Saltwater flounder.

I've caught flounder and fluke on fly. They're ambush predators so use baitfish patterns. As was said, fish a clouser low. Fish structure, old pilings, docks, etc.

Another option this time of the year would be croaker in the surf.
 
I’ve done very well on fluke fishing around the Cape May jetties. Can’t go wrong with a size 6 or 8 Gotcha or Crazy Charlie style fly fished on a sink tip. Try to get your fly in as close to the jettie as you can you’re gonna get hung up and lose some of course, but that’s usually where they’ll be when the tide is moving. Early August has always been productive for me. You’re not likely to catch any doormats, but the action is usually pretty good.
 
Gfen's description of wading is pretty spot-on. . . it can be miserable. With that said, not all back bay wading is this bad; find an area with hard bottom or sand (often around inlets) and you can wade fish. A breeze or some strong DEET will keep the bugs off you (mostly). If you have access to a kayak, you can find a lot of bay side fishing opportunities in NJ. Look for flounder around cuts and channels rather than flats.

Most of my flounder ("fluke") fly fishing is from the beach in NJ. When they're in, they are pretty easy to catch and a classic green over white Clouser will crush 'em. Most will be smaller than keeper size.

Moreover, unlike bass and bluefish, they are usually very close to shore, right in the wash and maybe first sandbar. You don't have to cast far, they're usually right in the suds. Flounder are common on beaches in summer and well into early fall.

Your 8WT rod is perfect. A sinking or sink-tip line is best but you can get by with a floater, just be sure to clean you gear carefully as you would for any salt fishing.

Good luck with your trip.
 
I’ve caught plenty of flounder on chartreuse over white clousers size 2 and 4 on floating, intermediate, and fast sinking lines. Slow short strips with a longer than you want to pause works pretty well. Lots of times they are sitting right at your feet if you are in water knee deep so fish the fly all the way in. My favorite set up is 6wt with intermediate line and a long leader. If you get a hit and don’t hook up make the same exact cast and stop your clouser where you got the bite cause he is probably sitting in the same spot where you got the hit. They also like pink over white and so do weakfish.
It’s pretty easy wading at corsins inlet from the bridge to the ocean on the ocean city side of the bridge. Gets muddy if you wade toward the back bay and the green flies on the grass banks will leave you bleeding!
 
I don’t post online the results of my fishing trips but I don’t think I could have done worse with my fly rod and a clouser minnow.
 
wildtrout2 said:
I've never heard of anyone trying to catch flounder on the fly, but best of luck to you. Update us on how it goes.
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I’ve seen it done on the 8th Street jetty in Avalon. This is the Ocean side of Avalon. Try dock hopping on public docks in the early morning with an intermediate sink line. Oops! Did I just spotburn?
 
There are just times when gear fishing outshines fly fishing, this is one of them.

My rules of thumb:

Presentation requires a dead drift either on or subsurface- fly fishing vastly superior
Presentation of swim fly (streamer) to fish you can see on or near surface- fly fishing still superior
Presentation of swim fly to fish you can’t see but have a general idea of where they might be holding- fly fishing and gear about equal
Presentation of swim fly to fish you can’t see that are in fairly featureless water or down deep- break out the gear.
 
troutbert said:
"Saltwater flounder"

Is there any other kind?
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IMG_0428.jpeg
 
Shawn_H said:
Just got back from a beach trip to sandbridge VA. My son wanted to surf fish. He used a spinning rod with bucktail jigs that we had tied. I figured I’d give the fly rod a try - I had clousers and a few big Dahlberg divers. He caught a Spanish mackerel and a flounder. And I got a mackerel on the fly rod. It was a ton of fun - the mackerel fight. We didn’t spend all that much time fishing so I felt like that was pretty good. It certainly isn’t fast action but it was different and a good challenge for our skills. I will say the nights we had success were very calm conditions. Windy and heavier surf we had no luck. Casting a heavy clouser from the beach will certainly teach you a few things about your deficiencies.
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Very nice! My family lives there and I fish it frequently. If you don't mind, what street were you at?
 
Just a brief report back on my attempts at catching flounder on a fly. I spent 2 days in ocean city, nj , and fished about an hour each morning. While I didn’t catch anything. I did enjoy it and was a great learning experience and good casting practice. I used a saltwater line from RIO It’s a called an “outbound short line.” WF9F/I. I had picked it up on sale a long time ago. I used it on a 9 ft 8w. It seemed to cast ok. I used straight 10lb. mono for a leader. I was throwing around a 1-1/0 Clouser, per recommendations. When I tried a slightly heavier fly (weighted eyes ) I had a harder time getting off the cast. Question for the saltwater crew. Should I be using a straight lb. test mono leader ? is there a min. lb. test I should use ? on anther note I did not have a strip basket but used a soft cooler bag around my waist and it actually worked quite well. What was interesting about the oc beach’s right now is the major beach replenishment going on. They have built out the beach’s from around 5th street to the music pier. The jetty’s are getting buried in the process. Just last fall I was fishing off the back side of that pier. (Conventional gear) High tide was coming in well under the pier. Now theres about 50 - 100 ft. of beach between the pier and ocean.
 
Javelin389t said:
Just a brief report back on my attempts at catching flounder on a fly. I spent 2 days in ocean city, nj , and fished about an hour each morning. While I didn’t catch anything. I did enjoy it and was a great learning experience and good casting practice. I used a saltwater line from RIO It’s a called an “outbound short line.” WF9F/I. I had picked it up on sale a long time ago. I used it on a 9 ft 8w. It seemed to cast ok. I used straight 10lb. mono for a leader. I was throwing around a 1-1/0 Clouser, per recommendations. When I tried a slightly heavier fly (weighted eyes ) I had a harder time getting off the cast. Question for the saltwater crew. Should I be using a straight lb. test mono leader ? is there a min. lb. test I should use ? on anther note I did not have a strip basket but used a soft cooler bag around my waist and it actually worked quite well. What was interesting about the oc beach’s right now is the major beach replenishment going on. They have built out the beach’s from around 5th street to the music pier. The jetty’s are getting buried in the process. Just last fall I was fishing off the back side of that pier. (Conventional gear) High tide was coming in well under the pier. Now theres about 50 - 100 ft. of beach between the pier and ocean.
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Dear Javelin389,

10# test is way too light for 1 to 1/0 flies, especially if it is just straight mono, or fluoro. A tapered leader built with 25#, 20#, and ending in 15 to 17# would make a huge difference in transferring the energy in a cast.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

P.S. regarding the beach replenishment, taking sand from the ocean, putting it on the beach, and expecting a miracle is something only white men using government money would do. One Nor'easter and it will have to be done again, and again, and again.
 
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