Recreational flounder season to not be held in 2024

KURE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — The 2024 recreational southern flounder season has been canceled, months before it was supposed to begin.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality made the decision due to overfishing in 2023.

The amount of flounder allowed to be caught and kept by recreational fishermen is 170,655 pounds, a number Division of Marine Fisheries Director Kathy Rawls said was exceeded by more than 127,000 pounds.

NCDEQ said not holding a season this year should allow a restocking of the flounder population, with a season in 2025 likely to happen, but with some changes.

“And there will also be a allocation shift in 2025 where 60% of the allocation goes to the commercial fishery and 40% will go to the recreational fishery,” Rawls said. “So that will move some quota availability over to the recreational fishery.”

Harvest allocation will move from 70% commercial and 30% recreational to 60% and 40% in 2025 and then 50-50 in 2026 and beyond.

Both commercial and recreational fisheries have quotas they can’t surpass, with a pound-for-pound payback held if either goes over their quota.

Rawls said flounder is popular to catch due to being a tasty fish, a sentiment Dominik Vake shares.

“Nothing I can’t do about it, just sad that I can’t catch flounder cause I love to eat,” Vake said. “That’s probably one of my favorite fish to eat and just disappointed, more than anything, that I can’t catch flounder.”

If held, the flounder season would have started in mid-September.