Fluke fishing is heating up along with water temperatures. Anglers had some great weather and plenty of action fighting flatties. Fluke season has started off strong all along the coast and for most just enjoying what they love best. Many New Jersey anglers work all week dreaming about drifting along in search of a few flounder fillets for the dinner table. Well this week many anglers did just that.

Atlantic Highlands: Capt. Nick on the Luna Sea drifted along and picked up a 23-inch keeper. Not much to show for the table, but he did get to relax and take pictures of bottlenosed dolphins that have been hanging around Sandy Hook and the Atlantic Highlands bridge. Dolphins visit the Jersey shore all summer long and to get a picture of one is an amazing catch.

Fluke fishing will get better from here as bigger fish move in closer to shore. If you were fluke fishing this week, than you may have run into packs of wild dogs — a dogfish invasion. There were so many dogfish that some anglers just gave up and called it a day. For many kids it was their first shark encounter — “Jaws” in a bucket.

When I was a kid, my brothers and I wanted only one fish, and that was a shark. What a better way to be introduced to “Jaws” than the mid-Atlantic dogfish. This is a shark that grows up to 5 feet long. Its mouth is not quite that of “Jaws,” but is full of low, flat-grinding teeth.

Spiny dogfish are common in the mid-Atlantic region and are considered pests by commercial and sport fishermen because they have no great value on the local market in the United States. The dogfish has been accused of cleaning every nook and cranny on the bottom of the sea floor. That means every single fish egg they can find. In some cases they have been known to wipe out entire species of fish.

Europeans, however, have shown that properly prepared dogfish can be a delicacy with bone-free fillets that have a flaky texture and

firmness similar to haddock. All around the world the dogfish is a delicacy. In England, they are sold as fish ’n’ chips, and in China they are sold for the fins as a less expensive version of shark-fin soup. In France they are sold as salmon and in Germany they are called sea eel.

They are also used as fertilizer, liver oil and pet food; and, because of its availability and manageable size, it is used as a popular vertebrate dissection specimen in schools and universities around the world. In 2010, Greenpeace International added the dogfish to its seafood red list. The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries.

Did you know?

The male dogfish matures at around 11 years of age, growing to around 3 feet and femalesmature in 18 to 21 years, growing over 5 feet long.

Fish on!