July 10, 2017 — Summer flounder seem to be holding on to their ranking as the fan favorite against a number of contenders.
Last week, Bill Mendenhall Sr. and Jr. made their trek from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, to the back bays of Margate, like they have done since forever.
They racked up 94 fish with regular partner Skip Van Lew on a rental boat from Ray Scott’s Dock in Margate to come away with two keepers both at the minimum 18 inches.
The Mendenhalls were back Monday with another fishing partner and topped both of those amazing numbers with 112 flounder and three keepers. Bill Sr. was high hook with all three keepers (picture on B8), one 20 inches long, and he racked up four doubleheaders, according to Robin Scott.
A signficant number of flounder are being caught throughout the back bays, inlets and inshore waters, but there sure seems to be a carpet of fish under the 18-inch minimum there and on the inshore lumps in the ocean.
One of the quality catches recently was reported by Sue Burns at Point Tackle in Somers Point. Dave Filarski weighed a 7.8-pound flounder he caught with a mackerel strip near the Longport Bridge. Filarski docks at Seaview Harbor Marina in Great Egg Inlet.
Another was recorded at Avalon Hodge-Podge by Rob Myers,of Pittsburgh. He weighed a 5.5-pound flounder caught in the back bays of Avalon with a minnow.
Noel Feliciano weighed five flounder Sunday, including a 4.7-pounder.