Doesn't sound like you're doing too badly to me. But it does sound like you've been what I like to call "Cookie Cutter" fishing.
What is that? Well, there are times that large quantities of fluke will move into an area - and nearly every single one will be about the same size. And nearly all will be short. This appears to have been your experience.
So you have two choices - either stick with what you are doing and hope that you can cull a larger fish or two from the prevailing-sized biomass - or move away, do some exploring and hope that it pays off.
Is there some broken bottom in your area? You can try to fish the structure in an effort to put a better fish in the boat. Big fluke are not stupid and yet they are quite lazy. They normally will not want to compete with the energetic young 'uns for the available food, and so they will shy away from the vast schools of smaller fish and seek out areas that they can hunt more as solitary predators.
Spots that feature structure, like reef edges and spread out, broken down wrecks that feature extended rubble fields afford an abundance of hiding places for the large fluke to lay in ambush between and next to the hard pieces - which are a veritable buffet table of different tasty fluke foods such as crabs, baby lobstas, bergalls and various fish fry that try to use the shelter of the rubble to help protect themselves. Predator species such as fluke are genetically conditioned over eons of time to seek out such places as their primary residences.
While I spend a ton of time every August looking for the squid as an indicator of where the better fluke might be feeding, there are times that no squid are locally available and so I have to utilize "Plan B" to put some fish in the boat. Last year was a great year for large fluke chasing the squid shoals here off the central South Shore of Long Island, as was 2005.
But 2006? Geesh. You certainly could have fished 50' of water over the open sand with the local fleet and caught many just-short fish. But that's not the target I have in mind if I'm planning on burning 20 gals(+) of fuel. I'm thinkin' thumper fluke at that time of year.
So in 2006 we were forced to do the local wreck round robin - pull a decent fish here and maybe a few there and at the end of the day while our individual fish catch count was very low compared to others back at the fuel dock - our keeper ratio was much, MUCH better than most other boats. We made a few jaws tighten and eyes turn away that season, for sure. Not many boats were coming in with much of anything, while moaning about all the catch and release they were doing - but we consistantly did get good quality fish. Not many boat limits for us, true enough. But many much better than average-sized fish hit did our cooler that year. Hey, when you're faced with lemons, make lemonade.
So that's my advice to you. Try moving away from the smaller fish and seek out the bottom in your area that might look good for seabass and tog fishing. Drift those areas and see if you don't increase your better-fish scoring.
Just be prepared to cough up some terminal tackle - which is no more than one would expect fishing sticky areas anyway.
The results from a typical "Hard bottom" fishing trip mid-August 2006. Not a ton of fish, but pretty fair quality:
This post edited by Leprechaun 11:16 PM 07/09/2008
I've been flukin' off the beaches (Misquamicut to Green Hill)here in RI for 4 days straight from 0630 to 1630, and I'm getting frustrated! I have caught 179 fluke with exactly 5 being keepers! Those were only 20-23"! What gives? I've been fishing in 30-60' of water, with everything under the sun. Jigging, dead stick, mono, braid, live bait , dead bait, big and small jigs, fluke bullets, teasers, plastic, hi/lo rigs, 3 way rigs, spinners, hoochies, plain hooks, drift sock, no drift sock, etc.......
