MANASQUAN RIVER FLUKE

[bigmills]

Fished the Manasquan River outgoing today with my brother and nephew and caught over 60 fluke (2 keepers) the largest was 21.5". About half were 16 to 17". We started out with killies, squid and smelt without a fish. We switched over to Gulp and we slammed them. The rig We fish is a White Spro and a white gulp with a loop tied about a foot above and a 1/0 bait hook with another gulp threaded up the hook. All but 3 were on the top hook. My brother was using a pink and white hotlips bucktail and my nephew a pink and white big eye bucktail with white 3" minnow grubs gulps  We fished in front of Clark's then over by the train bridge drifting to the dog beach. I wish they would lower the size an inch or two. ******Has anyone tried circle hooks for fluke I must of thrown back 3 or 4 that I know didn't make it.*****

[Hotrod]

Nice   Great info to

[Pfishingruven]

Nice report and nice catch!

As for circle hooks, I have used them off the beach when throwing bait and they work like they should 95% of the time.  I noticed it definitely lowers the gut hooking ratio in most species, even skates!

Most of the time, I am not throwing just bait, so I usually don't have a problem.

It is a shame to have to throw those back when you know they are going to end up as crab bait.  Too bad they haven't figured out a way to work something like that into the Regs.  A complete waste!!

 

[shkbilly]

Thanks for the report! That seems like a good day in the river. 

[sea nymph]

Nice Catch!  You really have to work the river hard to pull out some keepers! 
I do use circle hooks alot in the bays and rivers.  As said, they do their job 95% of the time. 

[ped579]

Good report thanks...

[wb]

good catching...

we had a couple gut hooked as well yesterday what a shame 17.5" and thick sure they made nice meals just not for us....

I think i'm gonna go to bigger hooks....

[urulie]

Nice job, I second that thought it's tough pulling any keepers from the river.  I don't know how you could even fish with all the traffic in the river.  Your a better man than me.    

[bigmills]

Friday the traffic was tolerable. I work 4 10s so I am off on Fridays and have 26 vacation days per year (FED GOV) I won't go on the weekends. I love September when we get our town back and the fishing gets good other than the fluke closing Sept 4.

[Capt. Birch]

Congrats on a nice catch.  For the  bay I like to use size 1 to 1/0 octupus hooks. They do not seem to do as much damage and the hook rate is great.