I'd just landed a fluke that didn't quite make the New Jersey's 16 1/2-inch minimum size, so I promptly released it. Just moments later, Eric Burnley landed a keeper that didn't require measuring, since it was a fat flatfish that lit up the digital scale at 3 pounds, 1 ounce. Within a half hour, I repeated the same procedure twice, releasing both short fish. Meanwhile, Eric repeated the same, only this time landing an even larger keeper!

We were fishing along the Sandy Hook channel, just north of the point of Sandy Hook on the northern New Jersey coast. It was the kind of day you dreamed about back during the winter months, just a gentle breeze to ensure a nice drift -- and summer flounder biting with some regularity. The balmy, shirtsleeve temperature was typical of May and June, which is when summer flounder move into inshore coastal waters from their wintertime haunts along the Continental Shelf.

Would you believe that the same fishing pattern just described kept repeating itself again and again as we drifted along aboard Capt. Art Hilliard's party boat Eagle, which sails from Atlantic Highlands? Well, that's what happened. By day's end, I didn't have even one keeper among the seven fluke I'd landed.

Meanwhile, Eric's cooler carried four fluke, with the remaining two being progressively larger than the first two. Just how big were these flatfish? A substantial 4-pounder was one of 'em, while the next flounder stopped the digital scale at 6 pounds, 8 ounces!

While driving up from his home in Delaware, Eric had stopped at Julian's Bait and Tackle Shop in Atlantic Highlands. The shop owner Joe Julian, a dear friend of mine since we were teenagers, suggested he try a 4-ounce Tsunami ball jig, because his customers were enjoying great success as big fluke swarmed into the waters of Ambrose and Sandy Hook Channels, and the broad expanse of Raritan Bay.

Bottom line: Eric heeded Joe's advice. He not only scored with the most keepers on board that day, but he was the pool winner as well!

Sitting back and critiquing what I'd done during the day as compared to what Eric did, I realized I was fishing pretty much the "old-fashioned way" with a conventional bottom rig, small strip of squid and spearing combo. Eric was using an airbrush-painted ball jig, with a strip of squid three times the size of mine, topped off with a sizeable spearing. Bottom line: That old adage of "Big baits catch big fish" paid off, especially when combined with the hottest lure on the fluke-fishing scene: the ball jig.

While New Jersey anglers have experienced unprecedented fluke fishing for several years, their problem has been the quantity of undersized fluke they've had to return to the water. Indeed, in some waters of our state, it's not uncommon to catch 20 fluke without a single fish measuring up to the minimum size.