Inshore guide Jeff Chambliss targets docks and marina slips to find the flounder around Orange Beach. Photo by Phillip Gentry.

The jig hit the water just inside the rip created by the current washing across the rocks along the seawall that my fishing partner, Jeff Chambliss, and I were targeting. I left the bail on the spinning reel open as the jig rolled along with the current on its way back toward Jeff's boat, which he held parallel to the wall with his trolling motor. I flipped the bail closed and started taking up slack, beginning to feel the bait as it bumped across the sandy bottom next to the rocks.

The bite was signaled by a distinct thump -- nothing more. No line-stripping run like a summertime redfish, no slash-and-grab like a speckled trout: just that thump. And then everything seemed normal.

Except that my line had stopped moving.

Quickly glancing up at Chambliss, a veteran inshore guide from Orange Beach, I remembered his earlier instructions about waiting for the fish to start chewing -- and after at least 10 seconds, I felt it. Maybe "chewing" isn't the right word, but that's sure what it felt like.

The fish had grabbed my jig as if it were an injured mullet being flung along by the current. Once it had a firm grasp on its prey, it settled back to the bottom while its dinner expired. The joke was on it, however: Its dinner wasn't dead -- merely playing the part.

As the unseen fish began devouring his meal, I tightened up the slack on my medium-weight All Star spinning rod and then arched back to cross my quarry's eyeballs with a long, backward sweep of the rod. The creature at the other end of my line exploded into action as the point of jig's hook drove home.

Lying flat on the bottom, the flounder has the laws of physics in its favor. Its broad, flat body can create enough drag to sometimes give the fish enough force to wrap the line around the closest obstacle and break it. Steady pressure on the head, however, angles a flounder's body like a Frisbee thrown into the wind -- and up it comes. After a brief struggle, the flounder's path altered to a course that eventually led it to a frying pan.

WHERE TO FIND THEM
Of all the different species of fish that call the inshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico between Gulf Shores and Orange Beach home, none can outdo the flounder for conjuring up visions of tartar sauce, hush puppies and homemade coleslaw. Flounder can be found all along the Gulf Coast, but they're particularly fond of quite a few Alabama locations east of Mobile Bay.

The southern flounder is the species of flatfish most likely to be found in the Perdido Bay area. It can be caught practically year 'round, ranging from areas near the shores of Orange Beach all the way back into the Perdido River delta. Voracious feeders, southern flounder often stake out a good feeding area near a current rip or channel break and set up housekeeping.