Cover as much of the area as possible. He has his clients cast the bait near the grass and usually the current will move the bait along the grass line. He added that it is important to cover all the territory between the shells and the grass, and to make several casts.

"Many times we will catch several flounder from one place," Brown said. "Often, when I'm in a place where we've caught a fish or two, or a place that's been real productive recently, I work the entire area before leaving. That may mean I'll move the boat only a short distance down the bank before trying another nearby spot," he added.

Brown continued by saying that some anglers prefer to use artificial lures and they will work fine in a situation such as this. The use of a jig and grub will work very well also. In fact, I've used both jigs and live bait on a couple of occasions and caught as many or more fish on the jigs.

One very productive area is the mouth of the larger creeks that empty into the rivers or the Intercoastal Waterway. In these places the tidal flow is creating a consistent current. The fish will often lie in the flow and they'll often orient to points at the mouth of a creek. In this situation, you can use the float rig described earlier with live bait, or you can opt to cast the jig. One of the keys, however, is to keep the bait on the bottom, but use as light a sinker as possible. Too much weight or disturbance may spook the fish. These fish are usually a bit deeper, but not necessarily holding in real deep water.

When fishing along these creek mouths, experts say it's important to bring the bait to the fish. The flounder don't cruise the grass lines or along the creek mouths as frequently as do some of the other species. Redfish, for example, will cruise along the edges and stationary baits will often work well for these fish.

However, for best results on flounder, keep the bait moving and covering potentially productive water. Brown notes that the normal pattern for flounder to feed is to settle in on the bottom and wait for the bait to come to them, and then strike quickly. So play the game that way, take the bait to the fish, and you'll improve your catch simply on that technique alone.

Trolling for flounder seems to be an extremely popular method for taking these tasty flatfish. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, trolling works and it will produce good action on flounder. Second, it's not a very difficult technique and will allow even fairly inexperienced fishermen a reasonable opportunity to catch some flounder. However, most guides point out that by fishermen refining the manner in which they troll can drastically improve their odds of success.

Many anglers will rig properly with the commercially prepared trolling rigs. These are readily available in tackle shops around the coast. However, their pattern of trolling is one that is random and haphazard. They come across fish on occasion and on some days will make a decent catch. However, by focusing their efforts on high-probability areas, they would increase their productivity enormously.

Some tips from the pros include focusing on large inlets, especially ones that have grass banks on one or both sides with a sand or mud bottom. The flounder seem to relate to the edges, either one or both sides of the inlet, depending on the type of structure on the bottom and along the edge. You can use the current to drift the boat or you can use a motor to slowly troll.