MORE HOTSPOTS
Although the CBBT complex is without equal when it comes to giving up big flounder, there are numerous viable alternatives for taking home a trophy or two. The eastern side of the bay from the Concrete Ships off Kiptopeke up to buoy 47 and the Cut Channel boasts a number of perennial hotspots, including buoy 36A off Cape Charles and the Cherrystone Reef at buoy 38A.

While the ocean inlets of the Eastern Shore are best known for their spring fishing, Wachapreague’s Green and Drawing channels and Chincoteague’s Queen’s Sound continue to give up good-sized flounder during the summer. Nearshore wrecks in the area also produce large fish.

On the bay’s western side, the Hampton area offers excellent opportunities for flounder anglers, much of it easily accessible to small-boat anglers. Hampton Bar will usually hold flounder, some in the 8-pound class, along the ledge on the channel side of the James River. The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel offers much the same type of structure as the larger CBBT, only in shallower water. Most of the region’s biggest flounder, however, usually come from Back River Reef, where a good number of citations are landed each year, including the bay’s largest flounder in 2005, which weighed in at a whopping 17 pounds, 2 ounces.

All the way up Virginia’s western side of the bay, anglers can find flounder on the deeper north side of Smith Point Bar between the lighthouse and buoy 1 of the Potomac River. The dropoff between buoy 62 and the Northern Neck Reef to the north can also be productive.

This summer, more anglers in the area are likely to take a ride across the mouth of the Potomac to Maryland’s Cornfield Harbor, where a few serious trophy hunters took some double-digit flounder last year. They were drifting with extra-large live spots, big hooks and heavy sinkers -- a practice known in these parts as the “Virginia big-rig technique.”

Anglers using standard baits and techniques in this region enjoyed one of their best seasons in years on smaller but keeper-sized fish. Virginia and Maryland recognize fishing licenses from either state, but anglers must be sure to know and heed the laws and regulations of the jurisdiction in which they are fishing.

If there is any location in Chesapeake Bay that can rival the CBBT for tailor-made doormat structure, it’s the Cell, located 2 1/2 miles west of Mattawoman Creek north of Cape Charles. This fish haven is a manmade circular reef boasting a 2,000-foot radius of prime habitat that cranks out citation-sized flounder each summer.

Trophy fishing is at its peak here during July, and it can get very crowded, especially on weekends. This can make for difficult fishing anywhere close to the reef.

“The only thing that makes it possible is that all the boats are drifting,” said Captain Tom Narron, who runs charters out of Deltaville. “As long as all the fishermen cooperate and work together, it’s like a choreographed dance. If not, it can be quite aggravating. You also have to keep a constant eye on the shipping traffic there. The big container ships move faster and quieter than most people realize.”

Narron doesn’t get too close to the Cell structure itself because of snags.

Besides, he finds the channel edges that loop around the Cell and north to buoy 42 to be more productive. He starts looking for fish around buoy 42, about a 12-mile run from Deltaville, and can usually find action within a few miles north or south.