History shows those flatties have been out back now for months!
Back in 2018 I spoke to Dr. Ken Able, Director from the Rutgers University Marine Field Station at the end of Seven Bridge Road in Tuckerton, about summer flounder migrations in and out of Great Bay. Having spent 30 years researching fish species throughout that estuary, Dr. Able revealed how some of the Rutgers research over the years had found that ultrasonically tagged fluke sometimes return as early as March, primarily utilizing the lower bay close to the ocean inlet.
In studies coordinated in the early 2000s Dr. Able and his team found that more mobile fish moved along the ICW in Great Bay numerous times in a single season, while others moved up the bay and into the river when salinity was higher than average. Tagged fish however typically used the deeper bay areas with high, stable levels of dissolved oxygen and temperature, and while fluke tended to stay in rather small areas for an entire tide, they were also in motion 74% of the time.
At the time, Dr. Able said the Rutgers research had found that summer flounder stay inside Great Bay on average for 86 days, with most tagged fish leaving the estuary between July and September. “In July 2004, more tagged fish emigrated, at increased rates of movement, at low barometric pressure during a storm event,” Dr. Able noted in a paper with fellow researchers Dana K. Sackett and Thomas Grothues, adding that emigration of fluke each season may be associated with big coastal storms as well as dissolved oxygen and temperature on a seasonal scale.
As an angler who has spent many years fishing the Little Egg Harbor, Tuckerton and Great Bay areas, some of this qualified research at the Rutgers Marine Field Station leads me to a few assumptions. First, I would expect that the first waves of incoming summer flounder into the back bay areas during an exceptionally cold winter have already taken place, sometime during the month April. Second, if other New Jersey estuaries (Grassy Sound, Great Egg Harbor, Barnegat Bay, the Navesink, etc.) are similar to Great Bay in that fluke remain in these confined an average of 86 during the season, I would venture to guess that the next 61 days of May and June are the optimum times to target summer flounder in the bay areas.
Deep channels and holes may be likely sweet spots for doormats as waters warm into July, but don’t discount those channel edges and flats at the onset of the 2025 season beginning on May 4 and into the early part of June, especially as you get nearer the inlets. Remember too that science tells us bigger fluke tend to stay together; they stay on the move, but they typically remain in one particular area through any given tide. If you hit a good fish, keep working that patch!
Non-Bait & Tackle
I love fluke fishing! It’s one of those unique fisheries in which virtually anyone can find success; all it takes one or two good drifts, and a rather minimal starting investment in gear. At the starting point of the season, light tackle provides the best approach. I’ll typically take just a spinning outfit and a conventional on each trip, each rod a moderate-fast model rated for smaller presentations of half-ounce to 1-1/2-ounce jigs. I’ve always enjoyed using the shorter Tsunami Slim Wave rods (the durable white sticks), and during much of the ’24 season I was using a 5-foot, 8-inch Ocean Tackle International “Fluke Master” rod (last I saw OTI was having a 50% off Black Out Sale online). I also like the sensitivity of the Fenwick HMS Inshore series rods, particularly the cork handle.
Keep in mind that my little center console never leaves the back bays, so I’m typically focusing on shallower edges along flats, so getting away with smaller jigheads and bucktails in the half-ounce size can be effective. Later in the season when fluke hit deeper water with swifter currents, that’s not really an option. Spinning reels in the 3000 size range like a Tsunami Shield or PENN Battle series are perfect for my use, while I also prefer low profile reels or something along the lines of Maxel Hybrid spooled with 15- to 20-pound braid. Honestly, it’s all a matter of preference, as rod comfort and sensitivity is more important that the reel itself; like I said, back bay fluking starts with a rather “minimal starting investment” in bait and tackle.
To be honest, I barely ever use bait on my fluke trips anymore, preferring to go the Gulp and/or Fishbites route at this point. The lower bucktail (I’m a big fan of the Magictail Round Head Squid Hoochie Jig with a selection from quarter-ounce to 2 ounces) will get curly tail version of the Gulp (Swimming Mullet) or Fishbites (Fight Club Grub) matched to the size of the jig I’m using threaded along the shank. The teaser hooks I prefer to use most often on top are the floating jigs by Tinman Lures to which a 3-inch Gulp Swimming Mullet is attached simply through the lower jaw much like I might rig a live minnow.
