First Two Days of 2018 Fluke Season by Ed Valitutto

Posted on May 28, 2018 by VHFC

On Friday opening day, Alan Goracy and I fished Double Creek. It’s been dredged and nicely marked but there are two or three spots where it is really narrow between the buoys. Despite the large fleet, we quickly had 15 fish with only one at 18″ before it totally died. That seemed especially weird since the tide was now outgoing and water temps were rising up to the high 60’s. We continued fishing for a good while but it was over!
On Saturday, I went out early by myself. Not wanting to battle the buoys, boats and shallow waters at Double Creek by myself, I decided to give the Middle Grounds a try. Usually this area doesn’t turn on until early to mid-June. My first drift only yielded a skate. I then went over to the LB buoy (where the now unmarked cut from Dock Rd meets the ICW) and hooked a nice 19″ fat fluke on a floating jighead tipped with belly and a killie. But that was it. I then made several drifts back in the Middle Grounds that resulted in three dogfish. By 10:30 the winds were honking and I decided to return to port.

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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.

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