A dedicated fluke junkie’s attention to detail was rewarded with a pending 15.3-pound state record summer flounder.
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“Everyone can fish for fluke,” is how Bill Proulx explains the social media fervor stirred up by his 15.3-pound pending Connecticut State Record summer flounder. The everyman fish is one of the most popular and prolific target species for inshore anglers from New England to the mid-Atlantic. When Hillyer’s Tackle Shop released photos of Proulx’s fish on Facebook, the post received 366 likes, 164 shares and 74 comments. “I’m not technically savvy, but the story went on a website and my phone has been ringing off the hook!” explains Proulx.
Proulx, a retired police officer from Ashford, Connecticut, was fishing with friend Ed Pyle in the Atlantic Ocean out of Four Mile River Marina in Lyme. Proulx is an accomplished angler and diver who targets a wide variety of fish, but flounder fishing is one of his favorite pursuits.
The guys left the marina at 4:45 in the morning and had been fishing half a day before catching the big flounder. “We had a limit of sea bass and two 23-inch flounder,” he adds.
Proulx and Pyle were drifting rocky structure and patches of sand in 80 feet of water one mile offshore. “The current was slow, so I was using a 100-gram Daiwa Rock Rover with a strip of squid and a fresh spearing.”
Proulx works the jig by lifting the rod tip in five to six quick jerks and then letting the lure fall. He varies the speed of the jigging adding in longer pauses. “A lot of times the fish hits on the pause.”
