Summer flounder regulations only slightly different from last year's
By Al Ristori
March 04, 2010, 7:28PM
The Marine Fisheries Council, meeting in Toms River Thursday, approved summer flounder regulations for the upcoming season that are only slightly different than last year’s — providing the same six fluke at the identical 18-inch minimum, but during a somewhat longer season from May 29 to Sept. 6.
Other options, approved earlier by the Summer Flounder Technical Committee, would have provided more of a September season.
Surfcasting pro Paul Haertel initiated approval of those options that would have allowed fishing during the period when large fluke are most common and when beach fishermen have a legitimate shot at a keeper.
They still wouldn’t have done me any good last year, when the only large fluke I caught in the surf was a 19-incher that hit a Vision Rainfish teaser Dec. 16 at Brick Beach.
The attraction of a season including both Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends without having to increase the minimum size drew support from both southern and northern areas. It was the alternate favored by the Council’s Advisory Panel.
A slightly smaller allocation last year had made it necessary to choose between the two weekends.
The Marine Fisheries Council meets in South Jersey and public comments there were heavily in favor of a Memorial Day weekend opening as fluking starts earlier to the south. The central meeting location in Toms River Thursday balanced the scale in terms of input from northern areas.
An increase to 18 1/2 inches could have resulted in a season stretching to Sept. 26, but there was little support for increasing a minimum that’s proven so difficult to attain.
Dropping the bag limit to four would have added only six days to the beginning of the season selected.
