The Fish on Fridays series is a collaboration between Gloucester photographers Kathy Chapman and Marty Luster. Look for various aspects of Gloucester’s centuries-old fishing industry highlighted here on Fridays.
This week we look at flounder. The F/V Padre Pio and F/V Marie G.S.‘s catch is filleted at Steve Connolly Seafood.
Sole is similar flounder. From ehow: “Both fish are flat, with both eyes on one side of their face so they can hide on the ocean floor and watch for prey. While both are oval in shape, flounder is more rounded. They are two separate species with slightly different looks and tastes.”
And from Asian Recipes Blog: “There are many species of sole and flounder, all flat fish with tiny scales and a white belly. The newly hatched fish have one eye symmetrically on each side of the head. When they grow to 2 cm long, one eye begins to move towards the top of the head, then crosses to the other side to lie adjacent to the other eye. As this happens, the pigment on the opposite side becomes lighter and turns almost white.
Both sole and flounder have a gill cover with another bone in front of it. In a sole these are joined together; in a flounder they are separate and you can insert your fingernail between them.
Both varieties of fish have white, soft flesh with a very fine flake, on a fine-boned skeleton. In most recipes, whether they are used whole or as fillets, sole and flounder are interchangable.”
Videos and photos © Kathy Chapman 2013
kathychapman.com
Good Morning Gloucester 
There’s nothing better than a fillet of flounder, cooked any way. In the 1980’s, my friend Gene (commercial fisherman from RI) and I paddled out to my secret fishing hole between Ten Pound Island and Rocky Neck for an incoming tide. My cooler was filled with beer and sandwiches. As we consumed the contents, we put in the fish. After a couple of hours, the cooler was full of flounder and the beer was all gone, so we paddled back to the Old Yacht Club on Rocky Neck where I lived. It took me and Gene, a professional fisherman, two hours to fillet those beautiful fish. No matter how you prepare them, flat fish are melt in your mouth tasty – kind of between chicken, lobster, and heaven. I’ve heard the flounder are back now, so maybe…
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Great photos of really FRESH looking fish! I’m thinking of cooking up some flounder for dinner tonight. I agree with Fred, flounder and sole are ‘melt in your mouth’ delicious fish!
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Dabs. My eyes are tearing up when I realize how much tonage was landed in Gloucester of these delicious fish. A box was 125 lb., 9 boxes to a pallet or 1125 lb. We, ourselves, could processed 20 pallets a day. Even around Fiesta we would bring in Yellowtail Flounder from New Bedford to keep the crew working. Flatfish: Dabs, Yellowtail, Grey Sole, Blackback, etc, were the core of our production. What a treat when you came across a halibut mixed in. That went home to my house and the grill..
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Seems I am Listed as Anon now. Got to fix that, Cheers, Bob Ryan, Ryan & Wood Distillery
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