Fluke Fishing Brigantine, NJ - Backwaters, by Alexi

Summer fishing has been sparse.  Steve and I managed to squeeze a day trip in last week thanks to Janessa's generosity of watching my dumb dog. We had about 5hrs of fishing time.  The search was for the closest place to catch fluke, so we decided on Brigantine, NJ.

Brigantine

We used the municipal boat ramp.  It was convenient.  No porta-potty, but plenty of parking, and free (as far as we could tell.)

I had watched Skinner's latest fishing video on fluke tactics.   It was more just inspirational than educational.  What I mean is, I usually end up trying several things to see what works.  I had some left-over killies.  I keep them alive in my pond in a bait bucket.  Then I put them in a bigger bucket with a battery aerator for the drive.  Then back in the bait bucket once I'm at the water.  It's a lot of work, but I find that I'd rather not run out of bait and this system has worked.

I bought A 2-ounce bucktail and a 1-ounce at Riptide bait and tackle.  Steve bought a hat.  If you look at the map, due to the wind and the drift, most of our fishing this day was done in Obes thoroughfare.

Steve fishing Obe's thoroughfare

At first I just used a bucktail with gulp nemesis and a teaser with a 4" gulp swimming mullet.  I was getting tons of weeds on the bucktail. I needed to change tactics.   I decided to try just a bank sinker on bottom with a teaser and a killie.  That was NOT getting any weeds, so I switched both rods over to that system.  I had caught more fish on gulp the previous trip, but conditions just weren't right for that here.  I had several shorts on the teaser/ killie combo.

short fluke, no nets, just a towel

I had a good drift, out of the wind and was consistently catching fish.  I kept at it until I had a keeper, (and then I kept at it some more)  A storm was brewing.

storm

So we stayed in what seemed to be a safe area with an escape plan to land if the shit really hit the fan, but it just passed offshore.

keeper fluke

the end

P.S.   the moral of this story is: look at google maps, fish anywhere