[gentle orchestral fanfare] - Oh yeah, this might be a big one here.

Oh, he's not too big, but he is another fish.

- But, he is a nice flounder.

Nothing wrong with that - Nothing wrong with him.

He's not a big one, but he will work.

Here we go, all right, you ready?

- Yes.

- Okay, I'm gonna swing him up this way.

There we go.

- Not a bad Cape Fear River flounder.

- There we go.

Not a bad Cape Fear River flounder.

- All right.

- Not bad at all.

All right, calm down.

- All right little fella, just relax.

- [Announcer] The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer] Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.

ncwildlife.org/winc.

- [Male Announcer] And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We've been fishing since 2003.

Come see the crew in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and we can hook you up for all your fishing needs.

[light instrumental music] ♪ - Hello, welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

Well, today's program will take us down to the Cape Fear River where we'll be fishing for flounder using live bait.

- That's right, this is one of the first times we've fished a river for flounder, normally we fish an inlet, or we've done several shows right off the beach, but this is the first time we've actually gone up a river.

And, the Cape Fear is well known for their flounder population, so we just had a great day.

- Joe, you know we talked about flounder, you know, good size flounder in North Carolina.

- Mm-hmm, yeah this day, we were actually looking for some big fish.

We were actually looking for that eight to 12 pound class flounder, which is caught on this river.

We didn't find 'em that day, but we caught some really solid three, three and a half, four pound flounder, and we had a couple of really nice surprises.

We caught a couple of really pretty red drum at the same time.

- I think the big surprise is how Donna takes that flounder, adds some chips, and we got fish and chips in our cooking segment today.

- That's right.

The fish and chip recipe today, I purposely asked for her to include flounder with this, just simply because we were catching flounder, and it's a really good recipe.

- Well we've got a recipe, we've got Gear Time, and a whole lot more.

- Good.

- We got a lot comin' your way today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal, and it's all about flounder fishing.

- Stuart, it's a beautiful morning here on the lower Cape Fear River, 'bout mid-September, just after sunrise, the tide's still comin' in a little bit.

What's on the plan for today?

- Well today, as you can see, we got a nice grass bank here behind us.

We're gonna try to catch some flounder today.

I went out last night and got some nice baits.

Went out and got us a bunch of nice, fairly good size mullet.

- Right.

- Ya know, go ahead and get ya a nice sized one, and we're gonna throw 'em up here on these grass banks, and work the, the initial five feet off that bank is gonna be the hot zone, so we're gonna really concentrate on these grass banks.

We're only in about two feet of water, so hopefully we'll pull some nice flounder outta here today.

- Sounds good, and rumor has it that this part of the world has some nice flounder.

- There's some big ones down here, I hope we can get one today.

It'll be a lot of fun - I hope so, too.

- I wanna break your record is what I wanna do.

- So do I.

- All right buddy, let's get one.

- All right, let's get it.

One of the things we've been doing, Stu, is working along this marsh bank, and especially working on areas like this where you got some piling stickin' out.

- That's right, any type of little different structure.

We got some pilings over here, we got some nice grass banks over here with some little undercut mud banks on it.

Little creek mouth, anything different than just the normal bank, just go ahead and throw on it a few times, especially the pilings.

Now, you're gonna probably lose some rigs.

- Right.

- But, ya know, that's probably where the big ones are gonna be is laid up in those pilings.

- Well you sure gotta put the bait where the fish are living, the pilings provide great ambush points for those flounder that'll lay there on the bottom, waiting for the bait to sweep by, and they seem to be great places, as long as you get your bait in around 'em.

- Then the hard parts is gettin' 'em outta there.

- Yeah, exactly.

- That'll be the fun part, when you hook that big one and try to pull him out.

- We'll worry about that when it happens.

- That's right, we'll go up in there and get him if we got to.

- Yeah.

- Oh there he is, there he is Walker.

Are you ready, you ready?

- [Walker] A flounder?

- Watch this, yep, yep, he's holdin' it, watch.

Oh!

- [Walker] There he is, there he is.

- Oh, he's right here next to the boat already.

Oh, he just glided right on up.

Oh yeah.

- Oh, that's a nice fish, Stu, that is a nice.

- I'm gonna step down here.

Alright, I'll slide him right to you.

- Nice flounder.

- Ow!

- Look at that pretty fish.

- Pretty thing.

- That's a pretty flounder right there.

That's what we came after - That is a nice one.

- Stu, that is a pretty Cape Fear River flounder.

- Look how dark it is.

