Halibut or Flounder.

mondone

Whitecaps
Spending my early years fishing the south shore of Long Island New York, the Cortez Halibut reminds me more of what we called Fluke. We fished for those in the summer months by drifting our boat with the current in the bays, inlets, and just offshore the ocean using either squid strips or small fish like killies or spearing along the bottom. Some of the Fluke hook rigs were adorned with white bucktails, but I never found them any more effective in catching fish. They were also known as Summer Flounder to us.

Columbus Day was our unofficial start to the Winter Flounder season. These fish were smaller than Fluke with a different mouth which was much smaller but thicker lipped, and teeth nothing like the Halibut or Fluke. It was more of a mouth that sucked in their food rather than the biting mouth of the Fluke. Fishing for them was by anchoring our boat in known holes in the channels of the inshore bays with longer, smaller "flounder" hook rigs, often adorned by the manufacturer with plastic red beads or yellow plastic corn kernels. The bait used for these fish were either sections of live bloodworms, sandworms, or strips of Little Neck or Cherrystone clams. We would chum first at the hole, using the contents of a can of corn kernels wrapped in a paper bag or newspapers tied to a line that we lowered down slowly and once it hit bottom we would give it a good tug or two to release the corn. This seemed to attract the flounder toward the fishing hole. Although the conditions for fishing these Winter Flounder was usually very cold and miserable, it was rewarding in that they tasted better than Fluke IMO.
 

Casablanca

Member
Excellent discussion and thank you for the info. In a perfect world, this is what we will be discussing 24/7 :0)
 

joester

2 salty dawgs
Cortez Halibut - I had to look that up, and it sure looks like the ones we saw on the beach a week ago. A couple local fishermen were casting a net - and had a nice bucket of fish. Also had some corvina (I think), at least looked like them. Wife ended up buying 2 of the Cortez Halibut and one corvina for $10 USD - seemed fair enough.
 

Kenny

Well Known Member
Cortez Halibut - I had to look that up, and it sure looks like the ones we saw on the beach a week ago. A couple local fishermen were casting a net - and had a nice bucket of fish. Also had some corvina (I think), at least looked like them. Wife ended up buying 2 of the Cortez Halibut and one corvina for $10 USD - seemed fair enough.
Hi Joe, It seems fair enough.
From the time I first started going down Cholla Bay as a kid in 58, that particular fish in these waters was called a Halibut by everyone I knew. I just hope these Flounder that everyone seems to be catching these days isn't an invasive species.;)
I ran into this on a search. I've never seen anything like it. https://www.seafoodwatch.org/seafood-recommendations/groups/flounder?q=Flounder
 

Kenny

Well Known Member
Two different in Rocky Point. Both Halibut by name. The Cortez Halibut and the California Halibut.

https://mexfish.com/fish/fish.htm

I know the California Halibut well, having caught and speared many in my years living in S Cali, but I can't say I've ever caught one in the Sea of Cortez, though I know they're around somewhere. I'd guess they would be more on the peninsula side. Maybe some of the big Halibut that Ric I caught on the 51 was, but I just called them big.

.FLOUNDER~~element3.jpg
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
I read somewhere that the Cortez Halibut only grow to the 5lb range if I remember correctly. I think all the big ones that you guys catch out deep and those in Ric's pics are California Halibut. They are the big guys to my understanding.
 

Kenny

Well Known Member
I read somewhere that the Cortez Halibut only grow to the 5lb range if I remember correctly. I think all the big ones that you guys catch out deep and those in Ric's pics are California Halibut. They are the big guys to my understanding.
Ric's an expert on holding fish just right for pictures and having taken that picture, I can honestly say they were big, but not as big as they look in the picture. I know they must overlap, but if you look closely at the ones in the picture, their marking are very similar to the ones we catch on the flats this time of year, but their markings aren't as vivid or bright as the youngsters... "The little known Cortez halibut exists only in the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez). Reaching up to 3 feet and 50 pounds, it is the largest flatfish in the Gulf of California and common near shore during cold water months."
 

Stuart

Aye carumba!!!
Staff member
Halibuts are the big boys we catch out at the deep reefs. The smaller ones caught near shore are fluke, or flounder. Both are yummy!

