11/5/21 winter flounder

[Jigman13]

Took most of the day off Friday and felt like enduring a lesson in futility targeting winter flounder in the way back bay from shore around some creeks. Got some worms on my way down to the sedge banks and started around 10 am.

I don't bait and wait. I fish like I'm fluking but in slo mo. Worked in and outta some holes I've found the last couple years in the back. Never a soul in sight! Anyhow, 3rd cast I feel a nibble... a faint, tap tap tap. I wait. Slowly turn the handle to stay tight. Tap tap tap. Unreal. Somethings messing with my mind. I wait. Tap tap tap. Slowly lift, and feel some weight and gently set the hook home. I'm hooked up but it's just gliding in towards me, nice and slow. Get it within a rod or 2 distance from me and it boogies and digs hard, peeling drag. I get a glimpse thinking it's a fluke. Nope... big ass snowshoe flounder! Slide it up the bank and gawk at it. Pull the tape out and it measured 18.5"--a beast, esp for shore-based fishing. I was pumped. Bled the fish and into the cooler bag it went.

After that things got slow. Cast after cast. Nada. Zilch. About 1.5 hours later my bait gets hammered. I set the hook and land a 12" fish, barely hooked. Do I keep it or keep trying? I decided to release it hoping for something a tad bigger.

Back it, a few minutes later my bait gets hammered again! Set the hook and another 12" fish lol. De ja vu. Same deal. Keep or release? I released it HOPING for something a bit larger.

Now the tides really starting to move out and I move further out, seeing some of the holes i was fishing. I keep casting my bait. About 45 min goes by and i get whacked but no hook up. I wait and pop the worm, shake the bait, kick up some mud and BAM! Whacks it again... this time i set the hook and stuck the fish. Slide it up onto shore and it taped out at 14". Nice. A small reward for the releases! Bleed the fish and into the cooler bag.

It was rewarding. And goddamn tasty of a meal tonite with the fresh sauteed bok choy from my garden. It was a good day on the water. Sink shot and a tape measure on the biggun below.

[dakota560]

Jeremy awesome report! Brings back memories, would love to see that fishery recover. 18.5" is a beast of a winter flounder. Slow moving retrieve like you did or bouncing it under a boat while chumming are the best ways to catch winter flounder. Nice job. Some good looking bok choy, must have been a great meal. Winter flounder make a great meal, noticeably better in my opinion than their summer cousins.

[bulletbob]

Back in the day moving the bait was good technique that many fishermen didn't use when fishing for flounder for some reason.
We used to drift to locate them matter of fact, and then would anchor up and chum. They would hit readily while drifting along at "fluke speed". There are still some out there, as your post indicates, just not many guys making the effort,, Seems everyone has stripers on the brain these days..

[Gerry Zagorski]

Wow a Flounder report, very cool!!

[Detour66]

Back in the day moving the bait was good technique that many fishermen didn't use when fishing for flounder for some reason.
We used to drift to locate them matter of fact, and then would anchor up and chum. They would hit readily while drifting along at "fluke speed". There are still some out there, as your post indicates, just not many guys making the effort,, Seems everyone has stripers on the brain these days..
My Dad and I use to drift for Winter Flounders out in L.I all the time. It's a good method once the water warms up a bit. This is a great report. Makes me want to go out there and try for some! Tight lines!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Great report man! Awesome Flounder report and good eats for sure! Wow!!!:D

[NoLimit]

I actually dream about catching winter flounder in the least likely places. I will look over the side of the boat and see asphalt and wonder "Hmmm, I might be a bit shallow" Great Report. I tried in earnest to chum up some last spring in a couple holes around Atlantic Highlands. Was this down in Barnegat?

[Skolmann]

Capt. Marty on the Sea Pigeon would often drift for winter flounder. Especially on Round Shoal.

Although I haven’t done it in a few years (might try this year)-I used to either rent a skiff from The Fisherman’s Den in Belmar the weekend before Thanksgiving and target winter flounder in Shark River. If I didn’t rent a skiff I’d fish from shore on either side of the boat ramp. Both always would provide a few tasty meals.

[Jigman13]

I actually dream about catching winter flounder in the least likely places. I will look over the side of the boat and see asphalt and wonder "Hmmm, I might be a bit shallow" Great Report. I tried in earnest to chum up some last spring in a couple holes around Atlantic Highlands. Was this down in Barnegat?

Raritan bay.

[Fishermancraig]

Are the Winter flounder present throughout the winter? Or do they leave a offshore in December and then return in the early spring?

