Fluke season reaches its end :: Jersey Shore Angler

Bill Stabile's 10.2-pound doormat took top prize in Reel Class Charters' Fluke Derby contest. Bill will receive a free trip on board Reel Class, which sails from Pt. Pleasant Beach, next year.

While many locals refer to the period after Labor Day and before the official start of fall as “local summer,” a time when the weather is still warm and the beaches and roads are less crowded, it only lasted a week for anglers along the Jersey Shore.

At midnight Sunday, the line was cut on fluke season until next spring, a move away from policies that previously carried the season well into October. It’s not that the fish will leave for their winter grounds —— anglers will still catch them and will have to throw them back —— but this year’s regional management regulations end the season on Sept. 7, leaving anglers and local charter and party boat operators searching for a new species to fish for between this weekend and when the fall striped bass run begins in October or November.

The bulk of the uproar over this year’s tight fluking regulations was over the high 18-inch minimum size requirement to keep a fluke caught recreationally in New Jersey waters, but the season length has also been cut back, leaving many anglers and business owners in a lurch.

“It’s going to cost me about 30 percent of my business from what I did last week,” said Dave Arbeitman, a Point Pleasant resident who owns The Reel Seat tackle shop in Brielle. “That’s what it is — it’s basically a third of my business.”

There isn’t much else to fish for locally, said Mr. Arbeitman.

There have been sparse reports of weakfish in the Manasquan River, but that fishery is not a large one. Bluefish are abundant in the ocean, but are not known for being the greatest table fare. Another option for anglers is to target inshore pelagic species such as bonito and bluefin tuna, but those fisheries require boats, so the surf angler or small boat angler who fishes the river is out of luck, at least until later in the fall.

“My guys [customers] are nothing but dedicated fluke fishermen,” said Mr. Arbeitman. When fluke season ends, “They stop fishing — not all of them, but a lot of them do.”

For those bottom-fishing anglers and party boat captains who still want to target fish locally, sea bass will most likely be the species most sought. The tasty fish, a member of the grouper family, are found at area reefs, such as the Sea Girt and Axel Carlson artificial reefs off Monmouth and Ocean counties. Mr. Arbeitman believes that the early end of the fluke season may put additional pressure on the sea bass fishery, which has already been recommended by a regional council to be cut by 45 percent next year.

“It’s really a lose-lose for fishermen, captains and businesses,” said Mr.Arbeitman.

It’s been a tough season all along for fluke anglers. Reports from party boats and charter captains have been positive, with a day of fishing between four or five anglers producing in excess of 50 fluke per day. But, at the same time, so-called “throwback to keeper” ratios have been about 30 to 1.

There are glimmers of hope for next season, however. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission both endorsed a plan on Aug. 6 to boost the summer flounder quota for 2009 by 2.68 million pounds, from 15.77 million pounds this year.

Under the quota, recreational anglers from Maine to the Carolinas would be able to take home 18.45-million pounds of summer flounder. But for this season —— which came to a de facto early end due to the remnants of Tropical Storm Hanna —— it’s an early end to a fishery that has notably heated up late, and most likely would have been yielding strong catches deep into October.

NJ Fishing Reports