Labor Day Weekend Fluke Fishing by Bayside Dave Etelman

Posted on September 1, 2024 by bayside425

Jim Healy took Doug O’Brien and me out on his boat on Saturday morning 8/31/2024. We targeted fluke using live minnows and peanut bunker in Barnegat Bay. Drifting the west side of the dike in High Bar Harbor, fishing was slow but we caught about a dozen fish. Doug caught and kept a nice 19″ fluke on live peanut bunker. The bite slowed down, so we moved to the channel in front of the gas dock by the Coast Guard Station and set up a drift from there to the lighthouse. We caught and released a few fish per drift and again, Doug got another 19″ keeper, this time on a live minnow. The three of us enjoyed fishing together on a beautiful day and were happy to get some action.

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

The triangle fly is probably the most unusual of saltwater flies. It’s one of the few, if not only, flies tied to a treble hook. It’s also barely a fly at all, because hardly any material is used. It is complete after tying the two straw pearl twinkle flashes and the tiny tuft of natural squirrel, leaving an entire hook fully exposed. Incredibly this barebacked treble fly is a knockout when it comes to sea trout.