Shallow Flats & Edges
Using my old Tuckerton Creek entrance tide chart as a guide to the kickoff, it appears we’ll have the last few hours of outgoing water to greet us come opening day in New Jersey, which I personally prefer in the early days of the fluke season. Shallower waters warm faster, while the incoming tide pushes cooler ocean waters into the back; while many folks consider the deeper channels and sloughs holding the biggest of fish, May is often when you’ll find some good fish up on the 3- to 4-foot flats, especially in those areas rich with life including clam beds. Using that outgoing tide to my advantages, I’ll often target the edges of even shallower flats where shrimp and finfish can tumble off the grasses with the moving water.
Speaking with Dr. Able and reviewing some of the Rutgers research a few years back, it was clear that many fluke move up into some of the marshy creeks, especially during the beginning part of the season. If you’ve got a shallow draft center console, skiff or especially a kayak getting into this tricky to navigate areas can provide some outstanding early season action on fluke.
When kayak fishing, my spin and conventional combo was often a tad different, in that the spinning outfit wasn’t your typical high/low fluke rig but just a single light bucktail or chartreuse Hurricane style jighead (light, quarter- to half-ounce). Rather than vertical jigging, casting around, up and down current, and against the sod banks provides a good way of actively “plugging” for fluke. The same can be said now from my center console, as I’ll cast a lighter offering up onto the flats and retrieve back along the edges to figure out where summer flounder are laying in patches. This is one thing to really keep in mind; if you’re in the middle of a drift when you suddenly pick up a couple of fish, mark that spot and drift it again. Again, science indicate bigger fluke tend to stay together and will remain in a particular area through any given tide.
| EARLY SEASON TOURNAMENTS |
| If you’re looking to get competitive with your back bay fluke trips, there are a couple of early season tournaments that are timed to coincide with summer flounder in much “skinnier” and often protected waters behind the barrier islands.
On May 17, the Valhalla Flounder Open returns to Valhalla Yachting Center in New Gretna with awards ceremony at Breeze’s on the Bass River. Register online at fisheriesconservationtrust.org. The 27th “Brutus” Fluke Tournament will take place this year on Saturday, May 31; presented by Egg Harbor Township Elks Lodge 2563 and Somers Point AMVETS Post 911 there’s a Friday night captains meeting as well. For details email BrutusBoy6665@aol.com. Then from June 7-8 there’s the 6th Annual Raging Raymond Fluke Tournament. Captains meeting is on June 6 at 7 p.m. at American Legion Post 493, 420 Radio Road in Little Egg Harbor. Entry fee is $100 per boat (four anglers), fish sunrise Saturday through Sunday at 1 p.m. Call 609-845-7653 for details. In Delaware, you also have the Lewes Harbour Marina’s annual canal flounder tournament on May 16 to support the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. For details call 302-645-6227 or pick up registration form at Lewes Harbour Marina. |
The 2024 summer flounder season at the Jersey Shore was pretty brutal. While south winds are the prevailing wind of summer, I don’t remember ever seeing such a stretch of stiff southerly winds as we had last summer. That south created a lot of upwelling leading to colder bottom temperatures and a serious issue with lockjaw in our fluke. This issue proved problematic in the back as well entering the month of June with incoming tide chilling things off; there was one day when a buddy of mine registered water temps below 60 degrees on the Manasquan while I was south of the canal in the upper stretches of Barnegat Bay, just a mile or two away, and read temps closer to 70.
Another problem with wind of course is when it’s blowing one way as the tide’s going the other. I get a few nasty looks every year as I’m motoring through the wind in the same direction as the tide using my Minn Kota, zigging and zagging through other boats doing their best to work through the situation. A lot of folks think “Spot Lock” when they think of a Minn Kota trolling motor, but working through wind against tide in the back bay was one of the primary reasons I had one installed.
Again, also think about casting through it; if you do have wind against tide with no way to power through it without manning the helm the entire time, grab that spinning outfit and cast/retrieve your way through to a couple of flatties. While many anglers are focused exclusively on the striper fishery this month while thinking that it’s too early for fluking, those skinny waters may already be teeming with flatfish when Sunday, May the Fourth rolls around.
