Flounder Season Now Open!

Flounder Season Now Open In Maryland; Captains Happy With Reduced Size Minimum

3/29/2013 | BY NEWS EDITOR, SHAWN J. SOPER

OCEAN CITY -- After years of season closures and shrinking keeper size limits and creel limits, Maryland’s summer flounder season opened last Thursday with some of the loosest regulations in recent memory.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reported the flounder season opened in state waters just after midnight on Thursday, March 28 and will remain open until just before midnight on Dec. 31.

For several years, the flounder season in and around the resort area was often closed at different points in the season in the interest of conservation based on what many call a flawed catch data collection system.

Perhaps more importantly, the minimum keeper size and creel limits for flounder are relaxed this season to levels not seen in recent years. After climbing to as high as 18 inches just two years ago, which made keepers few and far between, the minimum size limit for this year is set at 16 inches. Similarly, recreational anglers will be to keep up to four flounder this season, up from the three-fish maximum in recent years. With flounder such an important staple of the recreational fishery in Ocean City, local captains were generally pleased with the loosened regulations announced this week.

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