River fishing question?

[njdevil]

With all of the rain expected today and a lot of storm drains that dump into the tidal rivers will the amount of fresh water flowing into them have an effect on the population of fluke in the river? Will the fluke leave the river due to the heavy amount of freshwater flowing into them and enter the bay or will they stay due to the amount of saltwater entering the river due to the tide change? I hope my question make sense.

NJDEVIL

[kezsr]

I assume your referring to the Raritan River,was asking similar question the other day,but not do to storm runoff,but how far up river they actually go with the fresh water coming in with the salt,they are found in the river early in the season,I hope someone could answer your question and also mine at the same time,because I have no idea,a good question.   Kez

[Pfishingruven]

I was always told as a kid that fishing the river after a heavy rain affected the fish.  How much it had to do with the salinity of the water...I don't know.  I think it had more to do with the water color and drop in temperature over the salt content.  However, I have heard a wide range of fishermen say that they look for "saltier" spots to fish for saltwater species .

I think this may hold somewhat true.  Especially, after they leave to spawn.  Younger flounder must be able to withstand lower salinity water, since they will live in the rivers and bays for a couple of years before going into the ocean.  The lower salinity of the water does possibly slow their growth rate and they will pick spots with higher salt, however, they are more picky about what is on the bottom.  They will stay somewhere with lower salinity that has a better sandy bottom over a non sandy bottom with higher salinity.

This does make sense, since most bigger fluke are caught in the saltier ocean on sandy areas.

So, from my understanding and to answer your question, yes the fluke will move to saltier areas after a heavy rain, especially the larger ones.  Tide will of course bring in more salt content and the difference you will see will probably be minimal.  There are a lot of factors that will affect this.

Maybe someone who has studied Marine Biology or has some background education in this can give a better answer...fishin4life

On a side note...heavy rains and freshwater will make the crabs grow bigger as they prefer lower salinity and grow bigger in less saltier water .  Yummmm!

 

[Skolmann]

I was planning on fishing the Navesink River tomorrow but changed plans after hearing the forecast for up to 2"s of rain today.

I feel the the fresh water run off coupled with the the water being more murky as well as lowering the water temperature will have a negative effect on the fluke bite.

Sunday might be better after a few tide changes.

Friend of mine fished the Navesink on Tuesday and boated 23 fluke-although only 1 was a keeper with most being 17-17.5"s and fat. He said that green/chartreuse was far & away the best color.

I'll probably be doing a double on the Sea Hunter tomorrow.

[blynch]

They wont leave the river per se, but the murk and drop in temperatures will probably damopen their appetites some.