Look how dark he is up here in this dark water.

- Yeah.

What a beautiful fish.

- Look how thick he is.

Look at the thickness on that fish.

There should be some good filets on that thing.

- Not bad for the first fish of the morning.

- Well, I normally throw back just about everything, but you know, I may have to keep one, the old missus might not like me coming back afoul.

That's one fish she will eat, that's for sure.

- [Walker] Yeah, all right.

- You got him?

- [Walker] Yeah, he was hooked well, that's for sure.

- Right on.

He just grabbed it.

Okay, I'm gonna go ahead this over the side.

- Okay.

- Get that outta the way.

- [Walker] Look at that.

- That pretty thing.

- [Walker] Yep, and that's about, that's just a perfect eatin' size right there.

- That is.

He's what, about two and a half, three pounds?

- [Walker] Yeah, two and a half, three.

I think he's closer to three.

- Look how thick he is right there, probably about three.

- [Walker] All right.

- Let's drop him down in this well right here, and we'll keep him alive, and that way if we want to release him later, we can.

I think he's messin' with it, Walker.

- [Walker] Did ya feel him pick it up?

- I think so, yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

- [Walker] Yeah.

- He's just holdin' on to it.

- [Walker] Give him plenty of time with it.

- This might be a nice fish.

Oh yeah, he's there, he's there.

- [Walker] Okay.

- I'm just gonna give him a second.

- [Walker] Yep.

- Let him get that thing down in there.

Oh yeah, look at that, look at that.

- [Walker] Yep, yep, yep.

- I'm gonna give him another second off of that, I hope he's not trying to get that thing out of his mouth, ya know?

Yeah, I don't think he's gonna, oh yeah, okay you ready?

- [Walker] Yep, yep.

- Here we go.

- [Walker] Come on.

There he is.

- There he is.

- Oh, this might be a nice one.

Oh yeah, this might be a big one here.

Oh, he's not too big, but he is another fish.

- But, he is a nice flounder.

Nothing wrong with that.

- Nothing wrong with him.

He's not a big one, but he will work.

Here we go.

All right, you ready?

- Yes.

- Okay, I'm gonna swing him up this way.

There we go.

- Not a bad Cape Fear River flounder.

- There we go.

- Not a bad Cape Fear River flounder.

- All right.

- Not bad at all.

- All right, calm down.

- All right little fella, just relax.

- He's got it outside.

- [Stuart] Oh yeah.

- Tell you what, Stu.

- [Stuart] You just wanna snip it off?

- Just snip that off right there.

- [Stuart] All right, just slide here real quick.

- Because he had it down pretty deep.

- We'll just get it out there.

- Yep.

- We'll keep him to eat since he had it down in there so far.

- Oh, maybe we might.

[laughs] - That's another nice one, he's probably about as what, two and a half, three pounds again?

- Yeah, something like that.

- He's so thick, God, they're gettin' fat for the winter time, that's for sure.

- They sure are, they've been eatin' well, a lot of shrimp, a lot of mullet, a lot of little peanut pogies.

- All right.

- That's another good eatin' size flounder.

- We'll throw him in the well back there.

- Okay.

- See if I can get him behind the ears here.

- You got him?

- Yep, I got him - Nice job, Captain Stu.

- All right, dinner time.

- Good man.

- She's gonna like that.

- I think I feel him.

- Is he on it?

- He's right here at the boat.

- [Stuart] Okay, all right, all right.

- I'm just gonna let him take it for just a second.

- Okay.

All right, just let me know.

He'll probably rise right up on ya.

- All right.

- All right, do what you gotta do.

Come on big daddy.

- Aww, there he is, there he is, there he is.

- Oh.

- Yes sir, that's him - All right, all right.

- That's him.

- Oh, he's green, of course you hook him two feet from the boat.

- Yep.

- Oh, all right.

Oh, that's nice.

- Hey, that's a pretty flounder, that is a pretty flounder.

That is a pretty flounder.

- God, he's all fired up, too.

- Yeah.

- I'm gonna try to get him, well.

- Yeah, I'll just bring him up, he's just not quite ready, I'm just.

[laughs] Yeah.

[laughs] - Aww.

- How can he spit that out, how can he spit that out?

- Aww.

- That fish was well hooked.

- You didn't even see the fish, I mean when he was swimmin' right near, you couldn't even see your hook.

- Now tou could not even see the fish so far down.

- God.

- That's flounder fishin' my friend, that's flounder fishin'.

- Almighty.

All right.

