Fishing Friday: The Fluke Go to Those Who Wait

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A fluke caught July 2017 on board the Gambler party boat. (Photo: Gambler Crew)

It’s not that this is a bad fluking season, it’s just that fewer people are catching bigger fish, it seems. If the early bird gets the worm, the angler who stays late might land the doormat.

“Fluking in the back has been decent on the first two hours of the outgoing [tide],” in the bay, a report from Grumpy’s Tackle said yesterday.

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The winds, once again, and wreaked havoc with our local environment, further holding back the normal ebb and flow of summer flounder season. Most of the fish that have been caught this past week seem to have been caught in the bay, but for those anglers willing to put in the time on the ocean (both drifting and surf fishing), the reward could be great.

“There are some nice size fluke being taken in Island Beach State Park; not a ton but some nice 2 to 4-pound fish,” a report from The Dock Outfitters in Seaside Heights said. “These great eating flatties seem to be favoring a variety of natural cut baits. Bluefish strips, peanut bunker, live killies, spearing and squid combos or just squid strips alone all fished on ether a bucktail jig or a 3-way swivel rig with a dresses hook or not.”

“The fluke bite off the surf yesterday was good for those targeting them and moving,” Mario from Murphy’s Hook House said Thursday, further cementing the idea that those who look for baitfish, switch positions and match the hatch tend to be catching fish.

For the more casual angler, blues continue to swim the back bay, and a number of metals as well as cut baits such as bunker seem to be attracting the voracious easters.

“Crabbing remains great, and lots of schools of peanut bunker are in the back with small snapper blues on them,” the Grumpy’s report said.

On board the Gambler, a slow fluke bite was made up for with a steadier pick of sea bass, the crew said via social media.

“We have been able to catch a good amount of keeper sea bass on our fluke drifts but for some reason the fluke bite has been slower than normal for this time of year,” the crew posted.

The boat is now sailing two trips daily, with some special shark trips mixed in.