Another year of Jersey Shore fluking is in the books.
“It’s over Johnny. It’s over.”
So says Col. Trautman to John Rambo in the closing minutes of First Blood while holed up inside the battered police headquarters in a small town in Washington State. C’mon, you know the movie; it’s a classic! And it was our first introduction to Rambo in a fictional northwestern town someplace north of Portland, OR and south of Seattle, WA according to lines in the script. Kind of ironic to think about now after the riotous summer of 2020, huh?
But indeed, this year’s fluke action has come to an end at the Jersey Shore, with no word yet as to what we’ll see in terms of season, size and bag for 2021. With a little bit of Rambo in each of us, anglers know that “Nothing is over,” and “You just don’t turn it off.” That said, here are a few recent catches reported just before the big lady belted out her final notes, and just as you and I are preparing for the fall sequels of porgy and bass.
Fisher Fluke – Staten Island fisherman Kim Fisher with a 7.1-pound fluke caught while outfishing her husband Walt (or was that “while out fishing” with her husband, Walt?)
– Fifteen-year-old Lowen Newman hit this 30-inch fluke in Absecon Inlet on August 9, and weighed it in (9-1/2 pounds) at Absecon Bay Sportsman Center. Photo courtesy of Ed Goldman.
Tia DiGavero with a 10-1/2-pound fluke caught in 30 feet of water off Sandy Hook while fishing with her husband Philip. “Now all my fishing buddies are busting my chops asking me if my wife is available this weekend to take them fishing,” Philip said.
Fisherman subscriber Joe Rodd (AKA Joe the Plumber) was aboard Capt. Ron’s Fishermen out of Atlantic Highlands on August 14 when he hit this personal beast, a 12-pound, 14-ounce flukeasaurus that taped out at 31 inches long.
The crew of Scott Wheeler’s boat Big Bone out of Wildwood with a four-man limit of summer flounder from the Wildwood Reef during the mid-summer action. Photo courtesy of Sterling Harbor Bait and Tackle.
