The N.J. Marine Fisheries Council, meeting in Avalon this afternoon, approved the compromise fluke season worked out with the ASMFC last week. As a result, the season will open on May 25 with three fish at an 18-inch minimum  -- but will close on the Tuesday after Labor Day. The ASMFC must still approve this, and sent the following press release about that: ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board Schedules Conference Call to Consider New Jersey Conservation-Equivalency Proposal for the 2017 Summer Flounder Recreational Fishery     Arlington, VA - The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board will meet via conference call on Monday, May 22 at 12:30 p.m. to review the Technical Committee's report on New Jersey's 2017 summer flounder recreational fishery proposal and consider final action on New Jersey's measures. The Board tasked the Technical Committee with reviewing the technical merits of the New Jersey's proposal in meeting both the objectives of the proposal and the objectives of Addendum XXVIII. Addendum XXVIII, approved by the Board in February 2017, requires a one-inch increase in size limit and a reduction in possession limits to no more than four fish to constrain coastwide harvest to the 2017 recreational harvest limit (RHL). These measures are broadly applied across all states to reduce harvest and provide for more coastwide consistency in regulations. The measures approved in the Addendum seek to achieve the 2017 RHL. The public is welcome to listen to the discussion by phone (888.394.8197; passcode 815277) and view the webinar using the following link - https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/499991200830679809. The meeting agenda and materials are available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/SFLScBSB_BoardConfCallMaterials_May22_2017.pdf.  The Technical Committee report on New Jersey's proposal will be posted, no later than 5 PM on May 19th, at http://www.asmfc.org/calendar/5/2017/Summer-Flounder,-Scup-and-Black-Sea-Bass-Board-Conf-Call/1052. Time permitting, there will be a limited opportunity to provide comments at the end of the agenda. The Board Chair will outline the procedures for accepting public comment at the beginning of the conference call. We ask the public and other nonparticipating attendees to please mute their phones in order to minimize distractions to the Board's deliberations. There will be more about all this in tomorrow's blog. Despite fine weather, fishing results were generally poor today. Capt. Chris Di Stefano joined Frank Criscola on his North Rip from Brielle only to find bunker spoons not producing big stripers to the north. Hardly anything was being hooked in a fleet of about 40 boats, so they switched to umbrella rigs and scratched out five bass from 26 inches up to 22 pounds at Shrewsbury Rocks. The only bunkers they saw were off Spring Lake. Even the ocean bluefish were tough. After days of catching limits of all sizes, the Golden Eagle from Belmar could only find small blues -- and they were skittish. The Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands started with two short stripers, then lost another, and suffered two broken lines. After that there were only some blues to be found.