![]() Flounder don’t seem to congregate here and stick around or any long period of time so much as move through as they enter the bay from the ocean. But it’s usually an on-again, off-again kind of spot. At times this is a prime spot to intercept the fish. Hotspot #2, inside the mouth of the inlet, identifies the area of water you’ll commonly hear referred to as “off the Coast Guard Station.” That’s how most people describe this area where flounder pour into the bay from the ocean. Some years this is an excellent area, particularly for fluke trollers who can parallel the edge of the channel (which is fairly straight in a north-south orientation) during a falling tide, when there may be good numbers of fish returning to the deeper water of the channel. There’s a channel here which runs north/south, close to the marsh islands (on the west side) with mud flats off to the north and east. One important exception: The blue arrow running north, which points to the beginning of the Hummocks. Because if spring flatties are in your sights and the water isn’t simply riddled with fish, Hotspots #2 and #3 are going to be much more important. Otherwise, they’re better filed away for summertime trips when you might be going after that myriad of “other” species. When the bite is red-hot and the other hot-spots are cramped with a flotilla of boats, these creeks and cuts sometimes offer still-decent fishing, with a lot less competition. When fishing these edges for flounder make sure you stay on the drops and don’t waste a lot of time drifting through the middle of the channel, where you’ll catch far fewer fish. These drops are extremely sheer in many places, and you can easily be in four feet one second and 40 feet the next. While these creeks and cuts are not normally considered prime for early spring flounder, they do commonly hold fish, mostly along the edges of the drop-offs which can be targeted during falling and low tides. Don’t worry about it, folks it’s all part of the adventure.Īssuming you manage to tilt the engine up, push the boat out of the mud, and make it to any one of the marsh cuts identified by the arrows indicating Hotspot #1 on this image, congratulations. Most of us (excluding that handful of locals, of course) are likely to rub bottom multiple times on every Wachapreague trip. ![]() In fact, we’re going to go out on a limb here and say that if you’ve ever been to Wachapreague, you’ve also run aground in Wachapreague. This is a unique waterway, with an amazing mix of 40-foot depths and oops-I-ran-aground moments. More on this spot later – we’ll look at it in detail – but for the moment the important concept to grasp is that this channel runs through a combination of mud flats, open bays, and cuts through the marsh. (NOAA chart 12210 shows the channels and markings but can also be a bit misleading as mudflats which are usually under water appear as dry land, so we chose to use Google Earth in this case). We added this onto the satellite image to give those who may not be familiar with these waters some concept of where the channel runs, to get to Hotspot number three. Looking at chart number one, note the red line cutting through Bradford and then Swash Bay. With that in mind, let’s take a close-up look at what makes this hotspot so special. Yet it’s that initial flounder run, starting as early as late March some years and often continuing well into the spring, which draws crowds of anglers from all around the Mid-Atlantic region. The inlet commonly sees a drum run shortly after the flounder peak, the channels and cuts get jam-packed with everything from croaker to weakfish during the summer months, and excellent offshore fishing awaits anyone departing from this port. And when it comes to springtime fluke fishing, these waters are utterly fantastic.Īctually, they’re fantastic year-round for a number of species. ![]() In fact, we find it quite fitting that this dazzling metropolis, with its 240 or so year-round residents and massive two-story sky-scrapers, gets credit when credit is due. ![]() Some have called this town the “Flounder Capital of the World,” and we wouldn’t begrudge Wachapreague the title. If you want to catch the most and biggest flounder you’ve ever seen during a single day of fishing in the spring, one of the best places to offer this kind of opportunity lies on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the waters of Wachapreague. ![]()
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