Your Take On The 2017 Fluke Season

[fish4fun]

okay...I will be the first to admit I'm not the best at it but I do have many years doing it. I used everything made under the sun. Red gulp, pink gulp, white gulp, chartreuse gulp, nuclear chicken, grubs, mullets 4"", 6", If Gulp made it I tried it. Gulp with spearing, Gulp with squid, live killies, dead killies, fluke belly, green buck tail, white buck tail, even a piece of foreskin I got from my local Rabbi (just kidding on that one). Fished one day every week for the entire fluke season. And what was my reward.....eight keepers for the entire season. Guess what? I'm ready to do it again in 2018.

[june181901]

Maybe got out ten times this year with a grand total of one keeper. That one came yesterday about 30 minutes before we had to be back.
I too shall try again next season as it beats golf.

[hartattack]

Very poor season for me:( If it wasn't for Massachusetts fluking my freezer would be empty. WE just never got the body of Fluke in NJ that we had in prior years. MY friends on Long Island did well - NJ was lacking.

[hammer4reel]

Had a great season .
Was alot of quality fish around .just had to find areas holding bait.
Average fish this year were between 20-22"
Most trips we were limited out by 10 and CR the rest of the day.

Out of 16 trips we had over a boat limit ,(ORL) on 13 of them .
We also had 1 skunk trip only catching shorts

IMO the reason we had a good year was the draggers were shut down in july and August allowing alot more fish to be caught be Recs

[Ice Cream Bill]

Capt Dan,

It must have been the Penn rods and reels.😜

[porgylber]

I think that it was a tale of 2 fisheries this season. Poor fishing (by and large) in the rivers and bays. Decent fishing most days on the ocean. I managed to get out 6 or 7 times. Generally 2 or 3 keepers were netted on the ocean per trip. In the river, no keepers. Just a bunch of shorts.

[Ttmako]

July and August were great off Manasquan.
Limits and decent average size.
I also noticed the direct relationship between the commercial shutdown and the fishing picking up.
Not sure if its coincidence, but I certainly noticed it.

[bunker dunker]

its like Dan said,"find the bait find the fish.the reason why they do so well up north is the bait.

[Capt. Debbie]

For a million excuses and reasons, the end result is the worst fluke season on my life in NJ. Can not think of any worse than this year. And there is no close second place either.

[bender]

excellent shallow fishing early, excellent deep water fishing late. spotty/picky fishing through the majority.
average as a whole, with a large percentage of the keepers over 20"

[acabtp]

didn't get out as much as i like, and was stuck in the rivers and bay instead of out front

0 keepers, worst season ever

[hammer4reel]

The kids who have been fishing live bait in shark river had a great season with really nice fish.
Guys fishing same area bucktailing were cstching mostly shorts

[Detour66]

The last 3 weeks of the season where good with one trip being outstanding. This was all out in the ocean. SHB fishing was mostly a waste of time except for 2 trips. I would give the season a D+ just because i have seen worst but that was a long time ago! It's a shame the season ended so early cause the peanut bunker bite will start soon in the bay. There is always next year! Tight lines!

[NoLimit]

Its a crime this season shut down so early - still tons of keepers in the river and shallows. My friend had some time to kill and fished live peanuts off a dock in the Shrewsbury and got an 8 lb fluke yesterday. Its been like that all season

[BigRock44]

was only able to get out once for fluking this summer but it was the best trip of my life and i got my PB fluke at 28". went out not knowing what to expect (and pretty discouraged after all the bad reports) but we slammed 'em that day. just happy to get out on the water on a gorgeous day and those flatties we got were the icing on the cake. and i think i read somewhere the draggers are back out for september? they shut down thousands of us rec guys at prime time and let those huge nets suck everything up??? totally BOGUS...:cool:

[Fishin Polski]

Sucked! My boat is for sale. Call or text 908-319-8120. Thanks, Paul.

[Skolmann]

I mainly fished the 4-5 hour magic hour trips on the Misty Morn. I averaged 2 keepers per trip, limited twice, caught over my limit (ORL) once and was only skunked once (although did catch shorts). Nothing big (biggest was a shade over 22"). Really never had what I'd call a good Spro/GULP bite. Early in the year spearing was the ticket then live snappers followed by live peanuts. The live baits really turned on the fluke.

Made one ocean fluke trip on the Reel Class and got my limit and one trip on the Sea Hunter where I caught a few shorts.

[jmurr711]

ocean fishing took awhile but when it did it was stupid gonna be awesome tossing back those dumb flat things while togging & jigging spike weakies at pipe

[rwp2101]

My season sounds much like many of yours... bite in the bay was tough on bucktails but better on livies while the bucktail bite out front was better overall.

[Mike K]

In Cape May County the back bays were loaded with nice Fluke well before the opener. Limited out on opening day in 90 minutes. By late June the fishing was better at the reefs than inside. July was pretty dull, we had a lot of upwelling. August was great for a lot of guys on all the south jersey reefs and various structures. I caught more than last year, making about the same number of trips. I fish an 18' CC out of Corson's Inlet.

[Sullivan]

Fishing was terrible . Then came August , started getting two or three keepers a trip . nice fish . some three or four pounds . Biggest was 7 lbs. 8 oz. All in the ocean . all on bucktails only

Support the SSFFF and the RFA , lets do better in 2018

[togzilla]

Only got out three times on my buddies boat out of Atlantic Highlands and fished the ocean each time. I limited on all 3 trips but the biggest was only about 4 lbs. definitely had to work harder searching for productive bottom. I'm wiling to bet ASMFC says we overfished our quota for this year when they plug their flawless scientific data into their models.
Pirate flags will be running next year!

[SaltLife1980]

I didnt have my best season but i put some meat on the deck. It wasnt bad bad for me. Every trip i went on i was coming home with at least one in the box and had to go through a million shorts to get. Its a shame its over bc it was still good fishing. I have gotten some of my biggest and most keepers fishing in Sept in past seasons. Biggest fish was a 8 pound 12oz beauty on The Fishermen. Had 2 over 7 and 3 over 6.

[frugalfisherman]

Let you know when I'm done fluking for 2017.

[jmarie]

We made it out every weekend this year and we did pretty well.
Freezer is full and don't need anymore. I just like catching them so maybe get some more just have to throw them back.

[Sparky4711]

21 trips, 59 keepers, 6 over 6# biggest 8.1, weekdays a lot better than weekends limits 11 times skunks twice, last day of season the worst. Fish on a 6 pack all season.