Flounder Fishing In Washington State

Nothing tops the salty freshness of a fish straight from the sea. Try catching your flounder dinner year-round at one of Washington state's public piers. With several varieties of flounder in season and hundreds of places to cast a line, landing a salt water bottom feeder is as easy as reeling it in.

Types of Flounder

Anglers in Washington state can catch several different types of flounder. Left-eye flounders include the Pacific sanddab. Right-eyed flounders consist of rock sole, English sole, sand sole and starry flounder. Anglers are allowed to catch all of these saltwater bottom fish and either keep them or release them back into the water.

Season

Bottom fish anglers enjoy the luxury of an open, year-round season. However, there is a limit of 15 bottom fish per season. This limit includes all flounder and other types of bottom fish anglers may catch, like Pacific cod, cabezon, greenling, Pacific hake, pollock, rockfish, sablefish, sculpin, skate, walleye and wolfeel.

Techniques

Only three types of fishing are allowed for catching flounder. Anglers can fish with a hook and line, a bow and arrow, or spear. They can do hook and line fishing from a boat, a river bank, a private dock or a public pier. Anglers must do spearfishing while in the water. Bow and arrow fishing is allowed from the water or from a boat, but not on a public pier.

Places to Fish

Some of the best places to catch flounder in Washington state are the more than 50 Puget Sound public piers in Port Townsend, Seattle, Tacoma and Kitsap County. By boat, the best places to flounder fish are open bays of river mouths. The Strait of Juan De Fuca also has good waters for flounder fishing.

License

All anglers are required to carry a fishing license in the state of Washington. Anyone 15 years old or older must carry an adult fishing license. Flounder anglers do not need to carry a Catch Record Card. These cards are only required for halibut, salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and Dungeness crab, and must be returned to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Bait and Tackle

Flounder anglers usually have the most success at landing a flounder with imitation jigs, leadhead jigs, metal bait fish and other flounder lures. Live bait like worms and mussels also work well when trying to catch flounder. Bits of small fish like herring are also successful flounder bait. Use weights to keep the bait near the bottom of the fishing area since flounder are bottom feeding fish.