Photo by Ron Sinfelt

I still remember sitting at Jeff and Mary Poe's home in Lake Charles, on the shores of Lake Calcasieu, and wondering how I could possibly manage to eat all of the delicious-looking stuffed flounder that covered my entire plate.

Mary Poe had split the flatfish in the middle to create a pocket that she'd filled with a shrimp-and-crabmeat mixture; then, after sprinkling it with paprika and basting it with lemon juice and butter, she baked it until the flesh was flaky and white. The flounder was dauntingly huge, but selflessly determined to spare the cook's feelings, I waded into it with a will. Absolutely delectable!

Even today my mouth still waters when I think about that flounder and its tasty stuffing, cooked to perfection. When I complete this article, I hope to go fishing, and to try catching a limit of those flatfish to enjoy. These suggestions will aid you in catching flounder this fall.

THE VENICE REGION
Andy Mnichowski, affectionately called "Minnow Bucket" by his friends, fishes the Empire/Venice area near the mouth of the river. "Almost any cut you find in this region can have flounder in it," he asserted. "Some of my favorite places to fish are the first and second spillways, Joe's Bayou and Pass-à-Loutre. Look for sandbars that have dropoffs from 1 to 2 feet that come about 30 yards from the bank. You won't catch as many flounder where you find a sharp dropoff of about 6 feet."

The flounder move out of the current and onto the sand flats to feed on the bait moved around on the flats by the natural flow of the Mississippi River. Mnichowski recommends that anglers search for an eddy hole, where the water washes around a point and creates an eddy.

"At the first and second spillways, I have sat in one spot and caught and released as many as 50 or 60 flounder in a day of fishing, only keeping the bigger fish," he said. "I really believe the first and second spillways are the most productive places in our area to get large numbers of good-sized flounder." These are just above the head of the South Pass of Pass-à-Loutre.

In the fall you'll find the river fairly clean there and can spot the sand flats clearly. When you pinpoint a sand flat that goes out further in the river than does other sand flats, it's time to ply the waters for flatfish. "Get out on the point of that sand flat, and let your bait sweep around to the backside of the point where the flounder will be holding," Mnichowski offered.

To catch the flounder, Mnichowski uses either a 3/16- or a 1/4-ounce Booyah jighead. He prefers the black-and-chartreuse or an avocado Booyah Samurai Shad with a chartreuse tail. He fishes the jig slowly on the bottom using 17-pound-test Excalibur Silver Thread line. He'll tip his jig with a little piece of shrimp to give flounder a scent that they can home in on, particularly if the water's stained.

According to Mnichowski, many anglers encounter problems when fishing for flounder because they have a difficult time feeling them when they strike. "Most of the time a flounder will barely tap the jig as it sucks in the jig," he remarked. "When a flounder takes the jig, I set the hook quickly because by the time I feel that fish, it's already got the jig in its mouth." He cautions, though, that sometimes, when you fish very slowly, you won't even feel a tap; instead, the sensation is that of the line getting heavy.

In the fall months, Mnichowski can produce 2- to 7-pound flounder for his fishing clients. "October and November are the prime times of the year to fish for flounder in my area," he said. "The average flounder will weigh 3 pounds, and taking a 4- or 5-pound flounder is quite common. Really and truly, any cut you can pinpoint from the Venice Marina to the South Pass can yield flounder at this time of the year."