I was about to say the same, puppy drum and flounder are great. Reds and trout to fill the freezer. Neither is my favorite though.

Flatfish ...#1

Free line some live shrimp under a popping cork around those lights after dark. Cast to the edge of the light. Dead shrimp will catch hardheads.

I’m a halibut fan, but I doubt they will be anywhere near that dock

Josh, it's been a long time since I've used bait, but still fishing like that I use a double drop rig, weight is on the end of the rig, the hooks stay up off the bottom a little. It'll cut down on the hard head and sting ray bite a little by not setting right on the bottom. If it swims out there, good chance it'll bite dead shrimp.

The plastic? That's the challenge. If the trout are active and feeding, you can twitch it across the top the let it fall a couple of feet. The line will "pop" when they eat it. Sometimes if they're really biting good just reeling it in will work, but that twitch gets their attention a lot quicker. If they're not active? Let it hit the bottom, twitch it about 1' two times and let if fall back to the bottom, they'll pop the line as it's falling. That doesn't work? Let it hit bottom and drag it slowly, twitch it a little, drag, let it set. Those fish you won't feel bite, it'll just be heavy when you go to move it again. The 3 bigger trout in my pic I just sent were caught that way. Same area had little fish that were active, I slowed it way down and started catching the bigger ones.

Baked stuffed (with crab and crackers) flounder; fried speckled trout; grilled on-the-half-shell redfish. Pompano, permit and sheepshead are also good; Spanish mac if you clean and ice quickly and cook that day. To catch trout at night off a lighted pier use light line (8 lb) and smallish bass and even crappie lures in clear, white or chartreuse coloration to mimic the look and size of the glass minnows, on a one-sixteenth jig (Charlie Brewer Sliders are very effective). But also have a quarter-ounce jig with a Lil John tied on at least 12 lb line in case you sense there are some big girls out there.

Sheepshead
Triple tail
Flounder

I've probably eaten a half ton of flounder in my life. Hell, haybe a ton. I was a flounder snob in the 80's and 90's and we fished SW La. where there were no limits. I fileted both sides so 4 filets a fish (split them down the back bone. Somewhere I have some pics somewhere ... I'll look 'em up.

So what's the consensus of the group? Is it true everything down there has worms regardless of size?

Texas in-shore of the big 3 it's not even close ... flounder.

Reds, specks and sometimes in the bigger flounder, yes. It's no big deal, you can pull them out or cut them out. You may catch a bunch and only 1 or 2 have worms, or all of them may have them. They look like the old school sex ed films sperm swimming around... big head and long skinny tail. I know a lot that don't even mess with taking them out, they're cooked any way, heard they add a good flavor to the meat.

Top pic was after a shrimp cast net trip. In between shrimp runs i'd float a mud minnow over to a point on a big cork.

Second is a 6 pound flattish. Caught fan casting a flat in the Calcasieu ship channel just up from the Cameron ferry. I was 60 pounds lighter.

The cooler in the top pic is a 100 qt.

I misread your question. I rarely saw worms. I don't remember ever seeing them in flounder. but occasionally reds and more often specks. I ate 'em. Seen 'em in crappie too in the lower Neches R..

Man those are some NICE flatties!