Weekend Fluke Recap

[Skolmann]

Fished both days on a NS out of Keyport.

Saturday: I boated 12 fluke but just one keeper of 24"s/#5.8. Caught this fairly early in the day and was the pool leader until about 1 o'clock when a #7.10 (rental rod) was caught.

Sunday: I boated 7 fluke with 2 of those being keepers at #7.2 and #4.5. The #7.2 was fun to catch as I actually saw the fish take and inhale my bucktail in one motion. We were fishing tight to the Staten Island shoreline and in no more than 10' of water. I was fishing on the pulpit and had up drift side, I was reeling in to make another cast into the drift. I was looking down into the water to make sure I didn't tangle anyone. Just as my bucktail/teaser rig came into view (at most 12"s under the surface)-I saw a big brown frisbee come up,gobble down my bucktail and turn back to the bottom. it set the hook itself when it dove down. It hit so hard that it actually bent the shaft of the hook on the bucktail. Unfortunately, I didn't even get a chance to think about it winning both the boat & side pool as not more than 2 minutes later a #7.10 was boated (once again on a rental rod). Later in the day a #6.8 was landed. There were several other fishing the #4-6 class.

So in 2 days, I caught just 19 fluke and only 3 keepers but they were #7.2, #5.8 and #4.5. All on a bucktail/teaser rig.


Just a few observations, on Saturday chartreuse was only GULP color it seemed they wanted and on Sunday pink was the ticket (although I did catch a pair on nuclear chicken when we fished in the stained water). Also they wanted the 4" GULP swimming minnow, the 5" version and the 6" grub produced far less action on both days. Finally, watching the fish being filleted I noticed a bunch had small calico crabs in them as well as small sundials and porgies.