4641]

Bad Dog "Rugs"!!!

[@JZeverybody]

Loved it!

[@nicholasgismondi9346]

Jonesing for our trip in May now. Can't wait, great video Mike!

[@dpetem]

I got hooked on winter flounder after moving to the North Shore. Caught my first by accident on a sabiki rig! Now I use seaworms.

[@markaliberti8313]

Really enjoy this episode grew up in Boston Harbor flounder

[@simpleton8148]

Yup fished those numbers last spring. Inside a bit we got Black Sea bass. We also seeded our drift with buckets oyster shucking scrap and other meaty clam shells from grants.

[@brettstone5287]

Great video Cheech!

[@glennverdini2360]

MIke's great.... been out a couple times. Last time was a mixed crowd of fishing buddies, my doctor who is a fisherwoman and her 14 year old son and 15 year old nephew. Mike, his mate and the boat were great for all of us. Got a mixed bag of flounder, striper and pictures of whales. Great time! Andy: Michael Chiarello, Easy Entertaining, uses corn meal as part of the "flour" mix for his batter for calamari. I always think of cornmeal now when I want to add crunch. Just something I learned and liked and thought I'd pass along.

[@sebby37h92]

Love it

[@jelly_fishing]

Nice flounder

[@punishthewicked5845]

So that’s what one looks like . I like you started fishing like yourself started w/ winter flounder . Smash a few large clams for chum use fresh mussels and small piece of bloodworm and a triple tandem small hooks ,my record was 278,2-half day trips there was no limits,that’s why they’re gone these days remember Quincy Mass. wow biggest snowshoes ever, thanks Capt. Nappy your rigs use to catch em up so good that after a hook broke off ( too many fish ) I would still be catching with one hook too busy catching to change the rig .

[@hooper4581]

I’m still crying over the loss of these fish.

[@sentient8146]

Before i found the Mrs 32 years ago I would occasionally stay at the Quincy Bay Hotel. It is the only hotel I've ever stayed in that had a sign in the bathroom that said "No fish cleaning allowed". That was back in the days of the "Quincy Flounder Fleet". The fleet consisted of 14 foot rowboats by the dozens and people from NY and Jersey dragging burlap bags of flounder over to the kids who filleted them for 10 cents a fish. What really ended the flounder fishing wasn't pollution or Dogfish. What killed the flounder fishing was the ingenious management of the state who allowed the draggers work so close to shore you could hit them with a rock. They scraped every fish off the bottom and they were gone. The last 4 or 5 years have been great in the HaBa. Limiting out has been an easier task? The toughest part of flounder these days is paying for seaworms. Gotta admit it I've never fished them in deeper water. Gonna try it in a couple of months. I'll be following this captain out this year.

[@rogersimpson8871]

The fresh shell bait is key as well

[@greenestgrocer]

my home, nice vid

[@eprohoda]

hi,Super!you di dawesome content~ see ya!-

[@daltonclayton5135]

The best charter captain for Flounder on Cape Cod is Jason Colby of Little Sister.

[@punishthewicked5845]

Heard that if the canals froze over it cleans and readys the bays and back canals for the flatties coming back to feeding grounds

[@michaelpolochak3298]

Really enjoyed watching your video. Should fish with sea lice always be thrown back?

[@gabrielbosco6453]

in summer flounder fishing where is your favorite spot in the cape cod bay. I saw that you guys were coming out of sesuit harbor

[@OnTheWaterMedia]

A good magician never reveals his secrets!

[@bigfishbri962]

Were you guys anchored up and chumming or just drifting around that dragger? Great vid!

[@andynabreski1565]

drifting

[@OnTheWaterMedia]

We were just drifting. No chumming necessary! Thanks for watching!

[@garypio2241]

In ct , 2@12 is our restriction , save some for us

[@brunoborges9811]

What’s that jig called? Can you get them online?

[@YT_IGF]

Hopefully they make a come back. Would be great for the party boats

[@onfootbassin]

Yeah, no. Those party boats are the problem.

[@YT_IGF]

@@onfootbassin please explain?

[@fredzivicky6266]

Surprised limit is only 12 inches…. We can only keep summer flounder if they are 16.5 inches or larger in Md. I just googled winter flounder and found out they are a different species then summer flounder (fluke) . I learn something every day.

[@bobbyc1849]

Winter flounder are much smaller fish. Last time fished for them was in the 70's, at that time, 8 inch fish was big.

[@fingerslinguine]

Fished for these so many times on the south coast of MA, couldn't catch one to save my life. Draggers killed the population

[@itsnotme3882]

Hardly any flounder in NY waters. I see maybe 2 a year, hear of very few more. Very sad that they were overfished and not managed properly. I think the abundance of sea robins and cormorants are only adding to the problem.

[@bobbyc1849]

They were not fished out. When the sand eels died out so did the Whiting and winter flounder. Water quality is very important.

[@1life744]

There should be a moratorium on the winter flounder.