Quote:
Originally Posted by Duffman
Before the seabass rules changed and closed seasons became a thing, I offshore fished for them all winter. Offshore 60-80 mile wrecks and rockpiles and fished out of both Barnegat and Point.
Always had blues and weaks in the catch all through Jan, Feb and March. Believe it or not, the blues and weaks would thin out as it came into March and were more prevalent in Jan and Feb.
If I had to guess Id say yeah, they winter over on these wrecks/rockpiles. One other observation is all the fish were very cookie cutter Blues always 3-5lb fish and weaks around 2-4. Nothing smaller nothing larger.
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Good insight.. I imagine the fact they would start to thin out as the spring started to get closer was because they would start heading inshore.. Years ago we would catch them in early April some years and have many bites taken out of Winter Flounder.. the flounder fishing would come to a quick halt when the Blues showed up.. As we know weaks start spawning in bays inshore in April on into May as well, so your timing makes sense.. We don't really know whats up with these fish 100%.. Some, probably most, migrate south of course, but there are probably plenty that winter close by as well, just going deeper, and simply becoming less active..
I have posted here several times about how years ago, one of the old school party boat captains out of AH told my brother that not all fluke wintered offshore, some stayed local right in the deeper channels in the bay, and other near shore areas.. I always believed that as over the years I have seen them caught in the middle of January on crabs meant for blackfish, and have seen them caught in march on flounder baits. It is interesting that often real life experiences of fishermen don't jive with the accepted norms we read about in the literature published by "experts",, biologists, scientists, conservationists,, you know,- all the "ist" types... bob
