Often I see anglers working a jig as though they’re angling for bluefish, with vigorous rod action causing the jig to dart 5 or 6 feet off the bottom.

I’d suggest you avoid this approach. Use merely a moderate lift of the rod tip to impart a tantalizing action. Faced with a fast drift and fluttering strip, a flounder has to make up its mind fast. Most often, the strikes are far more forceful than during a slow drift.

These jigs are made in sizes as light as 1 ounce, and scaled-down models are effective in the bay and river waters mentioned earlier. This is especially true when fishing along the edges of channels: On an ebbing tide, the flounder often move from the shallow surrounding flats into the channel’s 6- to 8-foot depths.

When fishing with a scaled-down rig in bay and river waters, often I’ll use a combination of strip bait and a spearing, minnow or mullet, which proves effective.

SNEAKY PETE RIG EFFECTIVE FROM SURF
For fishing the surf, my favorite rig has popularly been called a Sneaky Pete Rig, since it’s built around a pair of hooks snelled to a single leader.

You can tie your own, beginning with a 3-foot long piece of fluorocarbon leader material. Snell a claw- style hook in 2/0 size to the end of the leader. Then snell another hook to the leader, separated from the initial hook by about 3 inches.

Now slip four small red or white beads onto the leader, followed by a small Colorado spinner or 2-inch soft-plastic squid. Tie the leader to a small three-way swivel.

Add a small connecting link to the eye of the swivel and snap on a 1- or 2-ounce dipsey or bank-style sinker. Tie your line to the remaining eye of the swivel, and you’re all set to go.

The ideal bait to use with this rig is a strip of Berkley Gulp! or squid, sea robin belly or dogfish belly. Large spearing or sand eels work well, too.

Often I’ll add a 3-foot leader between the line and three-way swivel, and tie in a dropper loop onto which I tie a teaser. My favorite teasers are the Chris’s Fly By Night or the Allen Sternberg Clouser Minnow.

Both of these teasers closely imitate the myriad baitfish that frequent the Maryland-Delaware surf.

The key in using this rig is making lots of casts and walking lots of beach. Just cast out and retrieve slowly, occasionally twitching your rod tip to give the rig sliding along the bottom an enticing action.

Often my wife June and I will put on a pair of shorts or bathing suit, and walk a mile or more of beach, casting and retrieving every 5 or 10 feet.

There’s hardly a time when we don’t have some keeper flounder on the stringer as we work our way back, enjoying the warm water and sunshine as a bonus!

Find more about Mid-Atlantic fishing and hunting at MidAtlanticGameandFish.com.