This year’s commercial flounder season for internal coastal and joint fishing waters will kick off next month with opening dates varying by category, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries announced this week.
Per Amendment 4 to the Southern Flounder Fisheries Management Plan, landings will be split by the flounder management area and gear categories.
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Pound net management areas will open with initial trip limits, which may be decreased during the season based on the available quota.
Those areas will open as follows:
- Sept. 15: waters north of Pamlico Sound with an opening trip limit of 500 pounds.
- Oct. 1: Pamlico Sound and its tributaries with an opening trip limit of 1,000 pounds.
- Oct. 1: waters from Core Sound to the South Carolina line with an opening trip limit of 500 pounds.
Mobile gears, or those other than pound nets used to harvest flounder, are split into two management areas.
The northern area includes waters south of the North Carolina/Virginia border to a line in Core Sound that runs from about the Club House on Core Banks westerly to a point on the shore at Davis near Marker “1.”
The southern area includes waters from the line in Core Sound to the South Carolina border.
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Mesh gill nets greater than and equal to 4 inches stretched will be open for the harvest of flounder one day a week in both of those management areas.
Those dates include Oct. 1 and every Wednesday thereafter “so long as enough quota remains available,” according to the division. Nets may not be set sooner than one hour before sunset the day prior.
All other mobile gears for flounder harvest will be open in the northern and southern management areas seven days a week beginning Oct. 1 until the season closes by proclamation.
The minimum size limit is 15 inches total length.
Division officials will announce harvest period closes for each management area and gear category by proclamation as necessary.
