As of this issue date, August 17, 2026, we have 105 days of fluke fishing under our belts with just 39 days left in the season. Suffice to say, we’re well past the half-way point of summer and barreling down the fluking homestretch at the Jersey Shore.
It seems the older I get, the quicker the days pass. And luckily, I haven’t had to deal with the first day of school jitters for decades (or the dread of summer double-sessions on the practice field in full pads). As a kid, summer meant freedom; adventurously traipsing through the pines, our daylong whiffle ball games in the yard, or pedaling off to local lakes and public docks with rod and reel across the handlebars. In those days, Labor Day was like the last meal of a condemned man, the final hurrah before being sent to the pokey for another 10-month stint.
As a parent, you’re probably smiling at that thought. And like me, you may also be looking forward to your own new-found freedom once the long, hot summer is through. Labor Day is Monday, September 7th, after which the beaches are ours again, the back bays and rivers emptied of many of the on-water revelers in ‘go fast’ boats, and the kiddies otherwise engaged in scholastic endeavors. So yeah, there’s still a lot to look forward to with each, rapidly passing day.
It doesn’t help that this particular summer – in my opinion – was one of the worst in memory for summer flounder. I know a lot of folks in the northern part of the state don’t bother chasing fluke until migratory stripers have moved on – sometime after the official start of summer – as fluke begin to feed more heavily in deeper, cooler ocean waters. That said, May and June are typically best for targeting summer flounder in the back bays and salty rivers. For smaller boats and kayaks – what Dave Showell at Absecon Bay Sportsman Center has often referred to as the “mosquito fleet” – the earlier the better.
I don’t know, chalk it up to a cold winter and unusually cooler waters in late spring, but short of pockets of success in areas of Atlantic and Cape May counties, there just wasn’t much stellar action to be found floundering around in the back bays of New Jersey this season. I don’t know what the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) numbers for the May and June timeframe show just yet, but I sure hope the gubmint’s fluke harvest data meshes with what our weekly fishing reports at The Fisherman show, a ‘slow go’ on the early season fluke grounds.
The same can be said for spring sea bass, which by all accounts didn’t get good until Father’s Day weekend, the end of New Jersey’s 38-day spring season. After all the hand-wringing and debate over the nominal increase in recreational harvest limits, we kicked off the ‘26 season of black sea bass with a relative whimper. While the one-fish “bycatch” allowance on sea bass is in place now, mark your calendars for September 23rd and the return of the 10-fish bag limit in New Jersey marine waters (12-1/2” minimum).
We get porgy back in play again in two weeks; more popular in North Jersey with deeper water and stickier bottom, it’s a 30 fish bag limit (10” minimum) reopening September 1 and remaining opening until late June of 2027. And of course, while the first 40 days of the fluke season may be best out back, the final 40 typically see the biggest fish of the season caught along the inshore snags, wrecks and reefs, as well as in the surf.
The days may be zipping along at a rapid pace, but for anglers there’s always something to look forward to. Tomorrow is another day, no matter how quickly it passes.
