Take care where you catch your seasonal fluke

• As is typical, the tri-state area could not get together this year to set consistent fluke regulations. That means anglers fishing this end of Long Island Sound, who can literally park their boat so it touches the waters of all three states, have to deal with three different sets of fluke fishing regulations for the 2006 season.
• Connecticut now has an 18-inch minimum length limit on fluke or flatfish, with a creel limit of six fish per person per day. New York waters allow only four fish of 18 inches a piece, while Rhode Island has a 1 1/2-inch minimum length but allows anglers who come and go from state ports to take seven fluke.
• This can create an obvious dilemma for those who, like myself, often run across the boundaries of all three states during a day on the water. What it really means is captains have to pay close attention, not only to size but the number of keeper fish they have in their possession at all times.
• Fluke in possession must be in tact or if cleaned on the water, the deboned racks must be retained, just in case a conservation officer decides to check your catch. Cleaned carcasses are proof that the catch is legal. Otherwise, all fillets must be the size of whatever the legal limit happens to be for a given state, and I don't think many anglers are catching fluke large enough to produce 18-inch long fillets. At least not at this point in the season.
• That means the smart thing to do, if you plan to fish one or more of these states, is to start off with the largest common denominator, which would be four 18 inch fluke in the live well, if you plan to visit New York waters during a trip. Then come back into the Sound off Mystic, Niantic or Stonington to catch the remaining two fish to make a Connecticut limit, if you are lucky enough.
• In Rhode Island, Connecticut boats that are running back to Connecticut ports must adhere to the Connecticut minimum length, which is 18 inches. Even if you trailer your boat to Rhode Island, the fish in your possession, once you drive across the border into Connecticut, must be legal fish for our state, even if they were caught in Rhode Island waters.
• In other words, when in New York waters, follow their more stringent regulations on fluke. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, follow Connecticut regulations, six fluke of 18-inches minimum length, to be on the safe side of the law.
• Right now, the early indications as to just how this fluke season is shaping up are positive. However, bear in mind that marine fishing is always dependent on the presence of bait, water temperature and weather conditions.
  
• At the present time, actually beginning three weeks ago, the fluke showed up on schedule in the fluking grounds from Point Judith, R.I., and across the Sound from Montauk Point to Peconic Bay and Shelter Island, N.Y. They also showed up a week or two earlier than we've seen them in recent years, along the south side of Fishers Island and in the Sound to Niantic Bay.
• Last weekend there were many anglers out, so reports they generated indicate that across the board there seem to be good numbers of fluke out there to catch, but the vast majority of the fish are undersized.
• Fluke fishermen were reporting anywhere from a five-to-ten-to-one, keeper-to-short ratio, for a day on the water off the Rhody beaches and Fishers Island, and in the Sound to Niantic Bay. Matt Hillyer of Hillyer's Tackle in Waterford did as well as anyone I heard of this week with eight keepers out of a dozen fluke he caught locally in the bay.
• Three weeks ago we had one 19-incher out of a dozen fish we caught between Shelter Island, N.Y., and Misquamicut Beach. At the time, water temps were just busting 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so we were jumping the gun at that time. Since waters have warmed after the recent monsoon rains, fluke fishing has improved on all fronts.
• Despite the high ratio of short fish in everyone's catches, many of the fish being reported along the Rhody coast are in the 17-inch range. Since fluke are a very fast-growing species and they will be going through a growth spurt as waters heat up, many of the just short fish we are releasing now will grow into Connecticut legal fish by the end of the summer and into the early fall.
• Providing these fluke don't move out of the region, get skimmed down by commercial rod-and-reel fishermen in Rhode Island waters, trawlers throughout the region, or culled out as they reach legal size by the large sport-fishing fleet that's constantly targeting them, it looks like area flukemeisters are in for a decent season. [Norwich Bulletin Bob Sampson Jr.]