Sunny days have increased impatience among winter flounder fishermen looking forward to the opening of the season March 23.The season has been closed since June 1 last year, and anglers are not happy that there are no signs that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission may relax the regulations.The flounder rules are among the harshest for any species on recreational anglers, and the effects are particularly felt in March when there is little else to fish for. Capt. Sal Cursi, who docks his charter boat Cathy Sea in Sewaren, is typical of ardent winter flounder anglers who can do nothing but ready his boat and remember the days when he could fish for flounders ? spring or fall ? whenever the weather and his time allowed. "It's a darn shame," he said. "Flounder fishing doesn't get good in Raritan Bay until April, but it's the idea. Before my father passed on, we looked forward to flounder fishing every spring and fall." Presently he is filling in his April charter schedule, and still has some openings for both flounder trips and combination flounder and striper trips. His May striped bass schedule is booked.The loss of the late winter season for flounders is especially acute in the Toms River and Barnegat Bay.My great-grandfather kept his two boats ? Gemini and Little Gem ? behind his house in Toms River in the 1920s and 1930s, and he, my father and I looked forward to an early winter flounder trip. We quickly switched our focus from Toms River and the bay to Shark River and the Manasquan River, however, as it was closer to home, and the fishing was better. Early winter flounder fishing was a ritual. It was the thing to do before the mackerel arrived and the striped bass began to hit in the surf. My father told me that it was that way with his father and him as a boy as well. The family lived on Chadwick Ave., Newark, at the turn of the 20th century, and they built a bungalow on Manasquan beach, and came down to fish weekends and summers. It was the seventh bungalow built on the beach at that time. They kept a rowboat in the Glimmer Glass and a skiff on the beach in front of their place, only a short cast from the old Star Fishery with its pound boats, horses, wagons, nets, fish barrels and gnarled Scandinavian and Portuguese fishermen. The Portuguse loved fishing, and after a day pulling pound nets and sorting and packing fish, they would often fish the surf with handlines. Their technique was to coil a tarred line in one hand, let out four or five feet or so of line and then whirl a Belmar squid or sinker and baited hook in a circle above their heads and let fly. The baited hook would be left on the bottom as one would with a surf rod today for bass, fluke, kingfish, etc. The jigs were retrieved hand over hand for bluefish and bass. Fishermen today look for a place to dock or launch their boats, and sometimes pay dearly for the opportunity. Until 1950 it was still possible in Manasquan to simply squat on a vacant bank on the Glimmer Glass, put out a couple of oak poles, and anchor your boat free. My friends, which included Bill Bailey, who was descended from a long line of captains from the days of sail in Manasquan, and I, all had rowboats when we were in school. The boats were our responsibility ? maintenance, painting, soaking, launching. We used them for fishing, clamming, seining bait or simply exploring or camping trips up the headwaters of the Manasquan. My elders were happy enough to use my boat before theirs went into the water when it was winter flounder time.In later years, I took my children flounder fishing in the Manasquan River, teaching them the same methods and showing them the same spots that I had been taught. It was a wonderful tradition. I recall one day when we caught the change of tide and a vigorous bite only 100 feet off the Brielle Yacht Club docks. We put 63 flounders in the boat, and filleted and froze every one of them. Your conscience was your guide on size in those days. You could keep small flounders, if you wanted, but we were fishing for the table, and the small ones were released because there was so little meat on them. There was no shortage of flounders then. The pressure was only beginning with more boats, more anglers, more shoreside development and more pollution. One wonders, with a winter flounder season running from March 23 through May 21 with a 12-inch minimum size and a 10-fish possession limit now, what flounder fishing will be like in 50 years.Will fathers still be taking their young sons and daughters winter flounder fishing?

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