Flat fish ID

[Rollin with Rolland]

This is the one and only flatfish I have ever caught in WA waters. I'm not EXACTLY sure what it is....

Is this the typical "flounder"??

The under side was pretty white, but it had orange speckles on the bottom...

Rock Sole??....Sandab?.......Left-Eyed Starry Flounder With a Twist?!?!

Anybody know?? Would this work for LING bait??

[JT26]

Looks like a Starry Flounder. Can tell by the fins.

[Chin_nook]

Nice flounder, big sanddab.

Starry flounders look like they have barnicals all over them very pronounced coloring of black and white stripes on their dorsal fins and have a very triangle tail.

[christopherbeebe]

i would say thats a flathead sole big one too

[physher92]

well, I'm not an expert in identifying fish so I asked my Dad to take a look at it. He is a marine biologist and works at the Marine Lab here in the Northwest. He said that it was a rock sole. He said he wasn't absoutely 100% sure because the picture is a little blurry but he said that he was pretty sure because of the high lateral line or something. Also, I suppose that Lingcod bite on almost anything you put in front of their face. However, if it were me I would not use it for bait for ingcod becasue they don't generally live in the same areas. Lings like rocky structure and kelp beds while flounder like a gravelly flat bottom. So I find that sculpin "fishes" like red irish lord work better for ling bait. But that is just my opinion.

[Shad_Eating_Grin]

.... However, if it were me I would not use it for bait for ingcod becasue they don't generally live in the same areas. Lings like rocky structure and kelp beds while flounder like a gravelly flat bottom. So I find that rockfish works better for ling bait. But that is just my opinion.

What if you took a flounder that was caught in a sandy area, kept it alive, and then went to a rocky area and used it as live bait for ling cod?

[Rollin with Rolland]

Thanks for the relies...

When I caught it, I did my best to key it out...and I came up with ROCK SOLE. But believe me....I have been known to be wrong, AND have absolutely NO experience with saltwater flatfish. It was caught in about 40ft on a rock (flat bedrock) bottom, maybe a little gravel. I was drifting a 1oz. lead head jig with a red 4" curly tail grub, and it was hooked in the mouth, not snagged. I did keep it, and I also filleted it up, and it was OK in butter. Weird filleting a flat fish. Good experience though....

BUT....from what I gather...It is real tough to ID these things, HUH? So far, we got one starry flounder, one sanddab, one flathead sole, and one rock sole.

I guess the most important question/point is this...


Is this what anglers mean when they catch "flounder"??? If so, I'm sure LING will eat any of them. Do other people keep these like I did?? It wasn't to bad.....oh, and it measured 16", and about 1.5lbs I'd guess. Keep the suggestions coming....

[Jake Dogfish]

It is either a Sand dab or a rock sole. It is not a Starry flounder.

[A9]

I call em all flounders. Fish em live for Lings. Put em down to the bottom, reel up 5 feet or so and drift. Hold on. Big lings are bound to rip the living heck outta em if they are in the area.

[Smalma]

I have to go with rock sole as well.

As I remember sand dabs are a right-eyed flatties and Rock sole are a left-eyed (eyes on the left side of the head). The fish in the picture is clearly a left-eyed fish.

I agree with the others ling cod will eagerly take a sole; in fact almost any fish that a ling thinks "might" fit in their considerable mouth is fair game for dinner. I have to say that other than Puget Sound rockfish (a weak spine rockfish that rarely is larger than 6 inches) rockfish are not all that commonly found in lings stomachs. I have to say that here in Puget Sound I find more flounders, sculpins, pile perch, herring, blennies, greenlings, small lings, etc than say copper rockfish in the ling stomachs I have looked at.

Most of the Puget Sound sole/flounders aer good eating though I would be very careful from what waters I would consider eating some. Since they spend their lives living on the bottom sediments I avoid any areas where various contaminants are found.

Tight lines
Curt

[physher92]

A couple of quick notes. First I am pretty sure that is actually a right eyed flounder. The way you tell which eye a flounder is is this. You tilt the flounder upright (not flat) and then put the anus to the ground or facing the ground. On this fish the anus is just below the gills. So with the anus facing the ground and the fish upright, the eyes are on the right side of the fish making it a right-eyed flounder.I actually thought that the way you told was just which side of the head the eyes are on. But my dad told me otherwise when he looked at the picture. but maybe im wrong? --Also, I find that fishng live bait such as rockfish, flounder, works very well at times. However, when I fish live bait, I drop down to the bottom reel about 3-5 feet off the bottom and let it sit for a while and then crank viciously for about 3 cranks and let it sit and then drop back down. I do this becasue many times I have been rockfishing and have a little rockfish on and then a big ling smacks it. So I think the ling go after these fish becasue becasue the rockfish is doing something out of the ordinary and erratic. If a lingcod just wanted to eat there are plent of fish down there for him to catch. It is the same theory as to why a LArgemouth bass hits a panic minnow, or baits like that. However, once again these are only one fishermans thoughts.

[Rollin with Rolland]

I agree physher92...

I think the rock soles are actually right-eyed fish, like you said. Exactly...tilt the fish so the dorsal fin is up...(anus down) and see what side the eyes are on. Left or right. I guess my conclusion is still rock sole....

[Smalma]

Had my left and right mixed up (not the first time!). Sorrry my bad.

See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleuronectidae

Still a rock sole

Curt