Weekend Fishing Report

Flounder have affixed their bibs at the southern New Jersey reef sites, and the number of four to eight pound flatties hitting the ice is impressive, indeed.

The Little Egg, Garden State North, Garden State South, Atlantic City, Ocean City, Townsend’s Inlet and Cape May reefs are l-o-a-d-e-d with fluke approaching the back slapping 10 pound doormat hoorah.

Back bay and ICW slots from Great Bay down through Grassy Sound in Wildwood are also producing legal flatfish, but 99% of these are in the barely legal 17-3/4 to respectable 19 inch range.

The Old Grounds is another flounder pounder locus, but be ready to bounce bucktails to six ounces when the pull is reasonable, otherwise, it’s been an eight to 16 ounce sinker dealio when dragging baits like whole squid, cocktail blue strips, and salmon bellies. Expect flatfish to 11 pounds on The Grounds.

Reef wreckers are the SPRO bucktails in Crazy Chartreuse, Glow, and White, armed with the glow, pink shine or new penny Gulp! Grub, or the S&S Rattle Jig in the same weights tipped with the seven inch natural or chartreuse Uncle Josh Meat strip. In the skinny waters, the three inch pink or chartreuse Gulp! Swimming Minnow attached to a ¼ and 3/8 ounce white, white/yellow and chartreuse bucktail will put fillets in the pan. And remember, flounder are not about “catch-and-releasing”, but “CATCHING-AND- EATING”!