- And my bait was still kickin', I guess he's probably died from shock now.

All right, there's another one in there, we know it.

- [Stuart] Hey, he probably, maybe he didn't even feel the hook, maybe he'll go right back over there and eat.

- Oh gosh.

[laughs] - Hey, that's flounder fishin'.

- [Stuart] Oh man.

[light string music] - Yep, there he is.

There he is, Stu.

- [Stuart] Oh.

- I waited him out, and waited him out, and waited him out.

- All right.

How's he look?

- I don't know.

- Oh.

- Oh, that's about the same size class.

- Dinner plate size.

- Yes sir.

I waited him out, he just spit up my minnow.

- Oh, there we go.

- All right.

- All right.

Same little creek mouth.

- Same size class, we've just pulled two outta that creek mouth.

- Hang on, I'm gonna put him down here so he doesn't flop out of the boat.

- Yep.

- Oh perfect, look at that.

- Perfect.

- All right.

- [Walker] All right, Stu.

- [Stuart] All right.

- I think yours was a little bigger, but that's still a pretty flounder.

- [Stuart] Man, that's a good two and a half pounder.

- Not bad at all.

- [Stuart] Take that any day of the week.

- That's the second fish right outta the mouth of that creek, right on that sandy bottom.

- Mm-mm.

- So, that's good, let's put him back in the well back there.

- Let's put him in the well and if we want to we can release the ones we want to.

- Okay.

Not bad.

- 'Cause they're all alive.

- Not bad, not bad, not bad.

- Now come on back here and let's put him in this well.

- That's a fun, fun, little Cape Fear River flounder.

Stu, it's mid-September, we've had a couple of little cold fronts, water temperatures are just startin' to fall, we know this is a pretty good time to flounder fish, but what about other times of the year?

- Mainly, the flounder fishing seems to be pretty good, spring, summer, and fall, all the way through here, even in the winter time you can catch 'em, too.

But, the type of flounder fishin' that we're doing right now is mainly a late summer, fall scenario.

Usually by winter time they tend to not follow this pattern, which is up in the shallows, real close to the banks, up in, I mean we're only in three, four feet of water, maybe.

- Right.

- Fishin' two to three foot of water off the bank so, mainly that's the fall time, when the mullet are comin' down the mouth.

- We're here, high tide fallin', is that the best time of day?

- I think so, 'cause it draws all the bait out of the grass, and makes them get along the edges, and that's when the flounder will kinda get up on there and just sit down and wait for 'em to swim over the top of 'em, and start pickin' 'em off, and you can start flippin' baits up in there, and bringin' it right by 'em, and they'll pretty much eat 'em up.

- Okay, good job.

- Hopefully.

- Hopefully, hopefully, we've got a couple already today, and I know there's another one along this grass bank somewhere.

- They're here, it's just a matter of coverin' the area.

- Yeah.

- Ya know, just cover the ground.

Oh, yep, there he is right there.

All right, you ready?

- [Walker] I'm ready.

I'm ready.

- Okay, here we go.

- [Walker] He still there?

- Yep.

There he is.

- There he is.

- Is it this flounder?

- Is he?

That's behaving like a flounder.

- There we go.

Oh.

- You want me to lift it up, you want me to lift it up, just move, just move back, I'll get it.

- [Stuart] Which way is it?

- You got it, you got it, you're free, you're free, I got it, whoa.

- All right, oh yeah.

- [Walker] That fish just about took you around the bow of the boat, Stu.

- He about got me in the trollin' motor over there, didn't he?

- Yeah he did.

All right big fella.

- All right, another nice eatin' size.

- That is a pretty flounder, too.

- They're all about three pounds.

- Every single fish we've caught today has been about the same size.

- [Stuart] And we'll take it.

You got pliers on ya?

- Yeah, sure do.

- [Stuart] Right where he shoulda been, right in the channel of that creek mouth.

- Yep.

- This is the hardest part, is waitin' on this hook set.

- [Walker] It takes nerves of steel.

- Oh, see that?

Oh.

- Mm-hmm.

Okay, you ready?

- [Walker] I'm ready.

- I'm gonna knock it to him.

- [Walker] Are you ready?

- I'm ready, here we go.

- [Walker] There he is.

- Oh my God, what is that.

- There Stu, that is a pretty, pretty red fish.

- Take this as a bite catch any day of the week right here.

- Any day.

- I hope I don't have him hooked, no I got him hooked good.

- [Walker] No, you're just right.

- Look at all the spots on him.

Here you go, I'll swing him over here to ya.

