Doormat fluke

[Fisherman120]

I started fluking a week before the season officially started this year and so far it's been really slow. Have caught some keepers and 18 inch fish(it's 19 in NY) but the action has been really slow and we haven't had any decent sized fish. Overall, it's been bad and inconsistent. There hasn't been much fish around, have had bad weather, bad conditions, etc. Our best trip was 3 fish each between my dad and I. Thankfully, today, the stars aligned. Got down with my dad at a good time this morning to fish the outgoing and I had a 17 inch fish my first cast. We were getting bit most casts, as was another guy by us. They were all 14-17 though. I went down the beach a little to try a certain dropoff that produces, and on my first cast I lost something big. I had it on for about 5 seconds, felt like I was stuck but I felt the headshake + she took drag. Sucked to lose her, definitley was the biggest fish of the year for me. About 5 minutes afterwards I hear my dad screaming like a little girl and the guy by him say "That's the biggest fluke I've ever seen!" so I had to go running down. I was greeted by a beautiful doormat fluke, caught on a half ounce chartreuse Palmers bucktail with a 4 inch white mullet. She measured about 30 inches and was fairly fat. I wanted to release the fish, but the decision was up to my dad and he wanted to give it away to someone who would use it. I'm glad he did because the fish ended up weighing more then I expected. After a few pictures, more fishing(we dropped 2 keepers right in front of us in the water) we went to the baitshop and got it weighed. She wind up being 11.4 lbs. Here are some pictures.

http://imgur.com/a/vYXtG