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Saltwater Fishing Report: Flounder season starts Sunday

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Winter flounder season opens with a 12-inch minimum-size limit and a two-fish bag limit. Now, technically, southern Jersey waters are not known for flounder poundin’ as much as the central and northern parts of the coastline are, but still, a few areas seem to hold flatties in the spring months.

Seriously? Another 6 inches of snow this week? Mother Nature’s idea of a sick joke as the first day of spring has passed is hopefully the last we see of any white stuff until next winter.

Water temperatures were inching up to the 44-degree mark before the snowfall, but dipped once again early this week into the 38-degree range. Thankfully, as of Wednesday, the snow was all but melted and some mid-50-degree weather is on tap for the weekend, which may elevate the low water and surface water temperatures once again. 

“We had a good white perch bite happening in the Mullica, then of course the snowfall came and combined with the full moon, the perch got skittish,” said Dave Showell of Absecon Bay Sportsman in Absecon. “But now that the snow has melted and warm weather predicted for the weekend, they should go back on the bite like they were.” The hottest spots for white perch have been in the middle section of the Mullica River, by Hay Road and near Clark’s Landing, as well as by Lower Bank and Green Bank. Showell also reported that a few tiny bass in the 20-inch range were taken on bloodworms as well in the river. “There are bass around, that’s for sure,” said Showell. “I’m marking them on the viewfinder, it just has to warm up a bit for them to feed actively.”

At Fin-Atics in Ocean City, the white perch word seems to be coming from the Tuckahoe River, especially up in the Mays Landing section. “I’m hearing guys are fishing that area near McNamara State Park to catch white perch,” said Fin-Atics’ Bill Wiggins. “A few small striped bass, like really small, of 12 to 18 inches, have been caught up that way, too,” Wiggins added. The store is open every day now, so when the bite for both bass and perch take off, you know where to get your bloodworm baits and terminal tackle.

Interestingly, besides stripers and white perch, there’s another fish in the mix to target starting Sunday. Winter flounder season opens with a 12-inch minimum-size limit and a two-fish bag limit. Now, technically, southern Jersey waters are not known for flounder poundin’ as much as the central and northern parts of the coastline are, but still, a few areas seem to hold flatties in the spring months. Spots like Ludlam’s Bay in Sea Isle City, Elbow and Rainbow Channel in Ocean City and possibly even the Margate backwaters can offer up flounder, so long as you bring plenty of clam and cat food for chum to stir them up. However, if you really want to put a few flounder in the cooler, your best bet is to head to the Barnegat Bay. Early-season hot spots within the bay include the Oyster Creek outflow, where water temperatures are already in the high 50s due to the warm water discharge. Other B-Bay spots include the flatwaters between the BB and BI Buoys as well as the 40 marker. In the upper part of the bay, the Mantoloking Bridge area always has a fleet of flounder pounders laying in line with their chum slicks flowing in attempt to pluck flatties off the muddy bottom.

If you do set out to try to line up some flatfish, set up with a light to medium action 6½-foot spinning or baitcasting rod, matched with a lighter reel like a 3000 class size. You don’t need to spool with braided line as you are only fishing 4 to 15 foot deep water tops. A reel spooled with 10-pound monofilament is fine, or if you must, 12-pound braided line. Size 8 Baitholder hooks adorned with 1-inch yellow grubs or yellow beads will work for attractants, and a simple 1- to 2-ounce coin sinker works best for weight. Bait up with tiny bits of fresh clam, bloodworms, sandworms or mussels if you have them.

Flounder fishing is not too hard, but you do have to have ultimate patience to get the bite going on. A chum slick is paramount to success, and I would advise fishing the outgoing tides when the water is a bit warmer for now. Flounder have tiny peanut-sized mouths and will peck at the baits a little before inhaling the bait. Once hooked, the fight is surprisingly aggressive for such a relatively small fish and they will pull drag on their propulsion back to the mud bottom, but you should inevitably win the battle.

Now, where is that sunshine and warm spring breeze???!

Reach Nick Honachefsky at beachnut33@hotmail.com.


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