Can you gig a flounder in Florida?
YES! You can gig a flounder in Florida in most Florida Counties but not all. You will need a saltwater fishing license and you will have to follow the rules and regulations concerning the minimum size limits and the maximum number or flounder that you can keep per person.
There are two types of flounder species in Florida's waters. We have the Gulf Flounder and the Southern Flounder. They both currently have the same size limits and maximum number of fish that you can keep per person.
The current minimum size for both species is 12 inches in length. The maximum number that one angler can keep is 10 per person. This does not mean that you can keep 10 of each species. You can keep 10 flounders total for each fisherman consisting of both species together.
I am a kayak fishing guide on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been fishing the grass flats and oyster bars all over Florida for more than 40 years. Flounders are one of my favorite inshore species of fish to catch.
Watch the video below and learn more about gigging flounders in Florida.
YES! You can gig a flounder in Florida in most Florida Counties but not all. You will need a saltwater fishing license and you will have to follow the rules and regulations concerning the minimum size limits and the maximum number or flounder that you can keep per person.
There are two types of flounder species in Florida's waters. We have the Gulf Flounder and the Southern Flounder. They both currently have the same size limits and maximum number of fish that you can keep per person.
The current minimum size for both species is 12 inches in length. The maximum number that one angler can keep is 10 per person. This does not mean that you can keep 10 of each species. You can keep 10 flounders total for each fisherman consisting of both species together.
I am a kayak fishing guide on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been fishing the grass flats and oyster bars all over Florida for more than 40 years. Flounders are one of my favorite inshore species of fish to catch.
Watch the video below and learn more about gigging flounders in Florida.
Rules and regulations to gig a flounder in Florida:
There are certain counties in Florida that do not allow you to gig flounders in their waters. Gigs are considered to be spears. So the rules that apply to spear guns will also apply to gigs.
Collier and Monroe counties do not allow you to gig for flounder in their waters. Other Florida counties have other restrictions. For instance Volusia county does not allow you to use a gig with more than 3 prongs to go after flounder in their inshore waters.
*Make sure to check the Florida Wildlife Commission's website to make sure that the rules have not changed since the writing of this article.
Judging the size of the flounders when they are under the water can be tricky so when in doubt do not gig them. If you gig an undersized flounder you are risking a lot. You can lose your boat, everything on board and incur a huge fine for having an undersized flounder on your vessel.
When you are hunting for flounder, the best way is to track their underwater footprints. No they do not have any feet but they do leave a trail that is very easy to follow if you know what you are looking for.
You will want to look for the outline of a flounder in the sand where they were lying in wait for passing prey items like shrimp, crabs and small fish. You will often see a trail from the flounder's outline in the sand to where they are currently hiding.
When you see them you can gig them as long as they are above the 12 inch size limit. If you are gigging for flounders at night, then you can see their eye shine when your lights bounce off of their eye lenses. Flounders are not very sensitive to your lights but they are very sensitive to sounds.
Make sure not to bang your boat or kayak while you are hunting in the shallows. That can spook all of the flatties away.
Do you want to learn how to catch a flounder with lures? Go to our best flounder lures page.
Flounders like to travel around with some buddies. If you find one flounder, then it is a good idea to look around some to see if he has any friends in the vicinity that might want to be a fried flounder sandwich later.
Seriously though there might be a half of a dozen flounder within 20 or 30 feet of each other. Make sure to scan the waters very closely once you find one flounder.
The lower parts of the tide are the best ones for finding some flounders to gig. They like to hug the shorelines waiting for some food to come their way. You can gig flounder in the daytime too but nighttime gigging will yield better results.
Conclusion:
You can gig flounder in Florida waters but you have to be careful to follow all of the rules and regulations of the state. You can get in big trouble to poaching a flounder or having an undersized flounder in your boat so don't risk it. It is not worth it.
Flounders are one of the most sought after inshore fish in Florida because they are great to eat and are easy to access. They are just about everywhere that there are shallows with some food for them to eat.
There are two kinds of flounder in Florida. The Gulf Flounder is usually smaller than the Southern Flounder. You can tell that it is a Gulf Flounder because of the 3 prominent eye spots on their backs. The Southern Flounder does not have distinct eye spots and grow much bigger than its cousin the Gulf Flounder.
The Southern Flounders are the big door mat flounders that all flounder pounders covet. Those are the big fat flatty fatties that we all want to catch. They can get to be about 33 inches or so in length and weigh almost 20 pounds.
You can find them on the mudflats but they are harder to see. You can find them on bottoms full of shells and small pebbles but again they are hard to see and track in those two places. The best spot to find and track the Gulf Flounder and the Southern Flounder is in the sand.
If you ever want to catch some flounder with a fishing pole from a kayak, then book a kayak charter with me. We have lots of flounder around our grass flats and mangrove shorelines along the Treasure Coast of Florida.
I hope that this article answers the question, Can you gig a flounder in Florida? Thanks for reading it.
BONUS VIDEO: Wade Fishing for Flounder