Best habitat to fish for sole and flounder?

[StrikerMC]

If you want sand dabs, they're everywhere! Some get pretty big to where you can actually fillet them. I've had success on bigger dabs using artificials, like gulp jerk shads, over squid which catches any and all sizes of them.

As for other soles, sandy bottom at any depth really. Have gotten starry flounder in shallows and I see them, tonguefish, and fantails all the time diving at night along with the obvious halibut.

I nailed a 20" fantail last year drifting a piece of squid really deep on the way back in to a harbor. Could never replicate that catch again, but if you can, the payoff is worth it!

[BenCantrell]

I'd love to see pics of any interesting flatfish people have caught from San Pedro south. Personally I've caught CA halibut, fantail sole, diamond turbot, Pacific sanddab, speckled sanddab, and longfin sanddab, but I'm very curious what else is common enough to go looking for. I know I've seen people post bigmouth sole pics. I've heard petrale sole mentioned a few times, but I'm not sure I've seen a pic from Socal. Lots of dive pics of turbots/soles like CO sole, spotted turbot, etc, but no one seems to catch them hook & line.

StrikerMC, how deep do you find those tonguefish? That's definitely a cool one!

[JohnMckroidJr]

Nice to see a good haul of a fish that still has a generous 10 fish limit.

[PapaDave]

Originally Posted by JohnMckroidJr

Nice to see a good haul of a fish that still has a generous 10 fish limit.

No limit on them... catch all you want.

[Saba Slayer]

X2 🤙🏽

Originally Posted by PapaDave

No limit on them... catch all you want.

[FullFlavorPike]

Saba, that is a beautiful shot of a load of flatfish!

I bet if they're small enough you could deep fry them whole and crunch the bones

[JohnMckroidJr]

Originally Posted by PapaDave

No limit on them... catch all you want.

That what I remembered from when I lived in SoCal, but when I googled it ,misread the regs. It's the rock sole, sand sole, butter sole, curlfin sole, rex sole, and flathead sole that have the 10fish limit. Thanks for the correction.

[FoodGeekFish]

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[summers in kuwait]

Originally Posted by FoodGeekFish

Get a free descender here:

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Yep. Not to hijack the thread, but free device. Donate if you can. Very simple and easy to use. Plus you can even run it in line with a rig, if needed.

Been using mine for a few years now and it works well.

[GregB]

Originally Posted by StrikerMC

If you want sand dabs, they're everywhere! Some get pretty big to where you can actually fillet them. I've had success on bigger dabs using artificials, like gulp jerk shads, over squid which catches any and all sizes of them.

As for other soles, sandy bottom at any depth really. Have gotten starry flounder in shallows and I see them, tonguefish, and fantails all the time diving at night along with the obvious halibut.

I nailed a 20" fantail last year drifting a piece of squid really deep on the way back in to a harbor. Could never replicate that catch again, but if you can, the payoff is worth it!

Oh yeah ... love the dabs. Tasty. But man I'd like to find a shoal of larger-model flounder shingled up. That meat. If you ever get up to SF and have dough to blow, the Tadich Grill does one covered in crab and I think hollandaise. Blew my mind.