Wow, what a depressing report

This isn't as much about what "should" be, but what "used to" be.

from Charles Witek (http://oneanglersvoyage.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-ticking-bomb.html)

Thirty-five years ago, New York anglers took home an estimated 14.5 million winter flounder in a single season.  Back then, there were no size limits, bag limits or seasons; the unofficial start of the flounder season was March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, although a few party boats would start fishing sooner, and some pier and private boat anglers began roving the bays soon after the ice melted off, whenever the sun was warm enough to make it seem worthwhile.

Last spring, New York anglers caught so few winter flounder that the National Marine Fisheries Service lacked the data they needed to estimate landings.  The official estimate is just 25 fish—yes, 25, where more than 14 million were taken not long ago—but NMFS acknowledges that such estimate is wildly inaccurate.  Even so, we can bet that the total catch was probably well under a thousand, which would l be less than one-hundredth of one percent of what had been landed before.

Coastwide, the news isn’t much better.  1985 saw 32.2 million winter flounder caught along the entire East Coast; last season, the estimate was about 162,000—a 99.5% reduction.  If you take Massachusetts out of the picture—there is still a viable fishery in and around Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay—anglers along the rest of the coast only landed 28,000 winter flounder last year, a 99.9% reduction from what they caught in 1984.

The loss of the winter flounder cost New York’s salt water anglers, and the businesses that support them, the entire month of March and a good part of April, as there isn’t much else to fish for at that time.  It also impacted the fishing in May, when the migration of winter flounder out of the bay and into the ocean gave anglers, and particularly party boat anglers, one last shot at the popular food fish, and in October, November and even December, when many recreational fishermen again used to catch flounder as they returned to the inshore grounds.
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Many years ago, there was an actual South Jersey fishery, in the back bays.

That was before my time.

When I started fishing in saltwater in the late 70's, one could still catch winter flounder from shore in "North" Jersey.

Now? Not only is the fishery essentially closed, there are just not that many fish around.