fluke from shore

[JoeGro]

I'm looking for some advice as I'm relatively new to Salt Water.
Yesterday I was fishing from the beach along side a jetty, using a Teaser and a Jig.
Over the space of about 30 - 45 minutes I must have had 20 very hard hits, but only managed to land 1 smallish fluke.
Each time it was pretty much the same; fish was on, I'd reel in awhile and then the line would go limp. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of setting the hook after the hit.
My thoughts are that either my rod was too light and not allowing the hook to penetrate (I feel this is unlikely as I've used this same rod for blues) or the Teaser hook was too large and the fish were biting on it rather then over it and allowing the barbed end into their mouth.
Most of the fish felt fairly reasonable in size; not that they were huge but they definitely were not tiny little things.

Any ideas?

[Esox1]

sounds like a hook size issue or you are setting the hook too soon

[JAT11]

Use a circle...then you wont have to worry about setting the hook....you sure you didn't have the bottom. :D

[DABIGFROG]

The Taps You Were Getting Were Spot... Thay Were Annoying This Weekend In The Beach, Like A Smash And Grab Robbery. I Downsized The Hooks And Was Getting Nice Size Spot, If They Stay In The Surf Till Fall The Striper Run Is Going To Be Very Fun....
Froggy

[FisherMan120]

I've fished from the shore my whole life until I got the boat this year, a lot of times they'll spit it out or not get snagged. Its weird, basicly its hard to get them no matter what

[Vitalsigns]

I've had that happen sometimes and found the bait to have been chewed, it's amazing how they can hang on to a bait like that and just let go.

[IGGY2]

Most likely Snapper Blues we have been working the beach front jetties for about a month now and the fluke fishing has been very good if you can keep the Snappers off of your jig, were the hits of the vibrating type? Most of the fluke that we have been catching have either given one solid Hit or you just felt the weight of the fish and no hit at all, take a small rod with a scaled down version of what you have been using for fluke and let us know what you find out, if they are the 3 to 4inch Snappers that i'm talking about liveline them around the Jetty for BIG FLUKE! Good Luck!

[Stunad]

Good chance the hits you had were snappers, spot, bar jacks, or herring.
Last week we caught all kinds of little fish on a sabiki rig in the LBI surf.
I use a very simple rig. 1.5-2oz. submarine sinker? with no hardware attached (swivel etc.) 24" 20lb leader and a gami 3/0 fluke hook baited with a spearing. Drag it thru the wash. Most times the fish are close to you so I make close casts and keep it moving. I like the spots where the water runs hard off the beach. Lots of good spots at LBI.

[DarkSkies]

What everyone else here said. When you have small taps, you're getting hit by small fish. Fluke will just grab and hold, hardly ever a tap unless it's a doormat. You become good at fluke fishing by learning to detect the difference in weight on the end of the line.

As for small fish, always bring some different sized hooks. Tie a 6" loop in your mono about 18" above the bottom where the other hook is. Attach a small hook to that, you'll know right away what fish are out there. Also a great idea to have a sabiki with you whenever you are out there this time of year. All the free bait you want.http://www.thebassbarn.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

[Fishenough]

Fluke are inhaling jigs right now. If it is taps it is snappers most likely. But yesterday I caught some of the smallest fluke ever.

[schuylkill fisherman]

or it could be croakers.... caught one today on a 1/2ounce bucktail+glup shrimp, had 2 other hard hits in the same spot.