Had an interesting conversation awhile back with someone that insisted all halibut are left-eyed and flounder are right-eyed. Bull pucky! Proceeded to post a picture of my son holding two nice halibut from the 51... one left-eyed and one right-eyed. Identical fish otherwise.

The things people believe. Meh!
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Ric's an expert on holding fish just right for pictures and having taken that picture, I can honestly say they were big, but not as big as they look in the picture. I know they must overlap, but if you look closely at the ones in the picture, their marking are very similar to the ones we catch on the flats this time of year, but their markings aren't as vivid or bright as the youngsters... "The little known Cortez halibut exists only in the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez). Reaching up to 3 feet and 50 pounds, it is the largest flatfish in the Gulf of California and common near shore during cold water months."
I stand corrected sir.
 

Roberto

Well Known Member
This is a very fishey thread !! This happens when Kenny and Joe get together !! As Kenny says "All fishermen are liars but you and me and I am not too sure about you !!! That's the half f of lies that may be true. Ja ja ja ja
 

Where’s The Fish

Junior Member
Grew up just the same but fishing the north shore from Oyster Bay to Smithtown. Many a summer day and night fishing all the docks and shoreline around Huntington Harbor and Huntington Bay as a kid. Mostly caught flounder from shore but would go out on the Noli Eileen or Capt. James for fluke every once in a while. Fluke were a much better fight and much better eating in my opinion. I absolutely HATED bloodworms though. They worked well but are nasty lil buggers with those pinchers. Being put in a tub of them would be my worst nightmare lol. Tons of snapper (what we called baby Bluefish) back then too (mid/late 80s-early 90s). I still go back a few times a year to visit family and friends and no matter what the weather or time of day/night I take one or more of the party boats out of Captree for Stripers or Seabass. They’re changing the regs for Stripers soon to help the population. Recreational fishing for them isn’t the problem, it’s the purse seine trawlers scooping up all the bunker (menhaden) off the Carolinas (#1 baitfish for Stripers and Blues) that’s decimating the populations. Started in the 90s and got heavier in the 00s. I will not buy fish oil pills because of that once I learned that’s where the oil is coming from. I used to love watching the schools of Bunker do their happy dance then freak out then the Blues would round them up. But the schools I see now are much smaller and fewer in between it seems.
 

mondone

Whitecaps
Ah, the old bunker chum pot. They were very oily fish and stunk! Yep, did that for our summer Bluefishing out of Jones inlet over the Cholera Grounds.
 

Roberto

Well Known Member
My favorite fishing was in the small streams in the Adirondack Mts. of upper NY. Only small native trout. Light spinning equipment. Two mile hike to the favorite area. Try to catch a grub fish first. Cut out the gullet for bait. Sneak slowly and quietly over marshy areas to the edge of the stream. These fish are extremely wary. Flip the bait upstream above a pool so the bait would float down with the current. If you were careful, and there was a trout lurking there, and there usually was cause few would take the two mile hike in, they would hit it and give you a nice vigorous fight. We would quit when we had enough for a dinner and set up camp and cook them for dinner. Nothing quite like fresh native trout over an open fire in the woods. Lots of fun unless the blackflies were active !
 

Kenny

Well Known Member
My favorite fishing was in the small streams in the Adirondack Mts. of upper NY. Only small native trout. Light spinning equipment. Two mile hike to the favorite area. Try to catch a grub fish first. Cut out the gullet for bait. Sneak slowly and quietly over marshy areas to the edge of the stream. These fish are extremely wary. Flip the bait upstream above a pool so the bait would float down with the current. If you were careful, and there was a trout lurking there, and there usually was cause few would take the two mile hike in, they would hit it and give you a nice vigorous fight. We would quit when we had enough for a dinner and set up camp and cook them for dinner. Nothing quite like fresh native trout over an open fire in the woods. Lots of fun unless the blackflies were active !
I love that kind of fishing. Watch your shadow.
 

joester

2 salty dawgs
Roberto -
I grew up in upstate NY, went to school at Paul Smiths. Spent many days and nights in the thick of the blackflies, still have fond memories of Fulton Chain of Lakes, especially 4th lake. Trout fishing everywhere. Summer nights at the Old Barn in Inlet, live music on the weekends - good times.
 
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