Has anyone else caught a Gulf Flounder here in NC, how rare are they? I was shocked to catch this 15 1/2" one this past weekend. I will be checking to see the spot patterns from now on to distinguish between the Southern, Summer, and Gulf that is for sure. Did some further research and found out that the IFGA world record Gulf Flounder was caught in Bogue Sound in 2011 and only weighed 7 lbs and 2 ozs. NC is the furthest northern extent of their range, and south to Mexico.
Fairly rare from what I can gather but not sure how many people actually look that hard to identify. Cool catch however.
Do the black spots mean its a Gulf Flounder? how do you know the difference?
I've caught one (actually my girlfriend at the time caught it while fishing with me)
The gulf flounder is identified by the pattern of three eye-like spots. Southern flounder don't have any and summer flounder have a pattern like this with at least 5 eye spots, sometimes more:
Here are a couple of articles http://www.vims.edu/GreyLit/VIMS/mrr85-7.pdf
http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/wdb/pub/species_profiles/82_11-054.pdf
And the SC DNR has a good ID site
Caught oNE today out Southport that had hard time distinguish between summer or gulf. Had spots between 3 and 8. Not sure wish got pic before put knife to it. Was 16.5"
I actually saw more Gulf flounder this year than Southern's around Southport. I guess that might confirm what the state is saying about the lack of Southerns'. 95+% of what I see are Summer Flounder.