Fluke Season

[dakota560]

We're about 40% through the 2020 fluke season, curious how everyone would rate the season thus far. Reports seem to be way down, don't know if that's indicative of the fishing or fishing effort.

July full moon is 7/20 which will bring a new body of fish but curious what anyone's thoughts are about the current state of the fishery.

For the last four years with 18" / 19" minimums for most states, short to keeper ratio has run around 15:1 and average keepers per trip if any keepers were caught averaged one. Many angler directed fluke trips resulted in empty coolers. Does it seem those percentages are holding this year or changed for better or worse not that it could really get much worse than one fish.

Curious people's thoughts. Thanks.

[Angler Paul]

The moon was full on 7/5, the new moon is on 7/20. Ocean fluking out of Barnegat has sucked so I've been tuna fishing.

[dakota560]

Paul thanks for the correction. You're right, the full moon was July 3rd not the 20th which is the new moon.

Full moon for August is August 3rd. With the July full moon so early this year, large body of fish should have moved in from the east but that doesn't seem to be the case which is partly why I started the thread.

So essentially we have one more full moon tide left during the season in early August for a body of bigger fish to move in from the east. If the season holds true with the last two or three seasons, fish will start their migration back out to the shelf in September well in advance of the season closure depending upon weather of course. First tropical storm of the season happening so soon doesn't bode well for the local biomass to hang around until the 9/22 closure.

Hope I'm wrong but as mentioned last year this appears to be shaping up as one of the worst fluke seasons on record with an inordinate amount of shorts and a severe lack of keepers.

Allowing 50% of age classes to succumb to natural mortality before growing to a size eligible for harvest and harvesting almost all breeders in the process while recruitments statistics have been radically reduced is no way to manage this or any other fishery. Hopefully fisheries management will wake up one day and figure that out.

[Capt John]

Dakota,

Seriously, do you think fisheries management cares about the recreational/for-hire sector?

NOT....

Another shitty year.....:mad:

[hartattack]

Tom,, The NJ body of fluke is substantial, however those > 18" remain scarce. I've never seen so many tiny river fluke before, double headers were common when they were thick in June. If the size limit was 17" we'd all agree that 2020 was epic but that one inch difference is a game-changer we may never be able to undo :mad:

[hammer4reel]

Tom , look at Jerrys reports .
Guys putting in effort are catching plenty of fluke .

We have only fished a few trips and it’s been quick limits on all but one trip .
And that trip was definetly weather related .
.
This year has shown the most sand eels I have ever seen. . From the wash to 80 miles off . Bait everywhere . And every species of fish is gorging on them .

Fluke , sea bass , bluefish and tuna are all packed with so many sand eels it’s a wonder why they ate another bait .
Sand eel type baits are def producing better than standard offerings

[NoLimit]

The fluke reports are so dismal, that we haven’t even tried. It’s a disgrace what the govt has done killing all the breeders.

[Gfedor]

Tom , look at Jerrys reports .
Guys putting in effort are catching plenty of fluke .

We have only fished a few trips and it’s been quick limits on all but one trip .
And that trip was definetly weather related .
.
This year has shown the most sand eels I have ever seen. . From the wash to 80 miles off . Bait everywhere . And every species of fish is gorging on them .

Fluke , sea bass , bluefish and tuna are all packed with so many sand eels it’s a wonder why they ate another bait .
Sand eel type baits are def producing better than standard offerings

Capt Dan 100% right on about the sand eels. My fishing has been limited this year , but the fish that we did catch from tuna to small fluke where loaded with sand eels

[dakota560]

Guys I agree with all your comments, especially the reemergence of sand eels as a forage base. What I disagree with is the average recreational angler being hamstrung with this 18" or 19" minimum. If the fishery experiences the 25% natural mortality the models use (God only knows how that number is arrived at) coupled with commercial operators being allowed to harvest fish between 14" and 18" which recreational in the four most populous states can't, those young fish Henry you refer to will never translate to greater catch levels in two to three years. Never. They'll be wiped out through discard mortality, natural predation and commercial by catch mortality.

Danny I agree above average anglers will always have an advantage finding fish, I'm talking about the average recreational angler. We have the same conditions today which led to the collapse in this fishery in 1988 which is commercial harvesting primarily larger sexually mature fish and worse recreational has to retain larger breeders when in the 80's we could retain 13" fish. The discard rates associated with both recreational and commercial are killing this fishery. You can't harvest the breeders and let younger age classes succumb to natural mortality and by catch mortality, especially when the by catch mortality in commercial is 80%.

We'll see where it ends up but my bet is 2020 is another disappointment and the increase in smaller juvenile fish were seeing today will not translate to increases in larger fish due to the insane number of fish being wasted as a result of current regulations.

Not arguing with anyone, stating my opinion. Dan I know some operators have increased mesh sizes to avoid mortality to the smaller fish but the vast majority haven't and the percentage of this stock being thrown back dead rivals the whiting fishery in the 70's. We know how that ended up.

