Fluke Options
 

Does anyone know what option the State went with?

Re: Fluke Options
 

Was on the webinar last night. After some back and forth they went with:
Option 1) May 22nd – September 19th 121 days (the same as last year)

The email comments were overwhelmingly in support of option 2 (the longer season) but the the phone calls started coming and somehow the board went with option 1 unanimously. Go figure!

There was some talk for 2022 about a slot fish and splitting the state but we will see.

Re: Fluke Options
 

I e-mailed in my vote for option 2 since i couldn't attend the webinar last night. Wish the outcome was different!

Re: Fluke Options
 

Me too.
You've got to wonder why they go through all this BS then ignore the majority's comments.

Re: Fluke Options
 

Because option one makes more sense STATE WIDE .
Lots of fluke back bay and in the rivers mid may , and lots of those fish leave as soon as waters warm .

Since Sandy almost every year the fluke push out the first bad storm , which Has usually been the first week of September .
Giving up days early when fish can be caught , to have a few day longer season that probably has over 2 weeks of unproductive time makes ZERO. Sense .

Southern input more than likely would like to see an even earlier start ..



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Re: Fluke Options
 

Party boats will be seabass fishing that first week so early fluking is a waste for them. Then they loose 9 days at the end making a longer wait for fall seabass open. Yeah that makes real sense.

Re: Fluke Options
 

So I assume we are still looking at 18” fish? How many fish? Would love to see a slot fish but I’d say the chances are slim.

Re: Fluke Options
 

Enough with the BS show me how many fluke you caught the last 2 weeks of the season .
Betting not crap .
Some of us actually have log books for many years .

The last 5 years fishing up until Labor Day has been GREAT that week the fish push out hard . Following week it’s a super spotty pick


Adding NON PRODUCTIVE DAYS to a season doesn’t do crap for the industry .
Captains aren’t going to steal your money if the fish aren’t there . So giving them days to sry tied to the dock doesn’t do anything for them .

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Smarter thing would be to adjust the season on sea bass that are here and availability to catch greater,

Secondly to base each fishery on a party boat schedule which is about 1/5 of the fishing community is senseless ..

And NOT all boats are targeting sea bass , many fluke specific boats during the season while others are sea bass fishing .
No need for all fishing pressure on one fish at a time .
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Re: Fluke Options
 

You will more than likely see a slot bag next season.
Some people at fish and game were really crunching numbers .
Lots of input also asking for it .
They just couldn’t get it accomplished this year , but I know they worked towards it .

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Re: Fluke Options
 

Disappointing to say the least. Not sure what happened here but seems like Public Opinion was ignored. Going to be interesting to see what the council and has to say about this...

One thing is for sure, the council is stacked with Southern NJ people who tend to favor an earlier season.. I have no issue with that since it works best for them..

What I do have an issue with is the obvious lack of representation on the council from Northern NJ. Based on our states population distribution, the northern counties of our state represents 75% of our population so shouldn't the council reflect that in it's members?

Total NJ Population 8.8 million
- Southern Counties Population 2.2 = 25%
- Northern Counties Population 6.6 = 75%