WIND: Fluke lay along the bottom waiting for small bait fish to swim by, when a small fish swims by the fluke will lunge upward and swallow the bait fish whole. Fluke will wait motionless for something to swim or float by, so the more bottom you cover relates to the amount fish you will catch!  So if there is no wind the boat covers a very small area of bottom and the fishing can be slower but there is a flip side to drifting fast. If you have lots of wind you can not keep you bait near the bottom and this means catching less also. The trick to fluke fishing is a nice steady drift, not too fast and not too slow.

OCEAN CONDITIONS: Fluke and most other fish are very susceptible to large changes in there environment. If a storm stirs up the bottom, producing large swells, the fishing will suffer. The tremendous amount of surge stirs up the bottom causing a heavy silt to form next to the bottom. This silt is the same as fog to you and me. The fish are not able to smell or see anything until the silt settles.

Water Temperature: All fish are effected by water temperature and fluke/ summer flounder are one of the most renowned to stop feeding due to large swings in water temperature in a short period of time. Our south winds cause an upwelling, this upwelling can shut the fluke off like a light switch. If you have gone on a afternoon trip and caught nothing even though you talked to the guys getting off the boat in the morning, you know what I mean.

Here is the cause of the UPWELLING:
        During the summer months, the surface of the ocean near our coast is heated by the sun. This warming causes stratification (warm surface/cold bottom). Typically, winds during our summer months are from the southwest, bringing all that hot humid air up from the Gulf of Mexico. These winds do not blow that surface layer directly to the northeast, but to the southeast. This 90 degree difference in wind and water current direction is due to the spin put on the water by the earth's coriolis force (earth's spin).
        When the warm surface water is blown offshore, the cold bottom water rises, like a conveyor belt, and hits the beach. This cold water also brings sediment up from the bottom. Phytoplankton (microscopic plants) which float along the surface, use this sediment as food and bloom, causing the water to become green and murky. Now you know why the beaches can be so cold and "dirty" on the warmest days of the year.