Fluke Season

[TopRod]

Originally Posted by Detour66

Besides real sand eel's what type of "Sand eel Type bait" do you recommend?

Give the gulp jerk shad a try, on certain days they have been doing very well. I like the six inch version, I seem to remember they used to make the jerk shads in seven in years ago.

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by Detour66

Thanks for the information I'm going to try it out. How do you fish them. I'm guessing your jigging and using them on the teaser hook?

Yes

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

Berkley has sand eels in their gulp line up .
But slender fairs such as their nemesis and fluke shad with thinner profiles and still some rail action have been very good .
Also darker colors to match the hatch .

Too many guys gave pink shine , glow and chartreuse stuck in their brain .many times the darker colors out fish those 3 by a mile

Dan this is the sand eel imitation you're referring to correct. I've used this in past years and at times it outproduced the grub and swimming mullet significantly. All depends what they're feeding on but with the amount of sand eels around I'd think this would produce well this year.

https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Good luck guys and please keep with your thoughts about the season. Think it could benefit everyone without burning spots and give an idea how the regulations are effecting the sport. Again thanks for the feedback to date.

One other suggestion......find Danny's boat and fish 5 feet off his stern! Just kidding.....should be at least 10 feet off his stern!

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by dakota560

Dan this is the sand eel imitation you're referring to correct. I've used this in past years and at times it outproduced the grub and swimming mullet significantly. All depends what they're feeding on but with the amount of sand eels around I'd think this would produce well this year.

https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Good luck guys and please keep with your thoughts about the season. Think it could benefit everyone without burning spots and give an idea how the regulations are effecting the sport. Again thanks for the feedback to date.

One other suggestion......find Danny's boat and fish 5 feet off his stern! Just kidding.....should be at least 10 feet off his stern!

They work good , but the nemesis and the jerk shad have a simaler profile with more tail action.
They work great on slow drifts .

Originally Posted by Capt John

Dakota,

Seriously, do you think fisheries management cares about the recreational/for-hire sector?

NOT....

Another shitty year.....

Capt John being it reports up under DoC no I don't but I'm holding out hope as senseless as that seems that somehow, someway we might get a more fair allocation of the resource and more liberalized regulations down the road.

Originally Posted by hartattack

Tom,, The NJ body of fluke is substantial, however those > 18" remain scarce. I've never seen so many tiny river fluke before, double headers were common when they were thick in June. If the size limit was 17" we'd all agree that 2020 was epic but that one inch difference is a game-changer we may never be able to undo

Larry due to Covid and processing plants being closed down along with world markets, I think you have to at minimum ask if the resurgence of smaller fish is due to that as opposed to more productive spawning classes. The gauntlet of commercial nets these fish have to navigate during their inshore migration didn't exist this year because market prices fell to historic lows the result of market closures. Add to that I believe the pin hooker didn't fish Shark River this year for the same reason. Tragic what happened there but it had to have a significant impact.

With the mild winter, there were fluke inshore already by April. Commercial quotas for March - April were 500 lbs for two trips a week or 1,000 lbs. max one trip a week. For May - June it went to 250 lbs. seven trips a week or 500 lbs four trips a week. That's a lot of fluke taken in past years before the season opened on 5/22 which weren't harvested this year, again especially from such a thin body of water like Shark River. Believe what you and others witnessed were the impacts of the virus and closure of world markets and not necessarily a change in the dynamics of the fishery. Next two years will answer that question.

Summer flounder recruitment has been down for ten years which fishery management would tell you for unknown reasons. Where would these fish be coming from. In my opinion what we're seeing are juvenile fish getting through the usual March - May commercial gauntlet when they're migrating back inshore which didn't happen this year due to Covid. Under normal fishing conditions many would have succumb to commercial discard in the process of harvesting the larger higher priced fish and no one would be the wiser. As I said, if we see a comparable resurgence over the next two years in 18" and larger fish my theory is wrong. If we don't I would argue my theory is correct and the process of selective harvest by commercial concerns is taking it's toll on the fishery as it would on any fishery.

[Duffman]

Will Nappis record ever be broken on Gulp?

Originally Posted by Duffman

Will Nappis record ever be broken on Gulp?

It already was but Rocky ate it! Great story and greater attempted scam.

[Jigman13]

Originally Posted by Duffman

Will Nappis record ever be broken on Gulp?

If it happens it's happening in Montauk or Nantucket!

We thought we had it a few years back while cod fishing off Montauk. Once the fish hit the deck we quickly realized it was a halibut and not a fluke lol...

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by Duffman

Will Nappis record ever be broken on Gulp?

Yep , the new 8” grub coming this fall .


Plenty of high DD are caught on gulp already