Winter Flounder Fishing

[Irish Jigger]

Bill, Capt Jason is no joke when it comes to blackfishing either. Our flounder trip is always the first or second week of June. Has never let us down.

[hammer4reel]

Its been about 10 years now since they lowered the limit to 2 fish .
pretty sad it got to such a low point before the fishery was let crash.
If not rebuilt by now who knows if it ever will.

Fishing in Shark river and the Raritan bay was phenominal.
I'm sure the bay still has to have a decent run.

Shark river is so silted in with fine silt I don't ever think that fishery will come back.
The only way it would get good there again is if the state was forced to dredge the whole river. and that wont happen, we had a hard enough time fighting to just get the channel dredged correctly.
95% of the river is silted in .

They can take all the money for sand replentishment yet cant just do what should be done once, and be good for another 50 years there


.used to really enjoy being out there in march fishing for flundies.
yellow sinkers, BIG chum pots of chum we made ourselves. ( was a fun winter project BUSHELS of clams)
now even hearing the huge clam beds surrounding sandy hook are not producing 1/10th of the clams they used to .
Things are changing fast in the wrong direction

[Reel Class]

The saddest part about this post Gerry is that 15 years ago when I started chartering, till about 2010, I would be already prepping the boat to be in the water next week for the start of our flounder season. The calls were there, the anglers were there, and the fish were (and still are!!) there in the Manasquan River and Barnegat Bay. Makes me sad, but also makes me grateful that we were able to cash in for so many years with this great fishery. We caught tons of fish, threw back tons of fish, and of course kept our share for the table. The 10 fish limit was great as we were able to take what we wanted - where the bag limit is now makes targeting them inshore a complete waste of time for charter and party boats.

What upsets me more though is the lack of fish up north in the Shrewsbury/Navesink and the raritan bay. That really is disheartening.

Here's some pics, from between roughly 2002 and 2010. Back then I didn't take nearly as many pics as I do now so these are just from roughly 4 or 5 trips - all on the seaswirl!

[Skolmann]

Originally Posted by Irish Jigger

Our annual trip to visit my brother in Mass early spring is always phenomenal flounder fishing. Boat is out of Quincy Mass for half day $450 up to 4 anglers and have never been disappointed. Non stop from start to finish and bring home 20 plus pounds of filets and fish up to 4+ lbs. 12” and 8 fish limit per man bag limit. Any other info pm me

Capt. Colby on the Little Sister no doubt.

Been fishing with him since the early 2000’s.

When I first started fishing with him we’d also limit out on #4-6 cod fishing in the same spots we fished for flounder. I’d book Saturday PM and Sunday AM trips and almost always limited out on both trips with cod and flounder. Sadly, cod are rarely if ever caught in the bay anymore. Out of @15 trips, I think we’ve l8mited on flounder 14 times but we set a boat minimum length of 14”s even though I believe the MA size limit is 12 or 13. Caught many #3+ and a few #4+ flounders with him.

[Ice Cream Bill]

Skolmann and Irish Jigger,

That’s the boat! I stopped into a bait shop last month in Scitiuate, MA and was told “he’s the guy”. I’m looking for people for my July 8 (maybe July 7th pm) charters. Who’s in? Send me a PM with your phone please.

My friend Jeff owns Daddy’s Beach Club in nearby Hull, MA. About 20 mins from Quincy. Live music 5 nights a week. Great pizza and beer. Let’s make a road trip!

Bill

[Down Deep Sportfishing]

Capt. Chuck with Skip a Dory charters is another top producer in Boston

The shame of it all is this fishery was as dependable as it gets, year in and year out. Flounder were so abundant and the mark of a healthy fishery, you'd catch fish of all sizes. Postage stamps and few inches long up to jumbos and everything in between. Healthy mix of males and females as well. Wouldn't be unusual to catch 40 or 50 fish a day from shore with no chumming back in the day. As Danny mentioned, I fished with my parents right on the wall next to the boat launch in Belmar all winter long. Winters were tough with the cold but you still caught fish. Spring fishing was ridiculous for everyone. When the fished started heading out, we'd fish the inlets for a few more weeks and did as well, both Belmar and Manasquan and the Highlands had it's own incredible numbers. At Sandy Hook when the fish started moving out moving, Flynn's Knoll and the Cedars would heat up along with a tremendous ling fishing at the Cedars. This fishery with closed seasons and two fish limits, hard to say what happened but for years this was like opening day trout is for fresh water guys, spring flounder fishing was the much anticipated beginning of the season.........can't understand what happened to it much like ling / whiting....a fishery that couldn't possibly disappear and has. Commercial fishing, cormorants eating the young, seals etc. something significant has happened in the cycle or these fish are being netted by commercials. See enough of them i the markets, they're coming from somewhere. Even in years when stripers were abundant, and I'm sure a fair share of flounder fell prey to them, the fishery showed no sign of weakness every year and now it's just vanished. For the younger members on the site, you have no idea how great this fishery was and from shore, no need to rent a boat or chum the fishing was that great. Sad to see it go the way so many other fisheries have, it really is unbelievable.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by Ice Cream Bill

Gerry,

Great seeing you, Joey da Fish and Dales529 at the RFA booth in Edison!

Irish Jigger: I am booked for Sunday July 8th on that same boat in Quincy. Capt is holding Sat pm trip if I want as well. May and June trips are all booked.

He is not a sponsor on this site, but I need some NJ Fishing guys to join me—feel free to PM me if interested. Limit is 8 flounder per angler!

Bill

Good seeing you too Bill.

[Krablips]

Hi, any recent reports? Wondering if it’s worth going out this weekend. Thinking about going to Shark River or PP canal (river side). Thanks

[Gerry Zagorski]

I don't have any first hand reports but Easter weekend is usually around the time it starts.