A look back at the 2016 flounder season
New Jersey’s summer flounder season came to an end one week ago. I know there were plenty of anglers who were anxious for one more opportunity to stock the freezer for the winter but Mother Nature did a good job of making that opportunity difficult, especially on Saturday.
What sort of season was it? That depends on the person to whom you are speaking. Some state that it was a banner season, especially on doormat size fish. Others are calling it the worst in 25 years. I think some of that wide disparity is the result of where you fish. For example, Lake’s Bay and the waters behind Margate and Ventnor produced some exceptional numbers of big flatties. But, just go a bit to the south and the catches were nowhere near what they had been in the past.
Long time angler and tagger for the American Littoral Society, Bill “Bucktail Willie” Shillingford is one of those claiming the fishing was awful. He has been fishing in the areas behind Strathmere for decades so you have to take his word for it. Bill blames the falloff on this past spring’s beach replenishment which drew sand from inshore lumps in the ocean. He states doing away with those lumps took away areas where the flounder would congregate before moving inside for the summer. He also maintains that as that new sand on the beaches erodes, it washes into the back, clogging the inlets and waterways and dirtying the water.
I don’t know why this season produced such results. Perhaps Bucktail is correct or perhaps it was the result of some unknown cyclical pattern.
One thing that is of major concern, however, is the distinct probability of a drastic reduction in New Jersey’s allowable catch next year. That reduction could be as much as 30 percent. But, the more the regulators get involved in trying to manage a resource they know little about, the worse things get. That reduction will impact both the recreational and commercial fisheries and it is resulting in one of the few instances where these usually diametrically opposed interests are agreeing.
What is known is that New Jersey’s size rules are resulting in vast numbers of breeding age fish being caught and taken home. States such as Delaware have a small minimum size and they do not have a closed season. Yet, there does not appear to be any shortage of flounder. Take, for example, the Old Grounds and the reef sites. Pottstown resident Jay Berman made one last flattie trip two days before the season closure. He caught one legal fish and it was filled with roe.
Alright, what do anglers in New Jersey have left to fish for? You can keep just one weakfish, the seabass season is closed until October 22 and you can keep just one tautog. I really would hate to be running a partyboat right now.
Weakfish do appear to finally be making a comeback. They have been around all summer. A couple of years ago you could fish all summer and never find one. Traditionally the Mullica River has been a weakie hot spot and that is no different today. The anglers fishing the Mullica and other waterways behind Long Beach Island have had a steady run of them. There are no huge tiderunners like the “old” days but if you go out, especially with shedder crab, you should have a ball with 3-to-5-pounders.
White perch are beginning to show up in the rivers as well. The action is not yet hot and heavy but barring some weather anomaly the catch figures should get better and better.
Some of the inlets are starting to produce tailor bluefish that are in there chasing down herring. I’d rather catch the herring because I love them pickled! Kingfish remain on the beaches but choppy surf lately has reduced the number being caught. Triggerfish have all but vanished.
Canyon fishing for the big stuff has been victimized by the weather as well. When the big boats can get out there, they continue to find white marlin in almost record numbers. The whites are mixed in with some gigantic blue marlin as well.
The Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic gets underway on the 8th of this month and continues through December 4. This is a major event on the beaches of LBI. The tournament actually began way back in 1954.
Along with the weekly and grand prizes there are daily prizes being awarded. But, with those daily awards, the tournament organizers have ruled you can only win a daily prize once. That means some hot shot beachie cannot clean up with a ton of daily awards. You can enter at just about every tackle and bait shop in the LBI area.