With his bikini-clad girlfriend looking on, a Jones Inlet surf fisherman went jaw-to-jaw shouting match, exchanging verbal insults with a boater who opted to fish close to the shoreline. The fisherman on the boat was furious because he perceived wrongly the land locked fisherman as burying an illegal catch.
Not so, the surf fisherman was just keeping his huge fluke, about 23," possibly 24" out of the sun to retain its freshness by placing it deep in the sand. The boater, however, didn’t and couldn’t realize this since he was fishing on his boat about 30 to 40 yards from the shoreline.
In his fury and anger, the boater grabbed his cell phone and called the authorities. Within 10 minutes the Bay Constable showed up. Since I was the first one they encountered on the beach, the constables asked to inspect my cooler. I complied. After looking inside, they congratulated me on my three huge flukes from 22” to 23.” Then they asked me about the surf fisherman with the bikini-clad girlfriend. I told them that a huge patch of huge flukes had passed through the Inlet, and the irate surf angler most likely had also nabbed huge flukes and buried them.
Upon saying that the constable went over to the surf fisherman with the beautiful girlfriend and asked him about his shouting match confrontation with the boater. Soon afterward, the surf angler dug up his huge flukes. The constables thanked him for his cooperation and then left the sand.
The boater had split before the authorities had arrived, but upon leaving he had continued his insults, choice words to the land locked angler. The surf fisherman was angry yet his girlfriend calmed him down and he resumed fishing.
For about 15 minutes on that summer day, a huge, and I mean huge, patch of keeper-size flukes swam close to the inlet shoreline, about 20 to 25 yards. I nabbed my three keepers, that year fluke fishermen were allowed to keep three as a maximum. My lucky day, for sure, to be there when the huge flukes were swimming through the Inlet so close to the shoreline.
Such is fluke fishing. Flukes often swim in patches like schools. If someone catches one fluke chances are there are other flukes in the area basically the same size. The mystery is, however, how many fluke in the patch? The ones that I were lucky enough to intercept must have been a part of a patch of hundreds of huge flukes. Since that day, I had never come across such a huge patch. I’ve caught one, some days even two keepers, rare, but nothing like that day of primo fluke fishing.
As far as the shouting match argument between the boater and surf caster, the boater left so there was no blood, fisticuffs or sinker throwing. And, of course, the boater, was clueless in the end about the size of the fluke the shore angler had buried to keep cool. A year or so later, I became the target of an irate boater. On one weekday I was fishing and nabbed a 20” fluke, a keeper at that time. I laid the fluke in my cooler, right in front of a boat filled with people. The boat was close enough to the shoreline for me to see one of the anglers use his cell phone. In less than five minutes, an authority was on the beach and asked to check my cooler. Of course, I opened it up for inspection. This time, however, the boater, was there to witness the inspection. When I asked the authority if the boater had called, the officer told me not to worry about it, he added nice catch and then left.
It is possible to catch big flukes on the shoreline. Even though a few boaters who have to spend plenty of money on gas and docking don’t seem to realize it. Flukes like to ambush bait fish. So flukes will lie on the sand banks ledges, if they aren’t traveling in huge patches, and pounce on unsuspecting bait fish.
Fluke and bluefish roam Jones Inlet, especially close to the shoreline. It’s common to catch either in water about six feet deep. Those two fish are bold about coming in close to the Inlet shoreline, making for good fishing when they are around. It goes against the grain of popular stereotypical beliefs that fish prefer deep waters. Some fish do, but not fluke and bluefish. Also striped bass, who tend for the most part to stay in the channel at the Inlet, and when they are around weakfish, will come close to the shoreline at the Inlet.
It’s not like I’m going to catch a 100-pound fish at Jones Inlet, but sometimes the big fish do swim close enough to catch. Why? Because food is there. Bait fish will hug the shoreline for protection in an effort to elude predators. Some predators might shy away from about being so close to the shoreline at the Inlet. Yet not all, namely two aggressive predators bluefish and fluke.
