Yellowtail Flounder Question
 

With yellowtail flounder in recent news again I began to wonder why recreational party boats don't target them. Has anyone ever caught one with hook and line? I for one would love to catch a bunch of flounder on a long range party boat. Has anyone ever considered targeting them? Research says they seem to like sandy bottom in water between 100-200 feet. Areas of Georges Bank are good for draggers. Any thoughts?

DZ

AFAIK, no one has figured out a way to catch them on hook & line.They are a lot closer than you would think, the draggers catch them just a little south of Block Island and Montauk.

Mike,
I knew you might chime in on this. This seems like an potential untapped rec fishery if you can figure it out. References say they eat worms/small crustacians/shrimp. I could see head boats having half trip for cod - half trip for flounder trips. I also remember "snowshoe" flounder trips on headboats advertised many years back - were they just extra large winter flounder?

DZ

ytf are some of the best eating fish out there!!!

Yep the "snowshoe" flounder were just big blackback flounder. Yellowtail flounder have very small mouths, so small hooks would have to be used. May be worth some experimenting, we have caught gray sole while fishing on Cox's ledge. OTOH the cunners would drive you nuts fishing with small hooks and soft bait on Cox's.

i've snagged a few while codfishing - windowpane too

While yellows and winter have comparable sized mouths (winter a little bigger), I've only ever seen small amphipods, gammarids, polychaetes etc etc inside yellows, while winters often have very large worms, shrimp etc inside of them... Seems like they have an appetite for larger food. Could be one explanation for why they're rarely caught.

Good observation! that indeed could be the reason.

I've snagged a few cod fishing offshore
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sabikis @ 300ft? :hihi:

i snagged a bunch while cod fishing 2 yrs ago. put down some clams on flounder hooks and got a few. just a few miles past the bbouy heading straight for the nw corner. around 200 ft. draggers all around. they were pretty big, and their mouths didnt seem that much smaller than a winter flounders.

I asked a few co workers who are doing some flounder studies about this, and got some interesting info.

For one, my comment on prey selection was close, but not entirely accurate. While most of the YT diet consists of smaller prey (amphipods, gammarids, tiny polychaetes/annelids/WORMS) they have seen some big polychates in the fish (think clam worms), and even whole sand eels in large specimens. So while they don't seem to be the gluttons that winter flounder are, they still will take large prey.

Also, I guess that years back there used to be a strong YT party boat fishery right in Boston Harbor... Not sure if any boats still go and target them. They're also commonly caught with hook and line near the mouth of the Merrimack.

I know of a shore spot in CT that use to produce them regularly. Incedental catch when targeting winter flounder.

Are yellowtails the same as lemon soles. Growing up fishing Boston Harbor we got two kinds.........regular and lemonsoles. Got a few LS floundering a local harbor last summer. Like Christian said too I never noticed a different mouth size??

I know Winter Flounder and "blackbacks" are same same.

Lemonsole is an x-large winter flounder.
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Can't be that simple. What I call lemonsoles have the 1/2" yellow ring all the way around the white underside......no matter the size.

Maybe something different than, but I can gaurantee x-large winter flounder are called lemonsoles I see them everyday in the fish houses.

That's the problem with common names, they are often applied to different species. This is a "real" lemon sole.

MM,

That is not what comes to mind when I am thinking of what I am thinking about. That shape is really different.

The flounders with the yellow around the edges have the same shape as winter flounder. Angler do the big WF you call LS do they have that yellow color?

Anyway, I am still confused now. Maybe what I am thinking about is just a winter flounder and a small percentage have the yellow ring??

Maybe an American plaice? They have some yellow underneath as well sometimes... Or maybe a sand dab (windowpane), but those are pretty distinctive....

Winters sometimes get yellow on the belly, but I don't think I've seen one that's yellow all the way around it? Yellowtails pretty much always have some yellow on the ventral side of the peduncle.. But can't say I've ever noticed a defined ring of color.

And interestingly enough, the lemon sole I've heard of (Microstomus kitt) doesn't look anything like the one MM posted... But those are overseas. They look almost identical to winter flounder, but have a narrow tail rather than a wide one. His looks like a Dover... But I don't know for sure.

All the HW I can do says that lemon sole is just another common name for winter flounder. Go figure.

Dover sole range from Southern California to Alaska.

We ain't catching them around here.

I don't trust ducketts since he told me a sand dab wasn't a windowpane. :devil2:

But he's right on that one :rotf2:

Thanks..alot :)

I've caught plenty of the flounder that have the yellow band around the underside. Looked the same as winter flounder to me, other than that.

Always thought it was the creepiness of boston harbor.:devil2:

I catch those all the time in the harbor also, I didn't know why the different coloring, I really don't know if it's just a discolored winter.

There ain't no "dover" in the Pacific. Dover sole is named for the cliffs of Dover in the U.K. and is an Atlantic fish.

again crazy common names,were both right on this one.

Dover sole, Microstomus pacificus, is a Pacific flatfish of the flounder family which ranges from Baja California to the Bering Sea. It takes its name from a resemblance to the common sole of Europe, which is often called a 'Dover sole'.

also called slime soles, the meat is inferior to the European sole.

You guy's are killing me!
The Summer Fluke is just that, "A Fluke", his mouth is on the left side.
The Flounder Family, Yellow Tail, Gray Sole, Lemon Sole, ETC have all the mouth on the right side.
Even the Black Back has his mouth on the Right, like all the other flat fish.
Only the Fluke has a left facing mouth. Maybe that is why he is a FLUKE!!!!!