Spring in the Air: Winter Flounder Season Beginning

Spring begins this week, though most of you will be more interested in winter flounder.Winter flounder season kicks off on  Wednesday, March 23.Now, let’s face it – the regulations are just awful on this species. We lost the fall season for winter flounder several years ago, and now we’ve been reduced to a bag limit of just two fish per person. The size limit remains at 12 inches. If you have a small boat you can launch quickly, it’s worth it to head out, but it’s tough to imagine spending so much money on fuel (and readying and launching your boat for the season) just two catch two fish each. I can only imagine how the charter captains are feeling these days.I personally love fishing for winter flounder, however, and hope to get my boat in the water in time to take advantage of the fishery to some extent. The best places to fish have remained the same for years. The Monmouth County folks just love the Shark River. They catch them at all the channel edges there, including just off the municipal dock in the rental boats at the Belmar Marina. It’s a great place to fish.We Ocean County folk tend to split our winter flounder expeditions between two primary locations: the Mantoloking Bridge and Forked River. Most anglers will fish the Mantoloking Bridge just south of the actual span, a hair outside the ICW channel. I’m not overly knowledgeable on the Forked River fishery, but I do know you’ll be competing with some netters in the area. Generally speaking, Mantoloking is a little more reliable.Use those bloodworms to catch the flounder. Most experts will tell you to paint your sinkers yellow or use yellow curly-tails on your rigs when winter flounder fishing.Later in the season, the bite will move from Barnegat Bay into the Manasquan River, as the fish make their way back out to the ocean.Also, it's worth mentioning the white perch fishery is beginning to gain some traction in the Toms River. I’ve heard several folks fishing with bloodworms this week were catching them off Island Heights, along with some short striped bass and winter flounder. My least favorite bait, bloods, seem to the ticket for just about everything in the back bay.For those of us who don’t like bait that tried to sink its jaws into you, try Fish Bites artificial baits for bloodworms. They most definitely work, though they’ll probably cut down on your bass and flounder count while perch fishing.One last thing: For those of you who track this stuff, the first stripers of the year from Gravelling Point have been weighed in at Scott’s Bait and Tackle on Radio Road in Little Egg Harbor. This is a very cool place to fish, so if you have some time, head down to our county’s southernmost grounds and try your hand at fishing the point. If you’re unsure of where the go, exactly, stop in at Scott’s and they’ll send you in the right direction.