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Fluke-a-thon Turned Out To Be Yet Another 3-Ling Circus

Today, opening day for fluke, left most with great expectations. We left the dock and unfortunately, my expectations were very low. No drift, southeast wind, cold water, a recipe for lousy fluking. Gave the fluke a shot for about an hour, and decided it was time for Plan B. Brought plenty of clams, anticipating bottom fishing was going to be done most of the day. Made a drop on a likely spot, and those ever-loving ling were ready to play. In addition to the ling, we had plenty of sea bass and black fish to fight with, and of course, they had to be released. The ling saved the Spring for many of us fishermen. True, there was a great striped bass fishery up north in the Sandy Hook area out of range for many of us. With tog and sea bass being closed, the ling helped to fill the gap. The ling were given a bad rap many years ago and called unsavory names, such as sewer trout and other names not to be printed. This was before coolers, everything went into burlap bags. By the time you got home, the bag full of ling was ready for the garbage. As we all know, ling has to be placed on ice, kept cold. Everyone was looking to catch those sleek, silver, good-looking whiting. Sure, the whiting were good lookers and were hands-down winners in the beauty contest with my lovable ling, but at the dinner table, the whiting didn't stand a chance. LING IS KING! Stay well all, Capt. Tom Joseph