Tom P.

This week’s blow set the clock running for the last week, maybe two, of crabbing before the crustaceans settle in the mud for the winter.

Segment A of the two-part New Jersey black bear season opens Monday and runs through Saturday, October 19.

It’s rod and reel time in both arenas starting next Tuesday as the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife’s wildly successful two-week autumn trout stocking season gets underway.

The last weekend in September is packed with activities and action in the woods and on the waters and is the unofficial kickoff of autumn’s outdoor season.

The statewide archery season for deer opens next Saturday, and if you have not been out scouting spots, getting bait on the ground and/or getting the trail cameras up, well, get to it!

Sneaking under the radar is the arrival, en masse, of scup, aka “porgies”, an incredibly popular inshore species that is fun and easy to catch.

Two important sets of public meetings will be conducted during the upcoming weeks, topics which will impact recreational saltwater fishing along the Jersey shore.

Northern kingfish, known as “royals” by the legions of surf anglers from Cape May through Seaside, have been appearing in numbers.

You can’t say you didn’t know it was coming.

And they are being pulled big time!

“Northern puffer” in fisheries parlance, the blowfish is enjoying another population boom after the last couple of years when counts seemed on the wane.

Actually, going deep is now the way to clean doormats and area rugs, i.e. flatties in the 10-lb. and 12-lb. ranges, respectively.