"It's time to head to some rough bottom to get us a pool winner," beamed the late Capt. Frank Cline, whose party boat, Rambler, which sailed from Shark River on the central Jersey coast two decades ago, had been drifting over clear sand bottom along the beach and catching plenty of 1- to 2-pound fluke.

More recently and far to the east, I was fishing with Capt. Ed Beneducci aboard his Marlin IV out of Montauk. The inimitable skipper had just netted a genuine doormat -- a fluke that topped 10 pounds -- that I'd hooked just offshore of Gurney's, a restaurant on the South Shore.

The heavyweights obviously like rough bottom, because that's where the big forage may be found.

Two great skippers, two super party boats, fishing grounds more than 100 miles apart, one year ago, and yet the big fluke techniques, with respect to tackle, terminal rigging and baits were much the same. Most importantly was where to fish on the broad expanse of Atlantic onto which they sailed.

Rough bottom is the key.

Many years ago, before the era of regulations and mandatory size limits, recreational anglers were inclined to drift across sandy bottoms from the surf line out to 30-foot depths. On this kind of bottom, it was relatively easy to come up with a nice catch for the cooler. Not so today, where even when fishing over choice bottom, it's a challenge to place a couple of keeper-size fluke in the cooler.

Nautical charts, one of Long Island's South Shore and the other showing the New Jersey coast, cover my desk. The charts vividly display the natural bottom configuration along the coast. The ridges, rocky outcroppings, wrecks and shallow banks that extend up from the bottom like mountains hold promise.

While each of these configurations differs, the prime consideration is that they attract forage species, such as herring, sand eels and squid along with bottom feeders like cunner, fingerling seabass and porgies along with small crabs and lobsters, all of which are a dinnertime treat for legal-sized fluke.

These natural formations and wrecks are spread all along the coast of both states, but there are more than a dozen artificial reefs that are a little over a mile to several miles off the beach that offer exciting possibilities for big fluke. The reefs also hold huge quantities of forage, especially porgy and seabass fry, which provide many a meal for big fluke.

Fishing the bottom around the reefs for fluke will result in attrition in tackle when you're drifting. Generally, the boats that fish the reefs anchor up and bottom-fish for the larger seabass and porgies. But many a doormat nestles in the sand along the reef edges and on the adjoining sand bottom waiting for an unsuspecting meal to swim within range. By using your boat's electronic fish finder and paying attention to wind and current, you can plot a drift along the perimeter of the reef that should result in some action.

FROM MONTAUK
Sailing from Montauk and fishing east end waters, there are myriad natural bottom formations that lend themselves to scoring with big fluke.

Spots like Frisby, Montauk Shoal, New Ground and Rocky Hill all warrant some attention, as does Cartright, which is in somewhat deeper water. While it's a bit of a ride, when the easternmost grounds are crowded, move west and fish the 20- to 40-foot depths off Amagansett and East Hampton, which receive less fishing pressure.