# Winter Flounder Season!!!!!



## KT_UMCP (Oct 11, 2005)

It is now the official winter flounder season here in NJ. I have a feeling the winter flounder bite is gonna be on good this year. I hope to get out there tuesday or wednesday to catch me some of these flatties. Dang I wish I would of won some of Redskinfan's flounder rigs, would of came in handy right about now.


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## bassZooKa (Feb 4, 2007)

KT_UMCP said:


> It is now the official winter flounder season here in NJ. I have a feeling the winter flounder bite is gonna be on good this year. I hope to get out there tuesday or wednesday to catch me some of these flatties. Dang I wish I would of won some of Redskinfan's flounder rigs, would of came in handy right about now.


u mean the season just started now??? 

O chit....!


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## Xray Lima (Apr 9, 2005)

I caught 3 nice sized flounder yesterday at Shark River near the boat launch near the tennis courts. My first winter flounder ever! I saw a few people catch double headers. This was around 2 pm. I fished for 3 hours and caught my 3 within a 20 min time frame on sandworms.


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## KT_UMCP (Oct 11, 2005)

hey Xray, what type of rig and setup did you use to catch them winter flounders at Shark River? Did you let is sit in the water or were you working it on a slow retrieve?


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## Xray Lima (Apr 9, 2005)

KT_UMCP said:


> hey Xray, what type of rig and setup did you use to catch them winter flounders at Shark River? Did you let is sit in the water or were you working it on a slow retrieve?


Hey man, I dont know exactly what the rig was called but it wasnt a high low. It was more like a side by side. Two medium shank gold hooks with a little corn bead in front. The clip for the weight was just about level with the tandem hooks. As for the action, I just let it sit and they came to the bait. Next time Im gonna try a high-low with a hole filled film canister attached to my line as a mini chum pot. Hope this helps.


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## bobabouy (Nov 13, 2006)

its the standard flounder rig"winter flounder" the ones w/the yellow beads or yellow mr twister are my go to,in the shark river area lots of boats chumming so the bank fisherman are right in the chum slick,need a little bigger stick from the bank then if you were fishing from one of the boats,right inside the marina is a bait and tackle shop i believe its the "fishermans den"one of my longtime buds had 55 flatties on opening day w/38 being keepers he fished w/his 2 young sons,still waiting on him to stop by w/some fillets .the shark river has been the early season hot spot this year


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## david123 (Jun 24, 2004)

KT

A friend and i will be there tomorrow (wed) we.re going to rent a boat and see how it ges, Made up a dozen chum logs this morning


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

bobabouy said:


> its the standard flounder rig"winter flounder" the ones w/the yellow beads or yellow mr twister are my go to,in the shark river area lots of boats chumming so the bank fisherman are right in the chum slick,need a little bigger stick from the bank then if you were fishing from one of the boats,right inside the marina is a bait and tackle shop i believe its the "fishermans den"one of my longtime buds had 55 flatties on opening day w/38 being keepers he fished w/his 2 young sons,still waiting on him to stop by w/some fillets .the shark river has been the early season hot spot this year


Its ok for them to take 38 fish but yet you got bent on my first post on SOL....Reality check dude ! I still feel you owe me an appology for insinuating that I "waste" fish...You didnt even know a thing about me . Do you know that Yellow Perch are targetted by commercial guys in MD ! Imagine all those fat yellows being harvested..That should make your day.
I am very glad to see that your 5 post are actually fishing related..


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## KT_UMCP (Oct 11, 2005)

Went out today to Shark River and wet the line at 3pm. There were about 15 other people fishing the bay side at the marina. It was unusually slow. I spent the first hour just watching and scoping. Then decided to wet my line at 3 by the bulkhead. Was waaay to crowded at the marina. Fished 2 poles and stayed there for about 2 hours and not a hit. I drove to the inlet and fished under the bridge and nada. Went back to the other side of the marina and nada again. NO ONE caught a single flounder. Last saturday there was about 40 flounders caught at the marina. Pretty suprising how things can change so drastically in a few days. 15 people and about 25 poles and not a single hit. I changed locations 3 times from bay side to ocean side, but was not my day today.


