By RICHARD DEGENER, Staff Writer |
Summer flounder anglers want the most fishing days and the highest bag limit, even if it means they have to throw more of the flatfish back.
That's the result of a Press of Atlantic City online reader survey that asked readers to select among four options the state is proposing for the 2011 season.
The most votes, 199 or 53 percent of the total, were for Option 2. This option offers the most fishing days at 142 with a season running from May 7 to Sept. 25. It also requires the fish to be at least 18 inches but gives anglers eight fish per day.
A distant second was Option 4 with 72 votes or 19 percent of votes cast. This option only offers 93 fishing days - but anglers can catch five fish at 18 inches and one fish at 17 inches, the lowest size allowed since 2007.
For several years now anglers have complained about catching fish just under the 18-inch size limit. Dick Herb, who runs a charter boat out of Avalon and serves on the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council, said more than half the people he has talked to favor Option 2.
"I'm surprised more people didn't go for the smaller fish, but they figure they caught all these seventeen and a half and seventeen and three-quarters fish last year and they will come up and fill the void," Herb said.Fisheries biologists have talked for several years about large year classes born in 2008 and 2009 that should be reaching catchable size. It hasn't happened yet.
"Maybe they're going further north or the commercial guys are getting them," Herb said.
The New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council is set to make a decision Thursday on which option to pick.
Option 3 came in third with 67 votes or 18 percent of votes cast. It includes a 108-day season from May 21 to Sept 5 with five fish at 18 inches and one fish at 17.5 inches.
Option 1 was last with 38 votes or 10 percent of votes cast. It offers a 128-day season from May 14 to Sept. 18 with a bag limit of eight fish at 18 inches.
Council Chairman Gil Ewing said the public will get a chance to give their preferences at the council meeting.
"We'll listen to them. Council has not made a decision and we'll go from there," Ewing said.
No matter which option is picked, it will be an improvement over 2010, when anglers got only six fish a day at 18 inches during a 101-day season from May 29 through Sept. 6.
The East Coast quota has been increased from 22.13 million pounds to 29.48 million pounds. Anglers get 40 percent of the total or almost 11.8 million pounds. New Jersey anglers get 39.2 percent of the East Coast recreational quota.
This translates into actual fish. Garden State anglers were allowed 997,000 fish last year and this year they will be allowed 1,335,000 fish.
"It's going to be a hell of a year," Herb said.
Contact Richard Degener:
609-463-6711
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