Tom P.

One of the largest saltwater fishing tackle shows along the east coast is going full throttle at the New Jersey Convention & Exposition Center in Edison this weekend.

Actually, it’s the “Statewide Small Game Opener”, but for years, sometimes decades, there have been earlier openings for the likes of gray squirrels and cottontail rabbits.

The early archery deer season going on now and through the month of October is when the ticks really seem to get at it, be it the whitetail’s hide or yours.

The blues showing now, 1.5-5 pound marauders that are often referred to, predicated on size, as “tailors”, “cocktails” or “teenagers”.

Make no mistake about it: when Flipper appears, fish vamoose, be they weakfish, small stripers and blues, sea bass, croakers, triggerfish...they know they are doomed if they hang around.

March through mid-April is the ideal time to explore the diversity of the Garden State’s Highlands, Shore, Piedmont and Outer Coastal Plain areas via hiking or biking.

As mentioned last week’s blog, striped bass in the bays and tidal creeks and rivers became legal quarry March 1, and since the opener, the stripers, 99% of which are in the 16-24 inch “schoolie” range, have been pretty cooperative.

Besides the boats, there are aisles and aisles of marine and fishing tackle products and services, apparel, nautical jewelry, boating insurance and boating class services, marine artists, fishing publications, et al.

This hunt’s expressed purpose in the Atlantic Flyway is to help put the brakes on the light goose population, estimated at 500,000 birds.

It was a packed house with standing room only that spilled into the lobby at the Stafford Municipal Building during Thursday evening’s public meeting with the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council. 

The New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council (NJMFC) will be conducting a public meeting Thursday, February 13 starting at 5pm at the Stafford Township Municipal Building, 260 East Bay Avenue, in Manahawkin.

Things are happening quickly when it comes to the Garden State’s 2020 recreational striped bass fishery.