Summer Flounder
Summer Flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) is a saltwater species. The first thing to check: left-eyed: lay the fish belly-down facing you and both eyes are on the left side. The look-alike to rule out is Gulf Flounder: gulf flounder carry three prominent ocellated spots in a clear triangle, not five in an X.
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| Scientific name | Paralichthys dentatus |
|---|---|
| Also called | fluke, doormat, northern fluke |
| Water | Saltwater |
| Group | Flatfish |
| Temperature | Comes inshore as water passes the high 50s and heads back offshore as it drops through the low 60s. |
How to identify a Summer Flounder
- Left-eyed: lay the fish belly-down facing you and both eyes are on the left side.
- A large mouth with sharp teeth, the jaw hinge reaching back past the eye.
- Around five ocellated spots — dark, pale-ringed eye spots — arranged roughly in an X among many smaller blotches.
If you would rather not work through a key on a wet deck, photograph the fish and let the app name it — you get the common and the scientific name back, and the record is filed before you release.
Fish it is mistaken for
| Species | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Gulf Flounder | Gulf flounder carry three prominent ocellated spots in a clear triangle, not five in an X. |
| Winter Flounder | Winter flounder are right-eyed with a small, almost toothless mouth. |
Where it lives
The Atlantic coast from the Gulf of Maine to North Carolina. Moves into bays, inlets and the nearshore in the warm months and runs offshore to the shelf for winter.
Temperature
Comes inshore as water passes the high 50s and heads back offshore as it drops through the low 60s.
The conditions that matter
Fluke lie on the bottom facing into the current and ambush upward, so tide direction decides which side of a sandbar, channel edge or inlet they will be on — get it wrong and you drift over empty sand. The autumn run out of the inlets is triggered by falling water temperature, and a logbook with tide stage and water temperature on every fish makes that run predictable year to year.
Global Fishing League records 18 weather and water readings against every catch automatically — tide stage, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, swell, current, moon phase and more, taken at your GPS position at the moment you log the fish. Over a season that turns a hunch about summer flounder into a pattern you can read.
See every reading recorded with a catch, or the guides to what each reading means.
Size limits, bag limits and seasons
Size limits, bag limits, slot limits and seasons are set by your state wildlife agency — and for many offshore and migratory species by federal regulators — and on many waters they differ from the statewide rule. They also change between seasons. Check the current regulations for the exact water you are fishing before you keep a fish — we do not republish limits here, because a number that is a season out of date is worse than no number.
What the app does do is make your side of it accurate: every catch carries a length measured from the photograph, a GPS position and a timestamp, exportable if you ever need to show your work for a tournament or a record claim. It is also what a Global Fishing League entry is built from — a record that verifies itself, without publishing where you caught the fish.