Eat My Shorts!

[Billfish715]

I'm so happy to be able to contribute something to the commercial fishing industry. In this case, it's my shorts! This past weekend, I was able to fish both days in many areas along the entire Monmouth County coastline. I ran out of Littoral Society tags as I released one fluke after another between 16 and 17.5 inches. Jeff Dement will be getting another order for tags tomorrow. Most of those fluke will probably be harvested by the commercial draggers later this year. Hopefully, a few will make it back next year as healthy keepers for some deserving hook and liners to harvest. Until then, someone who buys his fluke from a fish monger or eats it in a restaurant will be EATING MY SHORTS!

[skate king]

Originally Posted by Billfish715

I'm so happy to be able to contribute something to the commercial fishing industry. In this case, it's my shorts! This past weekend, I was able to fish both days in many areas along the entire Monmouth County coastline. I ran out of Littoral Society tags as I released one fluke after another between 16 and 17.5 inches. Jeff Dement will be getting another order for tags tomorrow. Most of those fluke will probably be harvested by the commercial draggers later this year. Hopefully, a few will make it back next year as healthy keepers for some deserving hook and liners to harvest. Until then, someone who buys his fluke from a fish monger or eats it in a restaurant will be EATING MY SHORTS!

Love the report!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Buddy of ours caught and released a 16.5 inch Fluke with us on Sunday that had a tag in it. It would be funny it it was one of yours...Going to ask him to let me know what the tags return is.

[Captain Rich]

Very Funny..... and True !

[Billfish715]

The number of tag returns vs. the number of fish tagged is staggeringly few. I have had some of my tagged fish recaptured. Some were caught right away, some were caught a year or more later. Most of the tag returns from fluke that I released during past summers have been recaptured in the same vicinity as where they were tagged. Some were recaptured only a short time after they were released and had only moved less than a mile from where they had been tagged in the first place. A few others had been able to avoid recapture for a year or so, but when they were caught, they had returned to the same area where I tagged them. My theory is that the ocean fluke take up residence in an area and stay relatively close to there until the body of fluke start their fall migration. Once that starts, they can cover more than a mile per day on their way offshore. Again, it's only a theory.

[frugalfisherman]

If it was me I would have kept a couple 17's for sashimi and eaten my own shorts.

[NJ219bands]

A bluefish that I tagged with an ALS tag in Barnegat Inlet was found in a North Carolina fish market. I only have a 3% recapture rate for my ALS tags.