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.

[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...