[Brewlugger]

So far this season I would say our keeper catch in Barnegat bay has been a little above average with a good keeper to short ratio. What we are seeing is the short fish have been mostly 7 to 12 inches and we are not seeing many 12 to 17 inch fish at all.I did one ocean trip this year 2 weeks ago and we had 3 keepers and 3 shorts. That day it went from nothing to catching and back to nothing in 1 hour.

[dakota560]

So far this season I would say our keeper catch in Barnegat bay has been a little above average with a good keeper to short ratio. What we are seeing is the short fish have been mostly 7 to 12 inches and we are not seeing many 12 to 17 inch fish at all.I did one ocean trip this year 2 weeks ago and we had 3 keepers and 3 shorts. That day it went from nothing to catching and back to nothing in 1 hour.

Brew in my opinion those 12" to 17" fish will become collateral damage to recreational discards due to elevated size minimums and the pursuit of commercial operators to harvest highest market value fish in the 18' to 20" range and above. It's the absolute reverse logic just employed with striped bass which is harvest the smaller fish and protect the breeders. With bass now the spawn is largely protected, with summer flounder it's not at all. It's why there's 40 million less females in the summer flounder biomass producing 40 trillion less eggs annually. Some one please explain the sense in that management ideology.

[Brewlugger]

I agree Tom. Just prior to the Winter Flounder disappearing we were catching all large fish no small ones, when we see a missing size class within the population in my mind it is a sign of an unhealthy fishery. There may be plenty of that size in the mix but I'm not seeing them where I fish this year. The one thing I'm certain of 10 years ago we would catch alot of short fish to every keeper, now we just aren't seeing those numbers in the Bay.

[dakota560]

Brew couldn't have said it better or agree more. A healthy fishery has age classes of all sizes. As soon as that balance is broken you have a unsustainable fishery.

[Irish Jigger]

Fishing is 100% better then last season was. Main reason we have caught double the amount so far this season we did all last year. Sure have to fish some shallows and match the hatch with some different gulp but between me and pops we are on a 3 to 4 fish average per trip. Some 2 some 6 but putting fish in the box every trip so far. Nothing over 6 lbs but all the fish are fat and loaded with shrimp and crabs. Waiting for the Peanuts to show up and it's game on!!!

[Detour66]

Tom , look at Jerrys reports .
Guys putting in effort are catching plenty of fluke .

We have only fished a few trips and it’s been quick limits on all but one trip .
And that trip was definetly weather related ..
Sand eel type baits are def producing better than standard offerings

Besides real sand eel's what type of "Sand eel Type bait" do you recommend?

[dakota560]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Would like to keep the thread going throughout the season to see how things pan out. Seems like a little bit of a mixed bag right now but I think it'll be helpful to get input from as many as possible to keep a gauge on the season as it unfolds. Appreciate everyone's input.

Detour I'll let Danny answer your question but I know gulp makes a very nice sand eel imitation that I've had good success with in past years when fish were keyed on sand eels.

[Jigman13]

In my limited outings, from shore back bay raritan, I've been getting fish consistently from 12 to 19". I average about 8 to 10 fish per trip and steadily get a keeper or two each trip.

Compared to last year at this time, my ratio has improved. I think once the peanuts and mullet start moving my ratio will improve more so. The fish I've been catching have been packed full of crabs and miscellaneous baitfish from killies, some peanuts, what looked like snappers and other fish I couldn't recognize.

I think itll get better. The trop storm hurt the back bay and fish moved out temporarily but itll be game on soon!

[Duffman]

Think the season is pretty good so far. I’ve fished a lot of short trips due to time contraints. Found fish everywhere shallow to deep. Nothing huge but keeper sized fish every trip with plenty of shorts to weed thru. Just about every fish, regardless of size, caught inside or out spitting up shrimp.

[hammer4reel]

Besides real sand eel's what type of "Sand eel Type bait" do you recommend?

Berkley has sand eels in their gulp line up .
But slender fairs such as their nemesis and fluke shad with thinner profiles and still some rail action have been very good .
Also darker colors to match the hatch .

Too many guys gave pink shine , glow and chartreuse stuck in their brain .many times the darker colors outfish those 3 by a mile

[Detour66]

Berkley has sand eels in their gulp line up .
But slender fairs such as their nemesis and fluke shad with thinner profiles and still some rail action have been very good .
Also darker colors to match the hatch .

Too many guys gave pink shine , glow and chartreuse stuck in their brain .many times the darker colors outfish those 3 by a mile

Thanks for the information I'm going to try it out. How do you fish them. I'm guessing your jigging and using them on the teaser hook?

[TopRod]

Besides real sand eel's what type of "Sand eel Type bait" do you recommend?

Give the gulp jerk shad a try, on certain days they have been doing very well. I like the six inch version, I seem to remember they used to make the jerk shads in seven in years ago.

[hammer4reel]

Thanks for the information I'm going to try it out. How do you fish them. I'm guessing your jigging and using them on the teaser hook?