[NoLimit]

They are here till the bluefish arrive in the spring

[bulletbob]

Are the Winter flounder present throughout the winter? Or do they leave a offshore in December and then return in the early spring?

things have changed from the days when flounder were abundant.. Population is way down, and has been for many years now..

Historically, they were in the bays and rivers during the fall winter and spring.. In winter they would become more or less dormant, and just lie on bottom, partially bury themselves in the mud.. During sunnier warmer winters there was good fishing fishing for them even mid winter, but that was not an "every year" occurrence .

In spring after they spawned the majority would head out of the bays and rivers into the ocean, as stated right as the blues flooded into the near shore areas. However, many small ones and a few large adult stragglers would stay in the rivers the bays all summer . I know that for a fact, because I used to catch a lot of them even some very big ones fishing for other species even in mid summer. By Thanksgiving every year the majority would come back from offshore where they spent the summer, and we would have great fishing, until the water got too cold, and they went back into the mud, Then in spring they would come out of the mud, spawn, and then move back offshore... Today, it seems the majority of the large fish are caught out in the ocean.. At least from what I see on the head boats.. Some monsters are caught on many trips while fishing bottom for other species...

Don't know if they will ever return to their former numbers where we had spectacular fishing for them 6 or 7 months every year, even right from the shore, no boat required..

I personally think the explosion in the population of cormorants and seals will keep flounder numbers low in the rivers and bays.. They both eat a lot of them..too many.

[dakota560]

things have changed from the days when flounder were abundant.. Population is way down, and has been for many years now.

I personally think the explosion in the population of cormorants and seals will keep flounder numbers low in the rivers and bays.. They both eat a lot of them, too many.

When landings were running at 60 million pounds a year causing recruitment levels to go from approximately 55 million recruits a year to maybe 2 million today, this fishery was over. Cormorants and seals didn't kill this fishery, commercial fishing year round and the harvest of larger females crashed the spawning stock and crashed the stocks recruitment strength. Do cormorants and seals eat flounder, absolutely. They also ate them in the hey day as did the dreaded spiny dog fish and certainly ate them up in colder water Quincy Bay years ago which had the most iconic sustainable flounder fishery ever for years.

What happened to winter flounder is the mirror image of what happened in local waters to ling and whiting and currently happening to summer flounder. They were targeted in highly concentrated schools not far off shore and the stocks were decimated. What's left are the areas that have rugged bottom structure which the draggers can't get at, mainly areas like the Farms, Shark River Reef etc. Any area with a predominantly mud bottom and unobstructed open area it's open season year round until the concentration of fish has been so depleted it's not economically feasible to drag that area anymore.

There should be closed seasons for these fish certainly during their spawn until populations rebound but that hasn't changed in over forty years so no reason to believe it will change any time soon. What amazes me about fisheries like winter and summer flounder is NMFS categorizes these fisheries as overfished but overfishing isn't currently occurring. Its all about credibility, funding, self-preservation. Not of the fishery, of the institutions tasked with managing and protecting these public resources. Definition of self preservation.

If the fishery had 50 fish left and fisheries management said 20 fish was the quota and landings came in under that number the fishery would be classified as "over fishing not occurring". Doesn't matter that we went from a spawning stock of 60 million pounds in the 80's to 150 lbs. today, the fishery based on MSA's definition would be not overfished.

Once any species is targeted year round and larger proportionately female species are harvested killing the younger age classes and smaller males in the process, those fisheries have one foot if not both in the grave. What happened with this prized fishery is complete mismanagement and total exploitation of a public resource by commerce.

We won't see change with in shore populations until we see a change with what's happening every year off shore. Same with summer flounder. Dynamics are very similar between these two stocks which means the risks are very similar as well.

[Fishermancraig]

Is there a way to distinguish a male winter flounder from a female one without killing it?

Is it safe to also presume that a larger specimen is likely to be female as is the case for female fluke?

[dakota560]

In the fall, winter and early spring, males will in many cases be leaking milt, you'll see it. As mentioned, they're also smaller and won't have a bulge in the egg sac area.

Females are quite larger and when loaded with eggs there's no mistaking the egg sac even from the outside. After dropping, that area will be stretched out and equally noticeable.

Spring and summer are a bit more difficult to tell but larger specimens are more apt to be females.

[CODCHALY]

one of my favorite (and successful) fishing, was Winter Flounder on Freddy C
Man, brings back memories. I also caught many at night, under Gary Fagans
Mohawk bow.