- Swing him over and I'll.

Got him, got him, got him.

- All right.

What a beautiful red fish, Stu.

- [Stuart] Well, when he picked it up, he moved it, I thought it was a flounder.

- [Walker] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- [Stuart] And, ended up pickin' up a nice red.

- But, along these banks we can get speckled trout, red fish, and of course flounder.

And, the red fish here in the river are gorgeous, they're just a brilliant gold, and this one has, what, seven spots on this side and one, two, three, four spots on the other side.

But, look how pretty that fish is.

- And, he's got his blue tail.

- Bright blue tail.

- Red fins.

- What a great fish, you wanna slip that hook out?

- See if I can get that thing outta there.

- Well.

- What do you think.

- Here we go, let's see what we.

- Is that him?

- I think it's him.

- Nothing wrong with what.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, here we go.

- You ready?

- Yeah, here I go.

There he is.

- There he is, there he is, there he is.

- Here he comes, he's comin' right to us.

- [Walker] Okay.

- Oh yeah, there he is.

- [Walker] All right.

- Another nice one.

Oh, don't throw that.

- Come here there little fella.

- [Stuart] All right, he just came right to us.

- You didn't have to splash me like that either.

- [Stuart] Yeah we're just-- - These baits are about right.

- [Stuart] Go ahead and snip that down there.

- We'll snip that one off, too.

- [Stuart] All right.

Let me get this net out your way.

We can take him right back to the well.

[fish flopping] There we go.

- Good job, I'll let you slip him back in the.

- All right.

- In the well right there.

- I'll just take him back, just like this.

- Okay.

- Dinner.

- Excellent, excellent, excellent.

- That's a good day of fishin' Joe, the live bait seemed to get it done.

- Always for flounder, they're laying on the bottom, waitin' for that fresh bait to come by, and using fresh bait like we had.

And, fishing with guys that knew the river.

Stuart and Walker fish that river a lot, for a variety of fish, but flounder, that time of year the big fish are around, it's just a matter of locating 'em.

And, that day, the day before they actually caught, I think there were several close to ten pounds that were caught in that same area.

So, the fish were probably near by, we just didn't hit one of 'em, but as you can see the class we caught were good fish, and we had a lot of fun.

- Well as always, riggin' right seems to be the most important thing, let's go to Gear Time and learn more.

[light string music] - Stuart, the Cape Fear River is sure known for big flounder, and we're here late summer, early fall, it's mid-September.

It's just startin' to cool off and we had a great day on the river flounder fishin'.

- We did, we got in here and started using the troller motor a little bit, used the Power Pole, went down the banks, covered a lot of area til we kinda figured out the pattern for the day, and once we did we started catchin' a few fish.

- The Power Pole, it's really a neat device, but it was really key to us coverin' a lot of ground, doing it quietly and efficiently.

- And, you can be really thorough, 'cause you can stop the boat, fish, move 50 yards, stop the boat and fish, and it keeps you from jumpin' over fish, and you really work those banks over real thoroughly.

- We work it quietly and when we finally found fish at the mouth of that creek, we could stop and stay there and catch 'em.

- That's right, without spookin' 'em, too.

Some of the equipment we used today was, I was just using a little Quantum bait casting rod and reel, about eight to 14 pound test.

You were using a spinnin' reel.

- [Walker] Spinning gear, medium action rod, seven foot.

- That's right, and the rig we were using is just a little Carolina rig, it's nothing fancy, little half ounce weight, 'cause we're only fishin' in three foot of water maybe, just a bead to keep the weight from beatin' the knot up.

And, our hook is an Eagle Claw one on offset, and that hook seems to work really good on these fish.

I'm not a big fan of J hooks, but for flounder, I do use J hooks.

- Yeah, technique is really important.

Flounder fishin' is a game of patience, and a lot of touch and feel, and knowin' what the flounder's doing when he hits.

- It really is, you almost mentally have to picture what your bait's doin' down there on the bottom, what the fish is doin' with the bait, and that'll help you learn when to set the hook.

The main thing, the technique we were using today, was pitch it out there, let it get down, and just drag it a little bit, pull it maybe two, three feet, reel back to it, pull it again, nice and slow, not too fast, and when you feel anything different, it might be just your bait get all fired up, or it might be a little kinda like a boot.

- [Walker] Right, right.

- [Stuart] Just a little somethin' heavy on there, just stop it and leave it right there.

- One of the things that folks always ask about flounder fishing is, how long do you let the fish take the bait before you set the hook?

