Earlier this month, Captain Bob Rochetta of Rainbow Fishing Charters invited me and OTW Sales Rep Joe Pechie aboard for a day of commercial rod-and-reel fluke fishing. Joe and I would, ideally, help Captain Bob fill out his limit, while getting an inside look at how the pros put more fluke in the boat. Here are five of the top fluke fishing tips I learned while fishing with Captain Bob:
Prep the Bait at the Dock
By the time Joe and I hopped aboard the Rainbow, the squid strips were cut and the spearing were thawed out. The bait was kept in a small bucket within easy reach, but out of the sun. This way we wasted no time cutting bait while we were over the fish.
Make Your Own Drift
The morning was beautiful, and windless, leaving the boat dead in the water when we reached the popular fluke-fishing grounds off the greenlawns in Peconic Bay. In order to cover water, Captain Bob fired up the motor and “power-drifted.” Instead of going in a straight line, Bob made a grid of the area, and before long, he located a pile of fluke.
Keep the Rig Simple
I’ve been guilty of adding anything at my disposal to a fluke rig, including but not limited to spinner blades, beads and devices that light up underwater. Bob’s preferred fluking rig is much simpler. His features a three-way swivel with a short drop to a sinker and a long leader. At the end of the leader he dresses up the hook with a soft-plastic squid, and baits with a strip of squid and a spearing. Bob hooks the spearing through the top of the skull, because a bait hooked this way won’t be pulled off as easily by short-striking fluke.
Keep the Bait Moving
Even though Bob was using a bait rig, he constantly jigged the rod, bouncing the sinker off the bottom with short hops, and giving more action to the bait.
Target Depth Changes
Throughout the morning, we fished sloping areas, where depth changes as much as 15 feet would take place over the course of the drift. This meant you had to keep tabs on your rig and reel in or let out line according to the depth.
You just described my fluke fishing.
I fish the area around Bug light in Duxbury and I use sea clam strips and green crabs
i use squid in dux bay!
you fish bug light for em??? my fish are all small keepers.
im not to sure if there are doormats in duxbury bay
Duxbury Bay as well. We used chubs on fluke rigs for years but they haven’t been too successful lately.
That’s pretty much how my dad showed me fluke fishing in our area cape cod, between Woods hole and vineyard sound.
Although that was the way I started as a fluke fisherman….a bucktail with gulp grubs and a 8 inch strip is way more effective for me now…especially for double digit fluke
How far north can you fish for Fluke….Scituate?
The fluke were in the green harbor chanle last year
SSSSHHHHH.
NO FISH IN GREEN HARBOR!!!
yea you can get em in scituate! my buddy caught one on a tube and worm off 4th cliff a few years ago!
my buddy caught a monster out at the bank trolling umbrellas for bluefish
I know it sounds crazy but I caught nice fluke on bunker strips it’s the oily smell that attracts them