Mike Ray, deputy director of the TPWD's Coastal Fisheries Division, didn't need any time to think in order to come up with the top area: the Upper Coast, particularly Galveston Bay and Sabine Lake. "The fishery trends for Sabine Lake are going up for flounder," he said.

Moving down from the Texas-Louisiana border, the next hotspot is Galveston Bay. "The majority of our flounder catch is out of Galveston Bay," offered Ray. Last year, numbers were down somewhat, but most observers attribute that to a late start on the run, which resulted in less fishing and few landings.

Matagorda Bay, San Antonio Bay and Aransas Bay round out the Top 5 list.

"Galveston is the flounder capital of the state," said Mark Fisher, the department's coastal fisheries science director. "But anything in the Upper Coast will be good from Sabine Pass on down to West Matagorda Bay."

So why is the Upper Coast better? "Because flounder recruitment is temperature dependent," Fisher explained. "The warmer the winter, the fewer flounder we see." Since the 1990s, a run of warm winters has resulted in declining numbers from San Antonio Bay south, he pointed out, but the Lower Coast has always been the southern limit for the southern flounder, and as average water temperatures have crept upward, their range has contracted northward.

Though called southern flounder, the species has a Yankee's appetite for cool weather. In fact, their life cycle revolves around it. When the water temperature starts to drop, flounder activity goes way up. Accordingly, prime time for flounder fishing is in the fall, usually starting in late October and continuing through December. As geese head south and Texans occupy themselves with football and the coming holiday, flounder begin migrating from the bays to the Gulf of Mexico, there to tend to their biological compulsion to reproduce.

The 2-year-olds that make it past Texas anglers during this annual "run" end up in the open water beyond the bays and protective barrier islands. In water ranging from 9 to 16 fathoms, they release their eggs. These eggs float until they hatch. At first, the larval fish swim upright, with their eyes on opposite sides of the head, like most fish. But with growth, the right eye begins to move to the left side of the flounder's head. When the fish is about a half-inch long, the eye relocation is complete, and the fish remains in its unusual orientation for the rest of its life.

One fish makes an individual serving, two enable you to invite a friend, and a limit will feed your family a couple of times.

Last year, the flounder run ran late, not beginning until the first substantial northers had made it far enough south to cool things off.

Most flounder used to be taken by gigging, which is the sporting equivalent of fishing and hunting combined into one activity. Unlike most traditional hunting, however, gigging for flounder occurs at night, preferably on a moonless one.

Armed with King Neptune-like mini-tridents, flounder-giggers use brilliant lanterns to illuminate the shallow waters of passes and flats in search of the well-camouflaged flatfish. The idea is to wade quietly and carefully -- think stingrays -- in clear water on windless nights until your lantern illuminates a keeper-sized flounder. The light tends to immobilize the fish, allowing you to spear them for your next supper.