If you love eating fresh-caught fluke you should rush to the fish market and buy it today. Today is the last day commercial fishermen are permitted to land and sell fluke. After today the only options are to catch it yourself or befriend a recreational angler.
Fluke, also called summer flounder, is a Vineyard success story.
August is the month of opportunity when it comes to fishing. You can fish early or late under the stars. You can go by boat many miles out to sea or do it the easy way offshore. The water around the Island is warm enough for one to stand knee deep in the water and cast for hours without getting cold. There is no need for waders.
We’ve seen bluefish chasing bait close to shore, so when heading to the beach bring a rod and a small bag of tackle. It is all about seizing the opportunity.
Fewer fish were caught and released in the 18th annual Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club’s flyrod striped bass catch and release tournament last weekend than in the previous year’s contest. It may be the first time the number of fish caught and released was less than the number of anglers who entered the contest. There were a total of 146 striped bass and 193 flyfishermen.
Island recreational anglers can now land fluke without breaking the law. The recreational season for fluke opened on Wednesday and the word along the shore is encouraging. Commercial fishermen have been dragging for fluke for weeks with positive results.
This is the first summer recreational fishermen were restricted from catching fluke at the start of the fishing season. They are pretty salty about it, but commercial fishermen have been dealing with openings and closings for decades.
The summer flounder, also called fluke, season is about to come to an end. The state will close the commercial season on Tuesday, August 11. The recreational season will close three days later.
Commercial fishermen cannot land any more fluke after 8 p.m. Tuesday. As of the end of last week, 85 per cent of the quota was taken in two months of fishing. The season opened on June 10 and the fishermen have had little trouble getting their 300-pound daily trip limit.
Local fishermen landed more than 100,000 pounds of fluke this summer at Menemsha. The landings by 10 small draggers and about five handline fishermen represents one-seventh of all the landings made in the state. The state quota for fluke was 702,614 pounds.
The report on local landings came out of a state fisheries public hearing held in Tisbury on Monday afternoon.
The commercial striped bass season ended last Monday and Alec Gale of West Tisbury said it was the worst season he has seen in the six years he has been hauling fish to the mainland for the local anglers. “It was a slow season, and it wasn’t because of overfishing,” Mr. Gale said. “I think it was a lack of bait and the warm water temperature.”
There apparently is a lot more Vineyard sole left to be fished.
For the first time, Massachusetts commercial fishermen failed this year to reach their quota for harvesting fluke. As a result, the commercial fluke fishery, which normally closes by the end of the summer, is still open.
Dan McKiernan, deputy director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, called it a “success story.” But local fishermen said the facts are more complicated.
