Fluke Options Poll

[sternline]

I just voted for 5 at 17.5 inches. Who really needs 8 fish bigger than this? And at 17.5, many more people have a shot at bringing home a nice dinner. This would make for more customers on the party boats.

Also, by late September, people might be able to get into some good porgy fishing. And, who knows, maybe we could get the Deciders to let us do some sea bass angling.

[Chris G]

From someone who works on a headboat who fluke fishes throughout the summer I voted #5.

First, the season is just about right. The 1st week of May is kinda sorta just around the time you can bet on it getting warmer & warmer each day. Furthermore, Sepetember is a completely unpredictable month. You can get hit with NE'er after NE'er and have a few fishable days inbetween. By the 1st week in October just about all interest for fluke is gone just about regardless of the weather. The interest may not be gone to a few people on this website, but as a general whole the interest is gone (imo).

5 keeper fluke @ 17.5" is a pretty realistic & acceptable number in my eyes. How many times have we heard guys bitch & moan about throwing back that fish that was 17.9999999? How many fish to we go through to find that 18"? In my eyes, even a 1/2 inch difference in the size limit compensates the smaller bag limit. 5 fish is 10 fillets. That's a good amount, or a reasonable amount of meat anyways.

I always thought the best regs would be 6 @ 16.5" but.... thats just my opinion.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Some solid logic there Chris.

[frugalfisherman]

Let's hear from some of the party boat captains and see what they think?

[Capt. Debbie]

True May is "usually" good. But we are talking about this year- 2012.

The winter is mild and the water temps are not staying down like many years. Barring a long chill I can see fluke bite on in mid April.

This winter is not average- it's warmer. How many 50 degree days in February "usually" happens.

Originally Posted by Chris G

From someone who works on a headboat who fluke fishes throughout the summer I voted #5.

First, the season is just about right. The 1st week of May is kinda sorta just around the time you can bet on it getting warmer & warmer each day. Furthermore, Sepetember is a completely unpredictable month. You can get hit with NE'er after NE'er and have a few fishable days inbetween. By the 1st week in October just about all interest for fluke is gone just about regardless of the weather. The interest may not be gone to a few people on this website, but as a general whole the interest is gone (imo).

5 keeper fluke @ 17.5" is a pretty realistic & acceptable number in my eyes. How many times have we heard guys bitch & moan about throwing back that fish that was 17.9999999? How many fish to we go through to find that 18"? In my eyes, even a 1/2 inch difference in the size limit compensates the smaller bag limit. 5 fish is 10 fillets. That's a good amount, or a reasonable amount of meat anyways.

I always thought the best regs would be 6 @ 16.5" but.... thats just my opinion.

[hammer4reel]

can anyone here ever remember catching a quanity of fluke in April ?? not saying maybe they were not here but tradionally we were all winter flounder fishing

IM talking someones fishing log showing that , not just thinking it might have happened

early May had always been just that EARLY except for some of the mud flats, channel fishing usually got good the 3-4th week in may .

Sure the water is warmer this year , but the fish have still moved out, not like they stopped at the mud hole.they still need to make their trek back .

[SaltyAngler]

My only concern with starting later in May and Ending later in October would be NJ's tumultuous weather patterns in early fall. With a winter this mild, I can only imagine what mother nature has in store for us come that sometimes busy hurricane season. I can honestly say I'm one of the people on this board that never limited (8) out on Fluke, though I would have had the size minimum had been 17.5. Can't say I ever picked up my doormat either, and I did give it a hell of a shot last season, with my largest at 22" and 3.5lbs. At this rate, I'd be happy with a mid April to mid October 6 fish limit @ 17.5, and I'm sure the PB captains would agree.

[Reel Class]

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

can anyone here ever remember catching a quanity of fluke in April ?? not saying maybe they were not here but tradionally we were all winter flounder fishing

IM talking someones fishing log showing that , not just thinking it might have happened

early May had always been just that EARLY except for some of the mud flats, channel fishing usually got good the 3-4th week in may .

Sure the water is warmer this year , but the fish have still moved out, not like they stopped at the mud hole.they still need to make their trek back .

We have caught fluke in late April on many occasions while flounder fishing, especially in the river when we had an "open" season on fluke (open all year with no closure). There are times when we caught more fluke than flounder, and have caught plenty of keeper sized fluke while doing this. Log books show this in certain years in the 90's and early 00's - nothing as recent as 07' though. In the 80's, for whatever reason, the earliest I have EVER catching a fluke was early May with many flounder entries INTO the month of June.

Usually the boats in the Highlands have that quick shot of fish out at the CG station and the bug light and that usually happens from the last week of April into the second week or so in May - its traditional and its pretty dependable as every year that seems to go on.

For our ocean fluke fishing, we really haven't seen a good bite prior to Memorial Day in my memory or in the log book.

In fact, up until the early or even mid 90's, alot of the "fluke boats" that sail out of our inlet bottom fished up until the 15th or so of June, then started fluking. This mind you, was when we had no or little restrictions on tog and seabass, and had ling and whiting inshore in the spring.

[SaltyJim]

i voted for number 2.. this is a nice long season and with the higher bag limit.. If we give up the 8 fish bag limit we will never get it back.. Ever!.. 8 fish at 18in is the way to go.. Id rather have to catch larger fish.. I know last year my father and I would at least put 6 to 7 fish in the cooler each.. The bite isnt all ways that hot but it i don't feel that going down in the bag limit will help us.. half an inch for 3 fish doesn't add up in my book.

[JerseyHooker.Com]

8 fish @ 18 inches May 5 – Oct 21