New Jersey · Summer flounder (fluke)
Can you keep a summer flounder (fluke) in New Jersey?
Yes, with limits
all marine waters except Delaware Bay and Island Beach State Park
Open todaySize
18 inches and up
total length
Daily bag
3
per person per day
Closes each year Closed September 26 through May 3 — the season runs May 4 to September 25
18 inches, 3 a day, May 4 through September 25. Two named areas run smaller minimums instead — see the other regions on this page.
Delaware Bay and tributaries
Open todaySize
17 inches and up
total length
Daily bag
3
per person per day
Closes each year Closed September 26 through May 3 — the season runs May 4 to September 25
One inch smaller than the general rule: 17 inches, still 3 a day, same May 4–September 25 season.
Island Beach State Park
Open todaySize
16 inches and up
total length
Daily bag
2
per person per day
Closes each year Closed September 26 through May 3 — the season runs May 4 to September 25
The most permissive of New Jersey's three fluke minimums — 16 inches — but with a smaller bag, 2 a day, in this one named park.
What we left out on purpose
- This page carries the seven species on NJDEP's own 'Attention Anglers' quick-reference card — the document the agency itself hands anglers first. The full 'Marine Digest' (a much longer document) covers further species — scup, sheepshead, black drum, spot and others among them — that are not carried here. The card explicitly calls itself a summary and not the full law.
- Shark is left out. NJDEP's own card gives only a vessel limit (1 fish per vessel) and defers size, season and gear entirely to NMFS federal rules — no state-published size exists to carry.
- Hard clam and blue crab appear on the same official card but are shellfish and crustaceans, not fish, and are left out along with every other state on this site.
- dep.nj.gov sits behind an Imperva bot-check that blocks direct fetches (curl, WebFetch) even with a live session's cookies. The PDF here was retrieved through a same-origin fetch() executed inside an authenticated browser tab — the same technique would work for the full Marine Digest if a future session wants to expand this state's coverage.