2025 Striped Bass Regulations

[Tuna Tales]

For NJ I would like to see one fish per day at 24" to 34"

Get rid of the bonus tag.

Get rid of commercial striped bass fishing on the east coast.

I would also be OK with closures around the spawning season - areas. However I know that would hurt the charter guys.


Joe T.

[Gerry Zagorski]

I think I would be OK with changing the slot since if you keep on pounding fish of a certain age/inch class when the recruitment (new fish coming into the fishery) was better then, you're targeting the future of the fishery.

I also believe our local fishery is and has been in a much better place then the Chesapeake Bay fishery because we sucked it up, took care of it and made the hard choices and sacrifices. Chesapeake is the scene of of the crime so punish them, not us.

As far as the commercial fishery is concerned, they represent a very small portion of this fishery and any changes made there wouldn't move the needle and be inconsequential.

[Capt John]

Originally Posted by Tuna Tales

For NJ I would like to see one fish per day at 24" to 34"

Get rid of the bonus tag.

Get rid of commercial striped bass fishing on the east coast.

I would also be OK with closures around the spawning season - areas. However I know that would hurt the charter guys.


Joe T.

totally agree.

[1captainron]

Just curious, why get rid of the Bonus program? What' the benefit?

I depend on that so my customers can at least (hopefully) have a good eating sized fish to take home. Catch and release is going put the rest of us out of business.

[dales529]

IMHO and AGAIN someone has to prove the over inflated mortality rate on safely handled and safely released "overs" and "unders" . I understand the big girls get stressed by C/R but I don't believe the bottom is littered with crab bait. We have had almost a month of concentrated on great bass fishing in some general areas both jig and bait fishing and can not find a "diver" who states that their are littered bottom of dead bass????

[AndyS]

Funny how we went from all bluefish and no striped bass to no bluefish and all striped bass.

[Arbutis]

Originally Posted by dales529

IMHO and AGAIN can not find a "diver" who states that their are littered bottom of dead bass????

That's because all the divers were eaten by spiny dogfish.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by 1captainron

Just curious, why get rid of the Bonus program? What' the benefit?

I depend on that so my customers can at least (hopefully) have a good eating sized fish to take home. Catch and release is going put the rest of us out of business.

Just so everyone else reading here understands it, the benefit we in NJ get with the bonus program is a direct result of our state deciding we didn’t want to allow commercial fishing for Stripers here. In turn that commercial quota gets transferred to the recreational sector. That allows us to keep an extra smaller slot fish unlike the other states who have a commercial fishery.

I’m not saying the extra slot is good or bad just wanted to let people know why we have the extra slot so they can have an informed opinion and discussion.

[1captainron]

Originally Posted by Gerry Zagorski

Just so everyone else reading here understands it, the benefit we in NJ get with the bonus program is a direct result of our state deciding we didn’t want to allow commercial fishing for Stripers here. In turn that commercial quota gets transferred to the recreational sector. That allows us to keep an extra smaller slot fish unlike the other states who have a commercial fishery.

I’m not saying the extra slot is good or bad just wanted to let people know why we have the extra slot so they can have an informed opinion and discussion.

Spoken like a Politician, always cover your butt both ways.

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by 1captainron

Just curious, why get rid of the Bonus program? What' the benefit?

I depend on that so my customers can at least (hopefully) have a good eating sized fish to take home. Catch and release is going put the rest of us out of business.

Read what he actually wrote .
He included the bonus tag size fish in his fish limit size , and extended it 34” which is 3” more than you currently have .

If the limit was as he stated 24” to 34” you would have a bigger pool of fish for your fares to keep .

As far as CR putting guys out of business , I haven’t seen anyone who has been catching 40-48” fish cry they don’t have anything for the table .
Seen a lot of hoot and hollering about what great fish they are catching .

.boats south of you are railed daily for guys looking to catch those jumbos


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