By many accounts, the first half of the ‘25 fluke season was an exceptional one!
Fresh sliced Rutgers tomato right out of the garden, and a crunchy piece of fried flounder (fluke of course) taken a little after dawn, they’re the makings of the quintessential Saturday night supper at the Jersey Shore during the summer.
As of this week’s digital weekly edition of The Fisherman, you have just 5-1/2 weeks left to enjoy your catch of the day fluke sandwiches, before the final bell rings on September 25th. Fisheries managers are in the process of looking ahead to 2026-2027 in terms of rules and regulations to come, but by all accounts the summer flounder run of 2025 has been a great one.
Of particular note this season has been the number of 4- to 7-pound fluke reported back to us here at The Fisherman Magazine, from the back bays out to the lumps, bumps, wrecks and reefs off the coast. It remains to be seen how that translates into fisheries survey responses, but that’s not worth worrying about today. More importantly is to take advantage of what’s left of the 2025 fluke season; get it while the getting’s good!
The early season fluke bite in the rivers and back bays was solid right from the opening day, as Adam Maleski found with this 25-inch, 6-pound flattie from Shark River in May.Mark Halpin caught this 8-pound fluke aboard the Debra Ann out of Belmar on June 21 during a fluke trip sponsored by Palmarius and Tommytog Jigs.Peter Geruntho hit the Monmouth County surf on July 22 armed with a single 1/4-ounce jig tipped with white Gulp, dragging home rug of a fluke weighing in at 8.1 pounds at the Tackle Box.“Fishbites work,” said Ed Mesunas in an email on July 24, as his wife Bev nabbed her personal best, a 26-incher, at The Tires off Barnegat, weighing in at nearly 7 pounds at Creekside Outfitters.Eleven-year-old TJ Nelson hit the sticky stuff off Monmouth County in July with his dad, scoring this 5-pound fluke along with a bunch of triggerfish. “He is an 11-year-old fishing fanatic,” his dad said.dan kim jamaica ii – Dan Kim, from Livingston, NJ, was the July monthly pool winner aboard the Jamaica II out of Brielle, snaring this 8-1/2-pound fluke on the final drift of the month, a walk-off fish in the bottom of the ninth!All the flounder aren’t at the reefs, some are still in the Wildwood back bays,” said Donna Jackson in a July 29th email, showing off this fine flattie taken on orange Gulp and minnows aboard Foxchaser II out of Otten’s Harbor.
