Just as the team at Jersey Fish Head is planning our far-too-few fishing trips for this summer – we learned about the 2024 New Jersey fluke limits.
New Jersey’s summer fluke season will run from May 4 through September 25 with a three fish bag and 18-inch minimum size limit according to a recent feature in The Fisherman.
A packed crowd attended the March 7, 2024 meeting in Galloway Township with another 140 people logged in to the webinar, for the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council (Council) final vote on the fluke option discussion.
Council member Pat Donnelly from Ocean County opened the debate by reading the unanimous decision of the Council’s summer flounder advisory committee in favor of option number 32, the three at 18-inch size limit. “The options that were developed did not come easily, and several hours of deliberation took place over the course of two meetings,” Donnelly said, adding “many advisors felt the slot limits implemented in 2022 and 2023 posed a more restrictive regulation for anglers than the current preferred option of number 32, and view this particular option as a liberalization for 2024.”
The Council voted 7-1 in favor of the three fluke bag and 18-inch size limit and 145-day length of season. The Council also noted that New Jersey’s special management zone regulations for summer flounder would remain in effect, that being a 17-inch minimum and three fish bag west of COLREGS on Delaware Bay, and a 16-inch minimum size and two per angler limit at Island Beach State Park.
