Winter skate
 

Went fishing 🎣 on the Manasquan Inlet, NJ, north jetty this evening on a warm, cloudy day with a light northwesterly breeze and incoming tide. Saw bait fishermen on the dolos catch windowpane flounder and spiny dogfish. I caught, tagged and released a 25” 4 lb 10 oz winter skate in the ocean on a plain hook Ava A-17. Lost a fish 🐠 on my next cast for the final action of the day. A cast netter caught spearing and sand eels in the inlet at night under the lights. The Point Pleasant squid 🦑 netters were using their underwater green light. I took pictures.

Re: Winter skate
 

Bands I never realized at this time of year with colder water temperatures squid were inshore. I've caught a lot of herring and hickory shad on shabiki rigs on the wall at that turn this time of year during the day but never squid. Interesting.

I know there's been previous posts about this in past so apologies for re-asking the question but are windowpane flounder or sundials as they we're commonly called years ago good to eat?

Re: Winter skate
 

NJBands
Just wondering are there really squid boats or are you seeing the green lights from the Gambler who I believe leaves them on at the dock?

Great reports / love reading them. Keep fishing and best of luck.

Re: Winter skate
 

They are VERY good to eat,and I consider them superior to fluke.. They always tasted more like winter flounder than fluke to me .. They are just very thin and the fillets are really small.. Good size ones have more meat of course, but still a 15 inch sundial has less than 1/2 the meat of a 15 inch fluke.. I always kept them and found them better than fluke. bob

Re: Winter skate
 

I caught a few squid 🦑 on the Manasquan Inlet north jetty. Last year a cast netter caught 10 lbs of squid 🦑 in the inlet at night. Sundials are good to eat. A sundial that I tagged at Manasquan Inlet last year was recaptured at the inlet this year.

Re: Winter skate
 

Most nights there are squid fishermen with underwater green lights on the Point Pleasant side of Manasquan Inlet at the turn in November and December.

Re: Winter skate
 

That's pretty cool, never knew squid were inshore in numbers this late in the season even with warmer than usual water temps. Any idea how they actually catch them, squid jigs or cast net? I've caught them with a cast net in shark river on occasion during the summer years ago in Belmar but never would have thought they'd still be hanging around in the numbers you're suggesting in November and December.

Great stuff and thanks for the replies to the window panes / Sundials. I always threw them back.

Re: Winter skate
 

I found a squid 🦑 jig on the ground in the Manasquan parking lot but most squid 🦑 fishermen use nets. If you’re ever in Point Pleasant at night, check out the green light guys. They catch a variety of species.

Re: Winter skate
 

Good report. Interesting and detailed