Feeding Flounder at the Four Mouths
By Charlie Petrocci

At right: This pair of thick flounder were caught in the spring on a bucktail jigged through a deep hole.

Behind Virginia’s eighteen barrier islands are a myriad of tidal creeks, guts and channels that can swallow a small boat if you don’t know where you’re going. Many of these are shallow and most have more turns in them than the gut of a wild boar. And as spring arrives these back waters tend to heat up faster than any other. Because of that, various migrating species sense these subtle water temperature changes and gravitate to them. And flounder, that old hometown favorite of spring, are one of the first fish to take up residence.

TIDAL CREEK TACTICS
When flounder move through coastal inlets from offshore haunts come early April, they will seek optimum warm water areas that hold baitfish. And savvy anglers know that the outflow areas around tidal creeks are some the best places to target early season flounder. One creek is fine, two creeks is better and three creeks is great, but if you can locate four waterways converging, then you have found fat flounder city. There is such a spot near Chincoteague and it is appropriately called The Four Mouths. And over the years it has produced some impressive catches of spring season flounder.

Above: Four Mouths flounder are not big but
they are cooperative in the spring.

Above: Thick squid strips and minnows will
put fish in the net.

The Four Mouths, as the name implies, is a series of 4 small waterways that converge into one channel. Located behind Wallops Island, just south of Chincoteague, this area is a hot spot for flounder from early April until late June. Though not many large flounder may come from there, what they lack in size they can sometimes make up for in numbers. But don’t get me wrong, many a four pound plus fish will have been pulled from that tidal area this spring. The problem is though a lot of anglers know about this limited area waterway and it can sometimes be a madhouse of boats on good weather weekends.

The most productive time to fish the Four Mouths area is in late April during a weekday, just around the top of the high down through the lower half of the ebb. A southwest wind won’t hurt either. Basic flounder fishing techniques here call for using bull minnows with a single dropper kahle hook with a 24-inch leader. Mylar or bucktail in pink, green or yellow works well with the hook, as does a bead or two. Spinner blades may help in dirty water conditions. Some anglers use a 2-ounce bucktail with a live minnow and bounce it through the slough.

There are several holes and channel edges in this area that will hold fish. Watch your depth finder and channel markers to stay in the strike zone. With boat traffic you’ll have to jockey for position to stay in the game. Just use good fishing ethics and everyone will get into fish. If the Four Mouths area is crowded there are other close by options to fish. One of those is Cockle Creek, located between the Four Mouths and Chincoteague Island.

COCKLE CREEK ALTERNATIVE
Cockle Creek runs deep - for Eastern Shore standards. There are stretches that hit 25 feet and holes that drop to over 30 feet. It’s a place of

strong tided that can easily push around boat, bait and game fish. Near the creek mouth, as it dumps into the end of Chincoteague Channel between Willis Point and the ocean inlet, anglers can nail flounder, gray trout, and rockfish in the late spring. As you move up along the oyster shell bars, speckled trout and red drum lurk during the spring and fall months. Farther up the creek deepens and holes will have fat trout, red drum and in early June some very big sharks. These sharks, such as sand tigers, dusky and sand bars move into these deep holes to have their live pups. Local anglers anchor up at night over these holes and feed whole bluefish down on wire leaders. These sharks can reach a couple of hundred pounds, so tough tackle is needed. This is primarily a struggle and release fishery.

Cockle Creek is also noted for its weakfish or gray trout. Drifting soft crab, bloodworms, or strip baits through deep holes can produce some chunky trout. Also white bucktails with cut bait such as squid strips can score trout as well. The top of the high through the beginning of the ebb, as bait tumbles out of the marshes, are good times to target trout, especially during evening and overcast days. The area also occasionally holds some red drum and speckled trout, which are always a nice surprise on the seaside.

Cockle Creek bisects equally deep Mosquito Creek and then ends where it begins, and that’s at Chincoteague Bay, near Queens Sound, another perennial flounder hot spot. The only way to fish Cockle Creek and the Four Mouths area effectively is by boat and the easiest access boat ramps are located at Capt Bob’s Marina located on south Main Street in Chincoteague or the Queens Sound ramp on the causeway into town. Capt. Bobs has bait, fuel, rigs, charts, everything you need to go deep into the creek on a fishing adventure.