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## david123 (Jun 24, 2004)

KT

Think it's time for you to rent a boat and explore the river. I know it's small, but go to Google taskbar and type in* Map,Blemar, NJ *

On top of the map, click on the Satellite photo and you will be enlightened. The place is chock full of little dips and cuts and mini channels. 

We're gonna try it tomorrow and I'll give you the report. I've had good luck with the ental bats thre fr summer flounder (Fluke). They tell me that the same areas will hold winter flounder. 

We'll see. My Partner for tomorrow is an old buddy and he's a fishin machine. We'll have a portable depth sounder w/ temp readout to keep us informed. 

Were any of the shore anglers using chum pots or were they fishing blind?

http://www.google.com/maps?q=Belmar,+NJ,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=image


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## KT_UMCP (Oct 11, 2005)

Hey David, No one from shore was using chum pots. They sell them at the the B&T at the marina, but did not observe anyone using any. I fished away from where most were congregated and fished behind the tennis courts at the bulkhead. There were 3 boats in the immediate area about 85 yards out and all 3 were trying to get a good chum slick going as to how they were positioned. Iwent down current after observing this trying to cast as close as i can to there chum slick, but I as well as the boats just wasn't catching. I am sure there are more then a few honey holes there. Hopefully, you and your friend will be on the fish. I may decide to go out again today to beat this skunk from yesterday.


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## KT_UMCP (Oct 11, 2005)

*Skunked yet again!!*

Started fishing the incoming tide at Shark River at around 1:20pm and relocated 3 times to try and be on the fish. My instinct told me that I should of fished the on the other side of the marina, but decided not to. Fished with 7 other people and we all got skunked. Procedded to go to the other side and go figure the 2 gentleman that were fishing there had caught a few flounders each. Great!! this is my opportunity to get rid of the 2-day skunk. Not to happen, as soon as I let my bait settle in the water there was dead silence. It seems to be a small window to catch these critters. I never targeted winter flounder before. mThe 2 gents left with some decent size flounders and left me baffled. 

Apparently this short window is 2 hours before and after high tide and at slack it is best. I came to a conclusion that these critters like warmer waters so I relocated yet again to the the furthest end of the bulkhead way past the tennis courts to soak my last 3 bait. Complete failure not a nibble. 2 other gents came along and proceeded to cast out as i was departing. Got the skunk from 1:20pm-5:45pm. My MOJO is wearing very thin. I have yet to have a specie of fish beat me in the long run but thos winter flounder sure did kick my arse to the punch, but eventually I will get at least one of this specie. That is where all the fun really is in my opinion.

HEY DAVID, I think I saw you out there with your buddy in the Belmar rental dingy. Were you and your friend wearing camofluage winter coats and anchored in front of the marina with 4 other boats? If it was you and you happened to look toward the marina I was the one wearing the bright yellow hooded windbreaker, cap and shades with black pants. From what I saw the boats were not catching much at all seems like most got the skunk as well.


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## david123 (Jun 24, 2004)

KT

Yep..that was me and Vern. We fished HARD all day and only got two keepers all day. WE chummed, we changed locations a number of times, we drifted and still was slow all day. 

Finally, around three we got a few hits near the channel off the gas docks. We did howver, get 11 crabs actually landed on hook and line. I had a double. WAter TEmp ws 43 degees whih might have had something to do with the sow bite. Wo only saw 4 other fish landed by the boats on the river and two of them wre shorts and thrown back. 

There were, however two highlights to the day. The frst was when the man fishing with his daugher of about 8 years old. He landed a fish and the child went super enthusiatic. She was waving her arms, clapping and offering the greatest encouragement to her dad for getting one that "was bigger than the last one". It was a great moment to see a Dad and Daughter out there enjoying the day. 

