First 2019 Keeper Fluke by Ed Valitutto

Posted on June 5, 2019 by VHFC

The 2019 fluke season has been slow starting for me. VHFC member Bob Dodds joined me for a morning of fishing this past Tuesday. We started in Double Creek where several recent trips had yielded nothing but a few shorts. Despite a decent drift and ok water temperatures, not much was happening there. Bob suggested we fish High Bar Harbor, an area I had never ventured into before. The channel is well marked and the sand bars were very visible. After several drifts, we had 5 shorts and one keeper at 19.5 inches. Nothing to brag about but at least some action. We then tried fishing the dyke with one short and went up to the commercial fleet area to no avail. Strong afternoon winds was enough to start back home. BTW, Bob is looking for folks with a boat to fish and share expenses.

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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.