Sundial aka windowpane flounder

[albacized]

So I fished both Sat and sun down in RI this weekend, and other than hickory shad, did not catch many fish (shad fishing itself was good)…so while fly fishing on Saturday, besides shad, I caught just one schoolie bass and one 6” sea bass. 
But on Sunday, the only non shad species I caught was a windowpane…wasn’t very big (6-7 inches)…but it was my first one in several years (prior to that, I caught them with some regularity depending where I fished. But what more so caught me off guard was where I caught it, which was way up in an estuary/river where I was shad fishing…I’ve caught them this late in the season a number of times, but only out front in the ocean, either from the beach or off jetties. 

 

Anyone here ever catch them a decent ways upriver from the mouth of said estuary?

[slacktide]

There is a flounder that moves up into streams, I have seen them in costal trout streams. 

[bdowning]

No windowpane, but I've gotten fluke occasionally way up beyond where I thought they'd be. I think sometimes they'll just follow the bait wherever it leads. 

[mikez2]

I have got the windowpane at the mouth of the Merrimack but don't really fish any up river spots with the right gear for flounder. They might be there but I'd not see them.

 

I have seen the little hogchokers in small freshwater streams above the tide line. These are totally different from the windowpane though. You wouldn't confuse them.

[albacized]

2 mins ago, mikez2 said:

I have got the windowpane at the mouth of the Merrimack but don't really fish any up river spots with the right gear for flounder. They might be there but I'd not see them.

 

I have seen the little hogchokers in small freshwater streams above the tide line. These are totally different from the windowpane though. You wouldn't confuse them.

Yeah, those hogchokers have a unique mouth. This was clearly a windowpane, with a mouth similar to fluke’s mouth (minus the teeth), more ‘rounder’ and very thin - in fact at that small size, I could hold it up to the sun, and basically see an X-ray of the fish 

[oldgoat]

Back when you could kill a seal (they eat fish) I would fish all night for bass then in the morning I would cast along the beach  with a small spoon for sand dabs for the kids to eat.

Even the dog loved the skins! Lets hope we wake up before the seals eat all our fish.

[jigmaster5]

23 hours ago, albacized said:

Anyone here ever catch them a decent ways upriver from the mouth of said estuary?

 

I don't which estuary you were fishing....but I can share some general info....

 

I've caught windowpanes on the northshore near estuaries while targeting winter flounder.  They can be hard to get away from at times.

 

Years ago, winter flounder used to winter over in some salt rivers on the Cape...that fishery on the south side is all but gone now.  My guess is that some flounder (& window panes) still try to winter over??  Maybe that's why you found them way upriver??  Just a guess.

 

 

[pogie_boy]

I caught a tiny one off monomoy once trolling an SP minnow basically on the surface in a rip.

That was one hungry little fella.

[The Riddler]

I found tons of windowpane or dab in the Lynn and Saugus rivers. May usually. 

[Pescador710]

All my windowpane experience happened fishing sand eels. Caught a handful in Gloucester at the mouth of an estuary. 
 

They were also a somewhat consistent bycatch bouncing sand eels in the east end during the summer. Early-mid 2000’s.

[Jonesy]

No windowpanes but have caught two keeper fluke way up child’s river while bass fishing that came up and hit my swimming plug in the last couple weeks. I think they were hanging out under the clouds of peanuts. One would have been good eating it was bigger than any I caught elsewhere this summer.

[CWitek]

When I was a kid growing up in Connecticut, back in the '60s when the smelt still ran, we caught a lot of sundials in the creeks whin using small killifish for smalt bait.

 

Numbers have dropped significantly since then, and NMFS listed both stocks of windowpanes as overfished not too long ago.  Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic stock has been taken off the list since then, but Gulf of Maine/Geoprges Bank windowpane remain on the overfished list.

[z-man]

On 11/7/2023 at 7:30 AM, oldgoat said:

Back when you could kill a seal (they eat fish) I would fish all night for bass then in the morning I would cast along the beach  with a small spoon for sand dabs for the kids to eat.

Even the dog loved the skins! Lets hope we wake up before the seals eat all our fish.

I wonder if the seals think the same thing about humans eating all of their fish?

 

The only windowpane I ever caught was in around 100’ of water fishing for seabass. 

[mikez2]

They're pretty aggressive feeders. It used to be a regular thing to get them on flies while striper fishing in the 90s. 

I kept a couple big ones. Super thin filets but tasty enough. 

Edited November 8 by mikez2

[oldgoat]

Use pancake batter for a coating on window panes.