The second moment was one where I'm sorry to say, that Vern and I failed the test of being Christian Fisherman. A guy in a open center console Trophy was triying to set his anchor. In the meddle of the channel no less. He failed at his attempt and decided to set the anchor by reversing engine. What he failed to realize is that although this technique does work for setting the anchor, you must do it gently rather than attempting to determine the actual planing speed of a danforth slye anchor. When the anchor did not set, he started hollering at his partner as if the guy holding the anchor line was doing something wrong. WEll, he hooked the anchor onto the green channel bouy anchor line and atually dagged the marker bouy about 65 feet from where it had been. 

When he raalized that he had snagged the bouy, He reversed course and he bouy drifted beind his bot while he was still messing with the anchor from his boat. I said, "Vern..he's gonna wrap that cable around his prop if he's not careful." It's nice to know that I have not lost my precognative ability. Soon, he decided that he needs a power assist to free the anchor from the buy line and guns the engiin forward. 

The bouy is drawn to the stern of the buat and hits it with a thud and there is the saddening sound of metal cable entangled to a prop. 

WE watched for the remaining ten minutes of the mini-disaster and contemplated actually taking our boat over and untangling the mooring line from the water. It would have been easy for us to do as opposed to watching "Bouy Bashing Boris" do it from onboard. We actually speculated that he might fall in attempting to accomplish the task. We decided that since we only had 15 minutes left to fish as we had to have the boat back to the marina, we would fish and watch rather than help him. A decidedly un0-christian attitute to be sure. But it was just too much fun to watch and besides , we figured all of the metal gnashing had probably put down the only bite that had happened all day. We figured that it was someform of marine justice.


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

Judging by his temperment he needed a refreshing dump in the water anyhow..Nothing un-christian about that...Reap what you sow kinda thing right?


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## BLUESMAN (Nov 4, 2003)

*Kt Umcp*

Years ago I lived in Monmouth County for six years. Took many good catches of winter flounder from both the Shark, Navesink, Shrewsbury and Manasquan Rivers. Always in a boat anchored, always chumming clam, always on a flat(probably warmed by the sun), always moderate tidal flow - usually incoming.

On another note those party boats up there run for winter flounder and do well. It might be worth the investment to make a half day trip on your favorite river to see how they do it then duplicate.

Happy Hooking :fishing:


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## HuskyMD (May 19, 2000)

I won some but I never received them.


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## bobabouy (Nov 13, 2006)

hengstthomas said:


> Its ok for them to take 38 fish but yet you got bent on my first post on SOL....Reality check dude ! I still feel you owe me an appology for insinuating that I "waste" fish...You didnt even know a thing about me . Do you know that Yellow Perch are targetted by commercial guys in MD ! Imagine all those fat yellows being harvested..That should make your day.
> I am very glad to see that your 5 post are actually fishing related..


:redface: for you my friend ,good day


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## KT_UMCP (Oct 11, 2005)

Hey David, yeah man I saw the same thing from shore.  Me and about 4 others were just watching that touron wrecking havoc on that green buoy. I saw the little girl and her dad on the boat as well.

Hey Bluesman, I was pondering the idea of going on the party boat, but none are going out of Belmar on the weekdays it seems. I have heard some bad reports of minimal winter flounder being caught off the PB's recently. Plus I would rather use the money to target the Summer flukes instead of getting 4-5 winter flounder which is barely dinner fare. You are right that there is much to be learned from the mates when it comes to targeting specific species of fish and all the How To's.


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## BLUESMAN (Nov 4, 2003)

*Used to do real good*

for fluke on the Ken's Landing Boats out of Point Pleasant. The old Miss Point Pleasant and Norma K fished the mussel beds right outside of the inlet. Those guys could really put you on the fish.
:fishing: :fishing:


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## lipyanker (May 31, 2006)

David ,

when i was in the USCG those are the kind of guys who made a good day on duty a real pain


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## david123 (Jun 24, 2004)

Lipyanker

I called the CG and reported the mess. I would guess that it's illegal to move a channel buoy as they asked if I got the boat number. I did not as we were too amused at the goings on to think that far ahead.


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