Yes

[dakota560]

Berkley has sand eels in their gulp line up .
But slender fairs such as their nemesis and fluke shad with thinner profiles and still some rail action have been very good .
Also darker colors to match the hatch .

Too many guys gave pink shine , glow and chartreuse stuck in their brain .many times the darker colors out fish those 3 by a mile

Dan this is the sand eel imitation you're referring to correct. I've used this in past years and at times it outproduced the grub and swimming mullet significantly. All depends what they're feeding on but with the amount of sand eels around I'd think this would produce well this year.

https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/berkley-gulp-sand-eel-soft-baits-15bkyuswglpsndl5nlur/15bkyuswglpsndl5nlur?sku=11299647&camp=CSE:DSG_92700040953225080_pla_pla-506437755483&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImO35-tLK6gIVNfC1Ch1Lsw1mEAQYASABEgLu0fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Good luck guys and please keep with your thoughts about the season. Think it could benefit everyone without burning spots and give an idea how the regulations are effecting the sport. Again thanks for the feedback to date.

One other suggestion......find Danny's boat and fish 5 feet off his stern!:D Just kidding.....should be at least 10 feet off his stern!

[hammer4reel]

Dan this is the sand eel imitation you're referring to correct. I've used this in past years and at times it outproduced the grub and swimming mullet significantly. All depends what they're feeding on but with the amount of sand eels around I'd think this would produce well this year.

https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/berkley-gulp-sand-eel-soft-baits-15bkyuswglpsndl5nlur/15bkyuswglpsndl5nlur?sku=11299647&camp=CSE:DSG_92700040953225080_pla_pla-506437755483&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImO35-tLK6gIVNfC1Ch1Lsw1mEAQYASABEgLu0fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Good luck guys and please keep with your thoughts about the season. Think it could benefit everyone without burning spots and give an idea how the regulations are effecting the sport. Again thanks for the feedback to date.

One other suggestion......find Danny's boat and fish 5 feet off his stern!:D Just kidding.....should be at least 10 feet off his stern!

They work good , but the nemesis and the jerk shad have a simaler profile with more tail action.
They work great on slow drifts .

[dakota560]

Dakota,

Seriously, do you think fisheries management cares about the recreational/for-hire sector?

NOT....

Another shitty year.....:mad:

Capt John being it reports up under DoC no I don't but I'm holding out hope as senseless as that seems that somehow, someway we might get a more fair allocation of the resource and more liberalized regulations down the road.

[dakota560]

Tom,, The NJ body of fluke is substantial, however those > 18" remain scarce. I've never seen so many tiny river fluke before, double headers were common when they were thick in June. If the size limit was 17" we'd all agree that 2020 was epic but that one inch difference is a game-changer we may never be able to undo :mad:

Larry due to Covid and processing plants being closed down along with world markets, I think you have to at minimum ask if the resurgence of smaller fish is due to that as opposed to more productive spawning classes. The gauntlet of commercial nets these fish have to navigate during their inshore migration didn't exist this year because market prices fell to historic lows the result of market closures. Add to that I believe the pin hooker didn't fish Shark River this year for the same reason. Tragic what happened there but it had to have a significant impact.

With the mild winter, there were fluke inshore already by April. Commercial quotas for March - April were 500 lbs for two trips a week or 1,000 lbs. max one trip a week. For May - June it went to 250 lbs. seven trips a week or 500 lbs four trips a week. That's a lot of fluke taken in past years before the season opened on 5/22 which weren't harvested this year, again especially from such a thin body of water like Shark River. Believe what you and others witnessed were the impacts of the virus and closure of world markets and not necessarily a change in the dynamics of the fishery. Next two years will answer that question.

Summer flounder recruitment has been down for ten years which fishery management would tell you for unknown reasons. Where would these fish be coming from. In my opinion what we're seeing are juvenile fish getting through the usual March - May commercial gauntlet when they're migrating back inshore which didn't happen this year due to Covid. Under normal fishing conditions many would have succumb to commercial discard in the process of harvesting the larger higher priced fish and no one would be the wiser. As I said, if we see a comparable resurgence over the next two years in 18" and larger fish my theory is wrong. If we don't I would argue my theory is correct and the process of selective harvest by commercial concerns is taking it's toll on the fishery as it would on any fishery.

[Duffman]

Will Nappis record ever be broken on Gulp?

[dakota560]

Will Nappis record ever be broken on Gulp?

It already was but Rocky ate it! Great story and greater attempted scam.

[Jigman13]

Will Nappis record ever be broken on Gulp?

If it happens it's happening in Montauk or Nantucket!

We thought we had it a few years back while cod fishing off Montauk. Once the fish hit the deck we quickly realized it was a halibut and not a fluke lol...

[hammer4reel]

Will Nappis record ever be broken on Gulp?

Yep , the new 8” grub coming this fall .


Plenty of high DD are caught on gulp already