Photo by Ron Sinfelt

I was fishing close to the oysters, when my float quit drifting. I figured my rig was simply snagged on the bar.

I had not felt the telltale tap of a fish taking my bait. The coastal sea breeze had blown a slight bend of slack in my line. It did not bother me much, since a seatrout or spottail bass hits with enough authority to tighten the line and hook itself all in one instant.

This was no trout or spottail, but as it turned out, it was no snag, either: A flounder that had been hiding amongst the oysters waiting for unsuspecting prey to wander past had engulfed the bait and was methodically chewing on it. Flounder are notorious for taking their time about working a bait all the way into their mouths.

Many fishermen fail to recognize this, and consequently pull the bait right from the fish's mouth. In my case, this did not happen because when my float stopped, I paused in frustration. I made a sort of roll-my-eyes-to-the-sky gesture followed by a "dang it." I hated to give up the good boat position and disturb the location. But if I wanted to save my rig, I had to paddle over to it.

This pause as I lamented my predicament allowed the flounder to grab and position the bait in its mouth. When I tugged on my line one last time in an attempt, I thought, to free my rig, the hook was set, and I realized I had a fish.

Understanding how a flounder takes a bait is the first key to successfully fishing for them. Flounder are not run-and-gun predators like seatrout or bluefish. Only very rarely will they chase baits.

They are a hide-and-ambush eater with distinct characteristics that allow them to be effective at their game. Their flat bodies permit them to lie flush with the bottom. To keep one eye from always staring into the sand or mud, the eye migrates around the body as the fish grows from its larval to juvenile stage.

With both eyes looking up from a prone position, flounder are able to further blend into their surroundings by changing their body color to the color of the bottom. When an unsuspecting baitfish swims too near, the flounder rises up and snatches it, and then settles right back down in its lair to swallow the bait. And that's when anglers usually goof up.

"Flounder usually thump your bait, and then sit right back down with it," said Capt. O.C. Polk, a Charleston-area angler who fishes for flounder on offshore structures. "There's no hard tap, like other fish, and then a run. It feels like dead weight."

One of Polk's decades-long fishing partners, Zed White of Charleston's Whiteline Diving Company, agreed.

"A flounder doesn't go anywhere when he takes a bait. Nine out of 10 times he just sits right back down with it. The bigger fish seem to hit the bait harder, inhaling it, while the smaller flounder seem to hesitate and play with the bait more."

White described a story that further indicated how a flounder eats.

"A friend of mine and I were fishing one day when his finger mullet kept getting cut in half. Every time he'd bring it in he would say, 'A flounder got my bait again.' I kept telling him that it wasn't flounder but a bluefish.

"It is true that flounder have sharp teeth like a bluefish, but they don't slash at a bait like a bluefish, which is why a clean-cut bait is the sign of bluefish.