- Well, that's a function of two things.

One, it's the size of the bait, like we had down here.

If you're using a big old bait, like this one, big old six inch bait, let 'em have it a little bit longer, maybe a minute or two.

These smaller baits, you maybe only need to let him have those for maybe 30 seconds to a minute, if they're not very aggressive.

Now today, some of these fish were fairly aggressive, so we could set the hook on 'em fairly quickly, it's just a matter of gettin' used to what the fish want that day.

Some days they pile on 'em, some days they don't.

- Well, today was an excellent day, it was an excellent lesson in flounder fishin' for me, and I appreciate it, we couldn't ask for a prettier day and nicer fish.

- Any day man, let's go.

- Enjoyed it, enjoyed it.

- All right man.

- Fellas, we do appreciate that information.

Now, let's catch up with Donna, she's in the kitchen with that recipe we were tellin' you about.

Here's one all about fish and chips, using flounder.

[light string music] - Hi, today we're going to be making fish and chips in the kitchen, and this is a really quick and easy recipe.

I'm gonna give you some tips on how you can make it even quicker if you're lookin' for something really fast for you and your family to just enjoy the catch of the day.

So, let's go ahead and get started.

We're going to use some flounder that I have, and I just cut my flounder into strips.

So, I took my filet and then I'm just going to cut it into strips so it's easier to pick up with your fingers, and they're almost bite size.

If you're like me, they're two bites, maybe the kids, three bites.

We're going to use our bag and some In Your Oven breader.

So, we're not gonna fry these, so that's nice, we're not gonna have to heat up our kitchen in that respect.

So we're just gonna place that into our bag, that comes with the, in your breader.

We're going to, In Your Oven, we're going to place this in.

And, we're going to give it a shake.

And, coat it really well, you can add flavorings to this if you wanna make it a lemon pepper, you can always put your lemon pepper breader in here as well.

If you want to make it spicy, you can do that as well.

You can do different varieties or different variations.

So, once we have it all coated, comes out in these nice, great pieces, and it's a nice color.

We're just gonna place these on our foil lined baking sheet, so that we don't have any mess to clean up, and it doesn't stick, either.

This is just a non-stick foil, we're just gonna lay this out here.

We're gonna bake this at 400 degrees for about, oh 10, 15 minutes, depending on the sizes of your fish, and you can use other types of fish that you might have.

I like the taste of fried flounder, so for me it's a great combination.

So, we're just gonna bake this like I said, at 400 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes, just until your fish is cooked throughout.

Pull that out, and while your fish is baking, you can also bake up some potato wedges instead of using potato chips, or chips, a really thin, sliced potatoes that you've fried.

You can buy these potato wedges in your deli section, which I think is fabulous.

They're really good, they're seasoned, they're great, or you can make your own by taking your red potatoes and slicing them into wedges.

You can also throw them in with some breader, if you'd like, and bake them along with your fish.

But, I would cook those first, 'cause they're gonna take longer than your fish.

And, instead of using a regular cocktail sauce, or some malt vinegar, which a lot of people like, we're serving ours with some lemon wedges, and then I made a dip that is made of mayonnaise, and dijon mustard, there's some capers in here, and a little bit of red pepper, so that adds a little bit of spice to it, but not too much.

So, it's a great way, just serve it with some parchment paper, in a basket, or I have a, a little liner here that I just put it on, just kind of a fun way to serve your dinner in an unusual way.

So, I hope you enjoy the fish and chips, and I look forward to seeing you next time, here on Simple Cooking.

- Thanks Donna for that recipe, that's one you wanna keep around the kitchen.

Joe, let's go back down to the Cape Fear River, had a great day of fishing.

- We really did, we didn't catch the big one for today, but yeah, as I said earlier, the red drum we caught that day were a bonus, I mean were icing on the cake.

And, when we initially hooked up on those fish, we thought we really had big flounder, and then after a while, after the runs and everything, we kinda knew what we had.

But, we caught a good class of fish, a good eating sized class, a good fileting sized class of flounder, and that river is well known for a good flounder, And, if you get a chance, go try it.

- Only thing I think about flounder is it's always good on the table.

- Absolutely - For Joe Albea, I'm John Moore, thanks for joining us today, on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- [Announcer] Make sure to visit our website for more information.

- [Announcer] The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer] Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.

ncwildlife.org/winc.

- [Male Announcer] And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We've been fishing since 2003.

Come see the crew in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and we can hook you up for all your fishing needs.

[light instrumental music] ♪